Licensing Industry

While commissions for original music for ads plummet, licensing music from established and emerging artists is soaring: record companies’ income from synchronisation licensing alone has grown by 20.1 per cent over the past year according to the BPI (previously the British Phonographic Industry).

Licensing a well-known song or lyric is an effective way of making a powerful emotional connection for advertisers. Out of all the film-based winners at the Cannes Lions advertising festival this year, over half of the gold winners used some form of licensed music in their winning entries. Think Fallon’s Phil Collins drumming gorilla for Cadbury’s, or the same agency’s use of the Sound of Music classic ‘My Favourite Things’ for the cake-making Skoda ad.

And it’s not just advertisers who are putting pop music to new uses: product developers, as well, are integrating it as a central feature within their products. Everything from greetings cards to toothbrushes to computer games is using new media content to give mature products a new edge in the marketplace. Both Hallmark’s ‘Say it with Music’ singing cards and Hasbro’s Tooth Tunes (that play music while kids brush their teeth) have seen huge increases in sales.

Similar appropriation of existing content is happening within the film and TV industry, as advertisers increasingly use clips from popular movies and TV shows in their campaigns. The power of an iconic movie clip or the familiarity of a popular soap character can thrust an ad into the popular consciousness in the same manner as the original programme did.

We’re living in a theatre of the short attention span, with everyone bombarded by information everyday. As a result, any product or advertising campaign that can penetrate that mass of information and grab our attention for just a few seconds is going to stand out. Using pre-existing material immediately taps into the pre-existing cultural resonances that fuel a consumer’s connection with a brand.

The same goes for iconic celebrities. Star quality is timeless, as is the desire to be lit by the positive associations of the star. Using the image of a celebrity such as Gene Kelly (as did DDB London for the ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ Volkswagen GTi campaign) or Margaret Lockwood (such as Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R’s ‘Return of the Train’ spot for Virgin Trains), can give a brand immediate cut-through to an increasingly desirable greying market, which is often resistant to traditional forms of advertising.

It can lend credibility to a young brand through an associated longevity. It can also protect the brand from the dangers of errant celebrity, as it is highly unlikely that the Volkswagen or Virgin brands will be tainted by any future misdemeanours on the part of Mr. Kelly or Ms. Lockwood. The same cannot be said for the likes of Pepsi and H&M – both of whom paid vast sums for the endorsement of Britney Spears and Kate Moss.

In short, existing content is a powerful device. By harnessing powerful pre-existing emotions and transferring those emotions to a brand, it can be used to raise awareness and drive sales. It can be used to grab our attention to create immediate cut-through, reaching audiences that may become resistant or numb to other forms of advertising. And while the context may change, the content remains the same.

But how to go about licensing this content? Firstly – and perhaps most obviously - you need to understand your brand and match it with the associations which the celebrity, footage or music conjures up. The brand values of both must match, or the partnership won’t work.

Secondly, it’s true that while technology is making the practical side of incorporating existing content into products and advertising much quicker, the legal side of rights clearance is becoming ever more complex, as the number of interested parties – such as record labels, artists, publishers, product developers and marketers - increase and fragment in the digital era.

Having worked with scores of advertising agencies and product developers all around the world, at GreenLight we’re critically aware of how much the licensing business is based on personal relationships: to harness the power of existing content, it’s absolutely vital that you get a well-connected expert on board.


Mark Sherman is SVP and Head of GreenLight, a Corbis company and one of the world’s leading Intellectual Property services firms.