Your Role in Your Success
Lawyers, orthopedic surgeons, tech developers, optometrists, engineers, brain surgeons, elite composers/producers, and yes, even plumbers have a masters degree. I know what you’re thinking. Plumbers have a masters degree? Hard to swallow when you have that much student debt and spent that much time becoming an engineer. But while you were spending that much time becoming an engineer, an excellent plumber is spending more time than that going through an intense internship and massive training. Once they’ve been on the job for about 20 years, they’ve got their masters. So, there are two ways to look at this:
1. When the time comes, that piece of paper you get that says "Masters Degree" on the front of it instantly gives you worldwide credibility.
2. The body of work by a vendor, say a plumber, with a slew of satisfied clients really stands out. Their wealth of experience and ability to interact with clients in a way that won’t make their head explode about a subject you personally know very little about. . . well, they have to prove themselves over and over again day after day after day.
As a company who easily slides into that second group, we’ve seen this scenario play out over and over again, costing us thousands of dollars while working on just one project. I would say this has been the singular most frustrating aspect of running our business. There are basically two products that generate most of our income: High quality male and female voiceovers and top-shelf jingles with a LA/Nashville sound. We also write and produce custom music and song parodies for corporate and other events, as well as spots for social media and yes, radio. . . . good old terrestrial radio that still exists somehow.
How were we successfully able to slide into that two slot? We’ve managed to stay together for a long time and learned all of the lessons that needed to be learned together. Yes, we had the talent to start the long haul, but we put in the work. We were in a nationally touring band called One-Eighty all the way through the '80's. During that time we also sang background vocals, performed sax solos and other parts for the R & B group Champaign and Columbia Records. During that time one of our songs got the attention of Earth Wind and Fire's producer and. . . he loved it! Unfortunately, he did not love it for us… he loved it for Champaign, who we were working hard with every day, getting our collective masters in writing great songs and hooks. So here we are. Having played and sung six days a week 48 weeks a year in the 80s, while grinding away learning about engineering, producing, and the fine art of getting a singer to dig down deep and give you something that he doesn’t yet know he has. One-Eighty rolled on.
At the same time we're also getting a ton of experience singing in the studio. Way different than singing live. In addition, how to process the vocals onto tape. (I know. I just heard about 400 35 year-old aspiring producers’ minds explode with the throwback tech reference.) Sorry about that.
When our baby number one came along in '88, I put my radio shock jock hat on and started my first radio gig doing mornings in LaSalle/Peru Illinois. Soon after, moved on to Lansing Michigan, followed by Virginia Beach for a priceless education at Studio Center. Finally, after having 3 kids in 3 different states, we finally settled in Cincinnati Ohio. We formed Creative Mills Productions LLC around 1995 and have been out here slinging mind blowing jingles, voieovers and radio spots ever since.
So here’s the problem: Many of our clients, want to be in control of the project. That happens for a lot of different reasons. Some of the obvious ones are: fear, lack of knowledge, wanting to prove themselves as marketing directors to their boss, having such easy access to Spotify and all the music they love, they feel that they in some way know music the same way experienced and talented Composers/Producers and Plumbers do.
And here’s the solution: You obviously need to your due diligence when hiring a vendor, in this case to create a jingle that will have maximum impact on your business. Once you make the choice, trust the process and trust your plumber. Because after all, what the hell do you know about Plumbing?
We Just Moved On.
Well we did it. “We did it, we did it, we did it, we did it in a minute“, according to Daryl Hall and John Oates. OK, not really. What am I talking about? Massive upheaval. Universal change. Revamped ideology. We crashed the capital j-i-n-g-l-e world. Wait, No No No! We’re not those guys! I’m talking about the fact that after 21 years, we moved! People have lived far longer in one home. I know this because. . . well . . . everybody knows this. But how many people do you know moved into a house with kids age 4, 7, and 11. . . and moved out with kids age 26, 28, and 32?? OK, a lot of people. But it feels like forever to us. 38 total years of basketball, soccer, football, but most importantly, baseball and fast pitch softball. . . a lot of the latter in travel ball. You may ask yourself, “Why so much sports?” Well, I can tell you one thing. It’s not because a “certain dad” had Big League dreams and felt bitter his whole life because he really wasgood enough at baseball to be a big leaguer. Supremely gifted enough as a quarterback to play in the minor leagues of the Canadian football league. Sodominating in basketball (He had hops, major hops). I mean, you could slide a credit card under his Jordans when he skyed for a rebound), yet Jordan’s GM, Jerry Krause, never so much as picked up the phone, or sent a carrier pigeon to his house to let him know he was wanted. But I digress. We moved. Big whoops. Now we are producing jingles, voice acting, writing sync music for media placement, and producing spots. . . and we’re here. Living with our oldest son, an amazing video editor, (don’t make me brag about kids 2 and 3) three dogs, and a cat who thinks he’s a dog. Life is good.
Tougher than You Think.
I think the most surprising thing we’ve come across during our 25 years of Jingle and Original Music Branding experience is finding out through trial and error, session after session, that great world class singers often times do not make great jingle singers. Who knew, right? I mean you gotta figure someone with a four octave range and the ability to bring an arena, church, or even a bar to a standing ovation can go to studio and totally own the vocals on a commercial jingle or radio jingle. Of course on some commercial jingles, not many, if the music is written for THAT singer it usually works out great. But if it’s something that requires extreme control of pitch and tone in a very short window with no time to really establish style, feel or originality, it’s often a “No… No… You sound great! Let’s take a break and… you know, let’s take a break for and live with it for a day or two. I’ll text you if we need to re-cut anything. Thanks so much for doing this! We’ll Venmo you.”
Not a pretty picture. Our singer doesn’t feel good. We don’t feel good. If our dogs are in the studio, they don’t feel good. My stomach doesn’t feel good. I have a headache. I mean… How could this happen?!! I’ve heard this male/female singer many times… I just heard her singing around the studio. She sounded great! The thing is… To be a great Jingle Singer you have to have what we call in the biz “Vocal Notches”. Literally. Like physical pitch notches on your vocal chords. Most of the time, a Jingle singer doesn’t have any extra time to build up to a hook and use their own little tricks to make it happen. Their hair has to be on fire from the first note. No run ups. No caressing. No nothing. And if you haven’t done it before, that can be very demoralizing. That makes us sad in the moment. I mean we LOVE great singers! Great Vocals are what we’re all about. So what have we learned here? Killer jingle singing requires great talent plus experience, with a little dash of even more experience. We’ve done both… We’ve had to execute live during 10 years of touring, we had to execute in the studio doing OUR songs that we wrote for US, and we had to learn to deal with the very different experience of executing jingle vocals. It really is tougher than you think. Who knew?
What’s the Magic?
How do we create the magic between us and our clients? What are the questions most asked by them? Okay, 2nd question first. Simple: “How do we know we’ll like it? Will you keep working on it until we’re happy? What if we don’t like it?” Well, once you’re familiar with the entire Jingle Creation Process (JCP),everything becomes simplified. What is the Jingle Creation Process (JCP)? Now THAT is a great question. Here are our 7 steps to completing the Creative Mills Jingle Creation Process successfully:
1. YOU CONTACT US and indicate you’re interested in having us create a custom jingle for your business.
2. WHAT’S BEST FOR YOU? We discuss the kind of Jingle package that will drive your customers through your doors, on to your site, and into your world to use your product or service. (:30, :60. Sing In, Sing Out, Mini Jingle?). Along the way we’ll lay out our very negotiable pricing structure.
3. ONCE YOU DECIDE on the kind of Jingle Package you want, we send you the JCP Prep sheet along with our Music Agreement, which we’ll both fill out completely and sign.
4. YOU SCHEDULE A JCP CONFERENCE CALL with our Executive Producer, Client Services Director, and your company’s decision maker(s), at which time we discuss, in depth; the target demographic, musical style, lyric content, general tone and direction, and deadline.
5. WE BEGIN COMPOSING and producing your Custom Jingle. Only when it’s complete and broadcast ready will we present it to you. When it comes to musical and vocal production we set a very high bar, so you won’t be getting any “rough versions” during the process.
6. YOU (the Decision Makers) LISTEN TO THE JINGLE. We’ll address any concerns and make changes/revisions if required.
7. ONCE WE HAVE A FINAL PRODUCT (a jingle that kills!), we’ll create the many different versions or “mixouts” of your Jingle that are included as part of your package.
There it is. 7 Steps to a whole new Branding Tool for your Company. Literally 95% of our Jingle clients are thrilled after no more that 1 revision. THAT is a direct result of the JCP sheet and Conference Call. Sometimes it requires a few times re-working things. Whatever it takes. If you’re not happy, our business is not sustainable. If you have more questions, reach out to us. . . we’d love to talk.