If you are in the business of Fashion & Lifestyle, you already know that storytelling is what makes a brand relevant, sustainable and loved by customers. Music can play a major role in telling your brand’s story.
Today’s consumers don’t go after all the bells and whistles, rather, they like to judge how they feel about your product or brand. In other words, they don’t want to know how great your brand is – they want to hear, watch, and read stories of people who share the same passion as theirs.
| Table of contents
Music Styles For Fashion And Lifestyle Video Ad Campaign
8 Most Popular Music Genres To Find Stylish Music For Video Ads
Get inspired by the leading lifestyle brands
Audio Branding – Find Your Sound
How Much Does Marketing Video Production Cost?
How can I get the soundtrack “I want it all” by the Arctic Monkeys?
Royalty-Free Music Licensing For Advertising
Conclusion
This effectiveness of storytelling is the reason why Fashion and Lifestyle brands are going gaga over video advertising nowadays. According to Obrelo, 87% of marketers are using videos to match their customer’s expectations.
In many cases, nothing makes a story more compelling than music.
Consider this piquant ad of GUESS
Here, all the mystery lies in the music that is helping to evoke a nostalgic sense.
This article is intended to help brands and advertisers come up with trendy and stylish music sets for video advertising campaigns.
We gathered a bunch of popular video campaign examples, produced by the big players in the industry. They are diverse enough to inspire many niche businesses. We also gathered a few music examples from our catalog that are relevant in each style of music we cover here.
Music Styles For Fashion And Lifestyle Video Ad Campaign
Different genres suit different moods. Have a look at this ZARA ad
This is a soft and tender cinematic piano piece with hopeful mood. The music in the ad is serving to let the viewers feel a wave of optimism taking its path from plaintive times to prosperity, and somewhere in between, the brand digs in, and suddenly every positive thing starts seeming to be a virtue of the brand. The life of a common girl can’t be emphasized better. Such a great way to conquer the emotional realms of a typical consumer mind!
This genre fits best when the emotional temperature of the scenes is meant to be high.
Consider another ad, this time it’s Denim
A far different but equally substantive video ad. Focus shifting from intense storytelling in Zara’s ad to bold body-celebrations and intergroup harmony. Ever wondered why some people in a flock tend to pose like bad boys? Because with grouping, come the bonding vibes. And very this emotional aura is emerging here from this ad hugely aided by the perfect hip-hop music.
Such picture-music combos are always provocative of friends-moments and bonding times: another way to impact emotionally. In such scenarios- where you have the least flexibility to express yourself through words- the music for ads should be able to communicate those bold slangs.
All in all, talking in terms of genre is the easiest and a meaningful way to discuss music. Primarily, every genre means a peculiar sound and some preconceptions i.e. lyrics, artistic directions, and instruments, etc.
We will discuss the 8 most popular of those genres pertaining to Fashion and Lifestyle advertising.
8 Most Popular Music Genres To Find Stylish Music For Video Ads
Indie-Pop: A unique combo of guitar pop or, sometimes folk-style, with classic pop. It involves the use of obscure beats and obsolete instruments to give a unique sound that is reminiscent of the peaceful old times. Many famous soundtracks are actually indie-pop including Breezeblocks by alt-J.
Perfect is Boring is a stylish indie-pop tune. Featuring playful claps and stomps beat with catchy electro-synth lead.
Perfect Is Boring
EDM: Electronic Dance Music (EDM) – also known as dance music or club music- is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres made largely for nightclubs, bars, and festivals, etc. It’s kind of a DJ made a seamless combo of beats and tracks- commonly referred to as MIX- by segueing different tracks.
Hands in the Air a super uplifting electronic dance-pop song to drive some positive and fun energies around.
Hands In The Air
Hip Hop: Although widely considered a synonym for rap music, the term hip-hop refers to a complex culture comprising four elements:
Deejaying, Rapping, Graffiti painting, and lastly, Bad-boying which encompasses hip-hop dance, style, and attitude, with a touch of virile tone.
Hip Hop Beat, old-school classic Hip Hop beat with warm and authentic indie sound.
Hip Hop Beat
Electro: Electro (or electro-funk) is a genre of electronic music and early hip hop directly influenced by the use of the Roland TR-808 drum machines.
It typically features drum instruments, sturdy electric beats with the least amount of vocals (when they are present, they are delivered in an impassive manner. The techniques used for this purpose are Vocoding and Talkboxing. Electro is further divided into sub-genres of Electro-core and Skweee.
Down the Rabbit Hole is a dynamic electro soundtrack, ideal for energetic and modern lifestyle video marketing ads.
Down The Rabbit Hole
Percussive: Percussion is a genre dominated by the use of instruments like drums, tambourines, cymbals, bells, rattles, etc. Actually, the word percussion is traditionally used for these instruments and that’s why the music is also called so.
Stomp and Claps is a classic example for percussive style music track for advertising campaigns.
Stomps and Claps
Indie-Rock: This is a derivative of rock music that took flight in the United States in the 1970s. Mainly, it is used to describe independent record labels. For that matter, this genre is free to explore sounds, emotions, and lyrical subjects that don’t appeal with large, mainstream audiences.
Fun Swagger Indie Rock, a modern Indie Rock with shuffle groove featuring electric guitar riffs, bass, drums, synth, and claps. This track has that positive indie rock vibe that will add a dash of cool, confident swagger to your project!
Fun Swagger Indie Rock
Lo-fi: Lo-fi (Also referred to as DIY music) is a music or production quality in which elements usually regarded as imperfections of a recording or performance are audible, sometimes as a deliberate aesthetic choice. Mostly used in informal settings, usually to aesthetically harmonize the elements that are thought to be undesirable in a professional context i.e. misplayed beats, environmental dig-ins, or technological imperfections, etc.
Be Yourself , groovy soundtrack featuring indie lo-fi pop beat, dramatic cellos, bass guitar, electric guitars, vocal samples, and sound effects. Creating a cool, motivational upbeat indie atmosphere.
Be Yourself
Get inspired by the leading lifestyle brands
Let’s discuss some of the most culture-rich ads to find inspiration for your brand style.
H&M’S STREET STYLE – SHANGHAI SHOES:
PRADA PRE-FALL 2015 ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN:
A typical fashion show oriented campaign. You often get to hear such music in fashion shows. With a mysterious aura, triumphant style of the characters pictured with such somber tunes in the background, it’s all about the music-led emotional impact that the viewers feel on themselves.
Yes, Prada always tries to leave a psychic bang on its consumers and this time, it is stately dramatic music that is personifying the characters to actually convey the harmonizing message of the brand. With a light but empowering tone, it succeeded in engaging both male and female consumers. You can also take ideas from this style if you are vying to bring something new to the market.
PRADA RESORT 2015 ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN
Replicating the same legacy but Prada ads are always unique. This preternatural Prada Resort ad is a combo of classic shapes and off-beat details (that low-fi music of jeans stitching!) The scenes are uncanny like stringy hair, and unearthly faces, that are both unnerving and beautiful in equal measures. The music is also purely sacred so to make it extraordinary.
Prada has an aim to promote its mission to make fashion more culture-sustainable.
Audio Branding – Find Your Sound
You need a coherent and continuous audio strategy to make your messages heard. Your goal should be: whenever a consumer may happen to engage with your brand especially via advertisements, your brand must stand distinctive and unique to him.
To put it succinctly, you need to bring in your own Audio DNA to strengthen your image seamlessly. For example, have a look at this EVERLANE video
Such ostentatious visuals but you know what? Such visuals are not limited to just one ad, they are rampant across the videos of this brand. Now come to the audio part, don’t you think such pretentious ads need strikingly flamboyant music as well? Of course, Yes.
If you head to YouTube and see their videos, all of them feature consistency in both visuals and music. This is what they have promulgated as their DNA.
It’s not necessarily about entertainment — Brand enhancement is core to your video campaigning. Make sure you pick the music that is reminiscent of everything associated with your brand i.e. what consumers will hear when they are visiting your stores, on hold on a call, viewing your videos, opening your mobile app, etc.
All in all, you need to arrange a ‘class’ of audio for your brand.
The music you use shouldn’t be likable only, it should clarify your brand image as well i.e. what vibes come with your brand name? Festive (Coke)? Carefree (Gucci)? Trustworthy (FORD)? etc.
How Much Does Marketing Video Production Cost?
Video production can be a very costly process. From outlining the video to coordination planning to other pre-production phases like preparing the drafts, there are a lot of expenses involved even before the production starts.
Then comes the nag of hiring the perfect videographer, then video shooting in bits and pieces. Finally, there is post-production. It involves reviewing the raw videos, transcribing sound bites, editing, testing, digital file creations, etc.
Broadly speaking, for premium quality, you need an outsourcing cost of $15,000 to $50,000 to stay above the water. For a basic video, this range is between $1,000 and $5,000 max. But, if you have in-house resources available, a top-quality video costs somewhere around $5,000. That’s a lot of money. But mainly, the cost equation boils down to the type of video and the options you consider.
For example, an explainer video- that you want to feature on your homepage- demands more attractive characterization, compelling yet brief storytelling, and above all, intelligent communication for which you need quality music that should be powerful enough to captivate your audience. Conversely, the chances are that you are going to produce more than one video to introduce many of your products/services. That means publishing a lot of content!
How can I get the soundtrack “I want it all” by the Arctic Monkeys?
Again, be it “I want it all” or any other popular song, or for that matter, any famous artist, the dedicated production is going to cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
This seems costly but there is an intelligent and highly affordable alternative here: Royalty-free music.
Going for songs made by popular artists can surely be the best practice when you want to produce unmatchable content, but only if you have a very wide budget. Follow the music on the next example by MANGO
The sonorous music in the BG is the cornerstone to the character’s bossy stardom of the model. The spirit and the flaring eminence of MANGO are being manifested through his fascinating bad-boy character. That means character personification is all you need to cast an as big impact as MANGO does, and in such low budget videos, music is the most critical aspect to think about.
Good news: except for the well-dressed man, and the background music, there is nothing so prominent that needs to be managed. Only the cost of video production, music, and a model. With royalty-free music as your option, expect to pay way less than those mammoth $50k. Many TV ads also emulate this style of music featuring so you can consider this option for affordable music for TV ads as well.
Royalty-Free Music Licensing For Advertising
We have seen that famous artists and popular songs usually always cost top dollar. You want a cost-effective music score that is both entertaining and coherent representation of your marketing efforts at the same time. This is a bit of a challenge but still, the option of royalty-free music is the best alternative.
You can pick and choose from thousands of royalty-free soundtracks that will be as good as another featured song. To avoid scams, use the following checklist before purchasing a royalty-free music license:
Double-check the organization selling you the license actually owns it. If you don’t do that, you can land yourself in the worst case where, eventually, you might lose all your commercial value.
You need to make sure the music is original because there have been scams involving unclean music in recent times. The least you want is to infringe on copyright laws out of innocence and get penalized.
To prevent wrong purchasing decisions, plan your music needs at the onset of your project so that your music requirements also evolve and finalize with the rest of the project.
Some subscriptions are tricky to understand, give them a meticulous read before saying YES. a lifetime license is always the best option to avoid future problems of renewal.
Conclusion
If you’re a Fashion & Lifestyle brand or marketer then you’ve got a tedious task ahead of you. Video marketing has become the number one marketing tool for such brands.
Brands, especially emerging ones, need to survive the race and manage their resources to cope with the coming challenges amongst which the most haunting one might be high-priced video production.
Quality music can’t be ignored either. It is essential for compelling storytelling needs. It synchronizes well not only with the video visuals but your brand’s broad message as well. Music genres like Hip-hop, Electro, and Indie-pop are immensely popular in the advertisement industry.
Here at Foximusic, we are offering hand-curated royalty-free music collections made for advertising agencies and brands.
We have kept everything super simple to consume. No red tape is involved with our contracts. To date, there is not even a single complaint about copyright-infringements. Plus, once you purchase a license you can use the music with no time limit to make everything from start to end a cool breeze for you. No strings attached!
