Ryan M Roddy

A brand jingle alerting you to a product you recently searched for is an undoubtedly cool idea, but how far away are we from that?  Consumers might just write the concept off as an annoying invasion of privacy, not to mention that phones today are on ‘vibrate’ 90 percent of the time.

The Economist is wrong; the jingle certainly isn’t dead.  It’d be very hard, in my opinion, to argue against the impact that jingles from FreeCreditReport, Subway, and State Farm have had on consumer recall.  

While I’d be inclined to agree that a jingle does more for a brand than a shuffle of the “latest hipster jam[s],” I don’t know if it does more for a commercial (and therefore an agency hoping to be recognized) than a good song choice.  I’d be all for everyday commercials attempting to permeate the subliminal of consumers by employing jingles, but I think a good song choice can separate you from a pack of big game spots.  For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nwuk90Gc2A

I couldn’t tell you how a bunch of Oliver Twists, Samsung’s new mobile watch, and "Royals" all fit together, but I’ve remembered this commercial vividly since I first saw it and every friend I’ve showed it to has said they liked the commercial more than he or she liked the original song. Furthermore, since it’s a tune people would recognize, they’d be more likely to stop what they were doing to catch a glimpse of this commercial.  That’s gotta be worth something in a world where consumers whip out their iPhones and iPads every time their programming cuts to a commercial.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjFuFvjBIFA