Energy company E.ON‘s latest campaign featuring synchronised swimmers in the flooded streets of Barcelona has been making the rounds across TV channels, but did you notice the accompanying music is an original composition by David McEwan and James Turner?
E.ON‘s latest campaign referred to as ‘The Big Dip’ advertises their latest product, the sustainable air source heat pump. The technology is illustrated through heating the flooded streets of Barcelona on a winter’s day, decorated with synchronised swimmers and residents of all ages and backgrounds either jumping in or settling on the side as spectators.
What’s interesting, however, is that the accompanying music we don’t necessarily notice is an original composition written specifically for the advert by David McEwan and James Turner, provided by music consultancy Tin Drum Music. You’ve probably never heard of them and yet you more than likely hear their music multiple times per week if you regularly watch TV. The use of bespoke music in an ad proves beneficial for a company. Such music possesses the potential to sync to visual events and faultlessly capture the tone, ensuring a perfect fit for the ad.
It’s needless to say the use of music in ads in general is beneficial for the music industry. The majority of ads incorporate ready-made music, often pop tracks, which provides artists more exposure and an audience wider and more variant than that of radio stations. On the other hand, the use of bespoke music within ads provides an audience to composers who don’t necessarily fit within the ‘pop/rock’ or ‘classical’ categories radio stations predominantly play and therefore are all too often left unnoticed. For those who prefer to blur genres and bend the rules, the pioneering, non-conformist and innovative composers, sync work is often their only platform for exposure.
Read about Krister Linder, the composer behind Chanel’s Coco Mademoiselle Eau de Parfum Intense and N°5 L’eau campaigns here.