Creative Mills Productions

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!  

How has it come to this? How have we gone from dragging our mates by the hair across the cave and slaying wooly mammoths to. . . TWEETING?  (Oh my god. . . make it stop.)  You can now follow us on Twitter.  Hey, wait.  You can now follow absolutely ANYONE on Twitter.  Damn.  That was supposed to make us special.  That was supposed to be a big announcement:  “Find out everything you never wanted to know about Creative Mills. . . on Twitter!”   Who knows, it might turn out to be the best thing since Al Gore created the internet, but first impressions?  Doubt it.  Oprah Winfrey.  Ashton Kutcher.  Shaq.  Ellen DeGeneres.  Britney Spears.  Ryan Seacrest.  John Mayer (please shut up).  CNN.  NBC.  ABC.  CBS.  Oprah.  Oprah.  Oprah.  Bueller?  Bueller?  Bueller?  We’ve been told that tweeting or twittering or whatever is essential for any business to succeed these days. Remember MySpace?  Seriously.  MYSPACE?  In case you haven’t noticed, people are beginning to unlearn how to communicate.  Real conversation?  Well thought out letters or email?  Eye contact?  Reading facial expressions or body language?  Seemingly things of the past.  But we’ll tweet on.  Start following @CJStudioCanine.  She’s our 7 year old golden retriever, and she has more worthwhile things to say than most of the “twits” out there.  (like her buddy, 18 year old Chow mix Sammy…who’s about to start tweeting from the other side…if you know what we mean)

Okay, so you or your client is looking for that “Home Run” jingle.  Hip, memorable and guaranteed to drive business through the door.  Not a problem.  We’ve done it hundreds of times before, and we’ll certainly do it again.  Except….there IS a problem.  Many, many times, after going through all of the pre-production calls, filling out our jingle prep information sheet, and generally getting close to what will be a good sound for the client, we’ll get this comment:

“Well that sounds nice, but I really like Kanye West.”

Wow.  Really?  Because you indicated during our prep work that your target demographic is 40-50 year old Wall Street types.  Hmmmmmmm.

NEVER confuse personal musical taste with what will ACTUALLY WORK for you or your client.  This is the biggest mistake we see when working with decision makers regarding jingles.  Don’t make it personal.  Make it RIGHT.  Stick to that rule of thumb and you’ll soon be reaping the rewards of a smartly crafted jingle married to a great marketing campaign.
 

The sky is falling, or so it seems. Should we simply duck and cover and hope not to become a casualty? If you’re a business owner, do you just close up shop and wait for some good news? Of course not. As long as you fill a need you can keep moving forward, but you’ve got to get the word out. Never stop. Get in the ears of your potential clients with consistent, high quality TV and radio advertising. There’s no mistaking, consistency is the key, and often, a catchy jingle can make your message really stick. Yes, a jingle. Though in the past, advertisers had been willing to spend tens of thousands on licensing fees for familiar pop songs hoping to sell you down memory lane, who really has that kind of money. . . anymore? The tide is now turning - to original jingles. So, no matter what the talking heads say, don’t freak out. You’re still in control of branding your business.

Our family has 3 dogs:  Sammy, 17 year old chow mix; Jordan, 8 year old beagle mix; and C.J., 6 year old pure good ‘ole American golden retriever.  I few years back, for some unknown reason, I decided to let the dogs come into our main studio while I was working.  Maybe I felt sorry for them, maybe I thought they would add something to the creative process…or maybe I’m just an idiot.  Actually, I think they did help the creative process.  I remember working on some lyrics for a jingle and hitting a roadblock.  I looked at C.J. and said “now what?”.  Of course, she responded with a not so delicate post treat burp which prompted me to pen the lyrics “….just let it all out”.  Of course, old Sammy “added” to the process by making his mark.  Everyday. In the same spot.  On the same studio carpet.  This went on for months before my wife came in one day, took a deep breath, looked behind the main door, and gagged.  Jordan really did nothing.  She was just happy to be hanging out with her “Pack Leader”.  Well, $1,500 worth of carpet later, the dogs have been officially banned from that studio.  There were tears all around.  And now when I hit a writer’s block, there are no sweet burps to be found.  Who let the dogs out?  Me.   

Ever been wandering around the house….trying to get that annoying melody out of your head?  Yup.  Me too.  It can stick with you for an entire day…or days!  But that’s the point.  One morning, I found myself singing in the shower about a certain local Mexican restaurant chain that shall remain nameless.  My wife and I ate there…that night.  True story.  When done right, jingles trigger emotions that can affect your business’s target audience, meaning more sales for you!  Unfortunately, poorly produced jingles will have no impact on your business at all.  (unless it’s a negative one).  The moral of this little story?  Don’t be cheap when it comes to purchasing your jingle package!  There are a lot of people selling jingles out there for a song and a dance (sorry about the pun), and YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.  But if your jingle melodies and lyrics are catchy….and the music production is big time…you win. 

 

So I had a client approach me the other day and inquire about  producing a jingle for THEIR client.  So far….so good.  Then my client dropped the bomb on me…”We want it to sound exactly like that Outkast song”.  I immediately went into huhminuh-huhminuh-huhminuh mode.  Believe it or not, I‘ve heard small businesses use hit songs re-sung as jingles….and I’m pretty sure they didn’t fork over the $20-75k to purchase the licensing rights.  Here’s the real deal.  It’s okay to produce a jingle “In The Style” of a certain artist or song.  But you simply cannot “re-make” that song for commercial use.  If you do that, you’re opening yourself up to a slew of potential legal problems.  For me, as a musician/composer, there’s also the ethical side.  Somebody put a lot of time and sweat equity into composing and producing that song and that person(s) deserves the royalty payments that come when it’s legally played on the air or purchased.  Copyright Infringement law is there for a reason.  So, when in doubt…play it safe.  But, if you wanna talk about purchasing the licensing rights to a specific song, that’s gonna be a whole ‘nother blog.