There’s no question of Google’s increasing presence in technological advances. Simply put, they’re pioneers on a mission to challenge the tools and resources the world’s population interacts with everyday. This stance to not accept “average” is innately embedded within most leading technology and creative companies, because average is an ambiguously veiled term for forgettable. And being labeled as forgettable is the worst crime of them all.
So how does a creative or media agency or anyone looking to blaze a trail within their field avoid being viewed as less than memorable? To answer this question, look to companies like Apple and Google in how they’re shaping a new kind of marketing platform, one that appeals to the core of consumers’ very needs through emotional investment.
This isn’t anything new. A simple review of Apple’s earliest of campaigns paints the perfect picture of how their technology bridges the gap between long distance family or how memories can be commemorated through their gadget’s camera. There’s personification delivered through visuals and music, it’s a projection of emotions that tell us that we as humans, this story is not only just for us, but is about us.
And so advertising has morphed into quick bouts of relatable storytelling, quality beating quantity. It’s a challenge creative campaigns have boldly taken upon themselves — but how does one convey a fully fleshed-out story in 30 seconds (often less) without sounding cheesy or trying too hard? The answer is in the music.
A song is the creative companion punctuating a voice-over quicker than any long-form exposition could; it’s psychological and when produced well, doesn’t distract us from the message. Like a film trailer, the music carries viewers through the visual journey, being present when intended and serving secondary when needed. Because Marmoset helps pair music to picture for such projects, we ensure music taps into the core of what makes us human. Marmoset doesn’t simply represent a catalog of music, but we invest in the artists behind the music. It is our goal to bring together the best fitting song that evokes the most accurate tone, instrumentation, accuracy to support the project’s underlying mission.
Such an example came to life when Marmoset began working on a campaign for Google’s Project X, specifically Google’s journey through the Loon and Wing initiatives. The short documentary opens on the two projects while still at Google’s moonshot factory, it’s a place where technology is pushed to the limits, fails, and sometimes succeeds. Narrated by the head of X, Astro Teller, the story doesn’t jump straight to revealing their prime success but instead Teller shares the many, messy failures surrounding the moonshots. But the narration doesn’t reside in gloominess, on the contrary, it’s hopeful, even optimistic due to the music provided by Marmoset.
“Dalur Vatnio” by Continental Drift is light and reflective, it trails off, meandering but still building — it’s what takes the traditional negative connotation of failure, refurbishing it to feel revelatory. Failure being something that so many will face within their lifetime, it happens to be a common denominator in many people’s stories. But it’s the music that helps the audience acknowledge the weight of the subject, allowing the listener to connect and emotionally relate.
Marmoset sees a variety of projects like Google’s “Loon and Wing” requiring music that delivers such a specific tone and subtext. It’s an objective our Creative Licensing Team sees through every day — being able to scour through a diversely, finely curated roster of artists to match precise qualities. Even with Marmoset’s award-winning search tool, searchers are able to plug in descriptions on their end for results based on mood, energy, customizability, arc, even length.
Every project will assuredly vary, each requiring a different set of criteria to bridge its story to its audience. With music that feels light to somber, playful to powerful, Marmoset can create original music or find music within its roster to ensure a project feels memorable and most importantly, human.
