The Ad Creation Process

Abstract

The business of music and advertising involves finding, licensing, and producing music that enhances the influence of advertising messages. This chapter is a primer on the entire process of producing music for advertising. The process starts with the determination of the advertising text and the consideration of the options and best practices for defining the desired music characteristics. Then it is critical to search for good candidates from sources that range from composing new music to obtaining the rights to pre-existing popular songs. Next comes assembling the production team. This step includes discussion of tools that can measure and provide objective data to assist in the decision. Key music production and licensing terms are explained along with best practices and some case study information. Finally, the process ends with the use of social monitoring tools such as Nielsen social ratings that measure the influence, sentiment, and effectiveness of the advertising message.