Creative Mills Productions

It’s tough being a potential jingle or commercial production consumer these days.  Especially if you’re a newbie.  The problem is two fold: One. . . lack of experience, and two. . . the search landscape. That is, shopping online. The Answer?  You have to trust the jingle and commercial samples the company you’re researching provides.   And always ask for client references!  Combined, these 2 resources provide a valuable baseline from which you can make an informed decision.  If the work sounds excellent and multiple references give you the green light, you’re usually gonna be in good shape.  Then comes the hard part: YOU HAVE TO TRUST OUR TRACK RECORD AND EXPERIENCE.  This is what successful companies do when hiring sub-contractors.   I know it’s what we do.  If we’re hiring a new marketing person/company, we want to talk to those who have worked with them.  When my wife and I hired a contractor to remodel out family room, we got references, then trusted him to do his job.   And it turned out great.   We didn’t stop him halfway through and question the direction he was going.  We don’t know a thing about remodeling.  But he did, and he rocked.  Trust.  Sometimes it’s tough to do.  But it’s okay.  You can trust us on this one.   Really.  

It’s a new media world we live in and you just gotta love the blogosphere.  Twitter.  Facebook.  All of it.  Everybody gets to come to the party and weigh in with their “opinion”.  Isn’t that great?  And there’s no need to be armed with things like facts, research, experience or even the truth.  Just come on out… be read, be heard and be seen.  You can read anything about anyone, anytime, anywhere and you never really know if there’s any truth to it.  So I thought “Hey, maybe WE can do that with our newest blog”.  So here goes: UNBELIEVABLE second quarter for us here at Creative Mills.  Among other projects, we’ve worked on a jingle, original music and spot development for Sony’s new toenail held i-camera 3.0.  Sony flew us out to LA for production.  From there we traveled by catamaran to Alaska where we spent a week re-creating actual ice fishing ambience for the last :07 of the radio commercial.  Never realized how HARD is to cut an actual hole in 6 inch thick ice, but it was well worth it…got some great “nat sound” that really brought it all together.  We also sampled some penguins mating and used that in the musical hook for their new jingle which worked out great, except for the one female penguin who was a major “diva” and wanted to do complete re-writes on everything.  What a bitch, right?  On second thought…I think we’ll stick to writing about real stuff.  That actually happened. Or just stuff we know about.  We ARE working on a big project for a dog food company with an east coast agency that we love.  And they pay on time.  Not as splashy as the made up stuff, but it’s the truth.  No lie.         

You know that “new car smell”? Sure you do. Inescapable really. Until this past week I thought you could only find that smell in…a new car. Turns out I was wrong. Turns out a brand new Studio B, designed for voiceover, editing and post-production, has the exact same smell! We just put the finishing touches on it and I find myself darting in during the day to spend a few minutes just sitting there inhaling repeatedly, checking furtively over my shoulder to be sure no one else is witnessing my obsessive olfactory behavior. It’s like porn for the nasal passages. Mmmmmm. Ever sidled up to a freshly un-boxed Focusrite pre amp and taken a whif? How about a sexy new IMac? Or a pair of shiny Mackie HR824 near field monitors? Trust me, it’s highly addictive. In fact, I may be headed to a whole new kind of re-hab: “My name is Frank and I can’t stop smelling our new audio suite.” “Hi Frank!” Now if only Yamaha would come up with one of those rear view mirror scented hangee thingees for studios. As the kids say…that would be “tight”. 

Once in awhile we’ll hear this from a jingle client: “I want something upbeat, contemporary and fun…but not too ‘Jingle-ly’” Jingle-ly? What does that mean, exactly? Does it mean no bell-like sounds in the track? Do we direct our singers to remove all loose change from their pockets? (as if they had extra loose change!) Turns out there is no definitive answer AND there is a very fine line here.   But here’s how we have come to define this issue. If a jingle is catchy, punchy, fun, and executed musically at a high level, it’s probably not too “Jingle-ly”.   The reality is because jingles have a unique purpose…to really BRAND a client….they stand alone on the musical landscape. They can’t be compared to pop or folk songs, which aren’t boxed in by business slogans and targeted demographics. But they can be a VERY effective marketing weapon. So say it with us: Catchy. Punchy. Fun. Well executed.   There you have it! Now about your announcer copy…..     

Every once and a while a client or project comes along that makes you realize why you chose your profession in the first place. It happened recently to us when we worked with MSCO, a New York based marketing firm. Together, we developed a quirky, fun jingle to fit their animated TV campaign.  Let’s face it, we can all go through periods when we approach our creative in a “factory-like” manner.  Sometimes, after writing and producing hundreds of jingles, spots, and voice overs, the left side of the brain wants to just. . . chill. . . and our professional chops take over.  And that’s okay.  But this project was different.  The product was STRUTZ™, “The Human Shock Absorber”, and we got to collaborate with a Creative Director and an Animator (Animotion) who set the bar high and wanted a special end-product.  We were allowed to stretch out a bit, and have FUN with it.  What a concept! The ideas ended up being fairly simple, but VERY effective.  Very cool.  Now, back to the F#$!@&! grind.  Here’s to many more “STRUTZ™- like,” jingle projects! 

Absolutely not.  Okay, “jingle” is a dated word that makes you think of cheesy show tunes and antacid pill commercials from the 60’s and 70’s, but when done right, a great jingle ends up being a really great song!  That’s what we do.  We write hit SONGS for YOUR BUSINESS' ad campaign.  It’s an awesome way to break through the clutter on the web, TV and radio and be sure your marketing message gets heard.  It’s a fact…people remember catchy melodies.  That’s why you get songs stuck in your head.  So jingles are more relevant than ever.  Just don’t settle for a bad one. 

Happy New Year! Here’s to one filled with multiple media buys, jingle orders, and national voiceover clients! But seriously, as we move forward in 2010 in what should be a more active market, there has clearly been a small shift in the type of clients that have been hiring us.  Because of marketing on the web, we are getting more and more requests directly from small business owners along with the usual number of advertising agencies. While this is a good thing, it does create new challenges.  Agencies have been through the marketing/branding wars, niche marketing, and understand the art of reaching slices of demographics in new and efficient ways. Small business owners don’t have as much experience in those areas and can sometimes get caught up in minutiae.  We wouldn’t hire a bathroom re-modeler and tell them how to lay the tile....or schedule an eye surgeon to perform cataract surgery, then tell him how deep to cut the cornea!  That’s their job.  Their specialty.  Creative Mills Productions has 25 years of experience in music and spot production, numerous awards, hit songs, etc.  What we really need from our small business friends is a strong backstory/product description, positioning statement, target demographic, and excellent communication. The most important thing: the catchiness factor far outweighs anything else when deciding yay or nay on your new jingle or spot. Stick to this basic rule of thumb. Your brand will resonate with your clients, and you’ll be doubling your revenue in no time. Trust us…we got your back.

ATTENTION RADIO STATIONS!  It’s way too early to be thinking about the holidays, right?  Not so fast Mr. Grinch.  It’s Halloween and already Christmas ornaments are crushing the candy corn for Santa’s sake!  And today, WAKW-FM, a Christian radio station in Cincinnati became the first in the country to play Christmas music round the clock.  You heard right. Christmas music.  24/7.  On October 30th.  So we figured, what the heck. . . Announcing Christmas Parody Jingles, a 6 Pack of holiday parody jingles for radio stations (and others) to use on the air any way they’d like, available only at creativemills.com for a low, low price! (we suspect our Marketing Director must be partaking of the “wacky weed”, but only for medicinal purposes).  We know what you’re thinking:  Yes, we’ve become Holiday Whores. In addition to Radio Spots, Jingles, Music for Film/TV/Web, and Voiceovers, you can now enjoy humorous Christmas Parody Jingles.   To order, call us at 800.892.9525 or email info@creativemills.com 

Good old-fashioned radio has taken quite a beating over the last few years thanks to the explosion and popularity of podcasts, mp3 players and all kinds of streaming media.  As local radio listenership has waned (especially on the FM side), radio ownership groups have cut back on staff dramatically.  The victims?  On air talent, programmers, and now. . . Commercial Production Directors.  While this move has helped restore the coffers of stock holders (you know, cutting back on overhead equals higher stock values), radio advertising sales DID total $19.8 billion dollars in 2008.  So who’s writing and producing the commercials?  Sadly, in some markets this falls to whomever is around, part time air talent, promotion assistants, clents and well. . . basically anyone with a pulse (apologies to those WITHOUT a pulse). . . often resulting in less-than-stellar-sounding spots.  But Radio is adjusting.  More and more small to mid-size groups are outsourcing their commercial production needs to companies like us.  We’re now handling the bulk of writing and production for one station group and are in talks with others.  One major benefit for us is a lot more contact with account executives and clients on a regular basis, with conversations about branding and the use of Jingles as a major marketing tool.  So Radio Spot Production and Jingles aren’t dead, they’re simply evolving…like everything else with the media landscape.  Hang in there Radio!