What’s behind the weaving of a film song in the storyboard of an advertisement? – Part 5

When I wrote the four (04) part series, What’s behind the weaving of a film song in the storyboard of an advertisement? (click here to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 of this post), it was about how a music label should pitch its catalogue to the brands and the creative agencies. The segment I overlooked was the media owners, especially radio. The realization came after I heard two ads on radio, which have a film song weaved in their story board.

Brand: Krishna Mystiq (Real Estate)
Song Utilized: Kya Dekhte Ho (Qurbani, 1980)
Song Element: Tune (Publishing License)
Media Vehicle: Radio
Station: Fever 104 FM, Bangalore (Karanataka), India
Date/Time: September 24, 2013 / 18:50 Hrs – 18:55 Hrs

Brand: Vishal Megamart (Retail)
Song Utilized: Mar Jawan (Fashion,2008)
Song Element: Music (Sound Recording & Publishing License)
Media Vehicle: Radio
Station: Fever 104 FM, Bangalore, India
Date/Time: September 18, 2013 / 19:30 Hrs – 19: 35 Hrs

I believe that not all brands/clients are inclined to spend a part of their budget on an agency to get the ad created, one of the reason is they would rather allocate the entire budget on building reach and frequency, i.e. on buying the mass media (in this case, radio). These would be direct clients (not through an agency) and depending upon the mechanics employed to sell the media plan, it might be the creative solutions team of the radio station that creates the ad for the client. The station either does it gratis (because a bigger chunk of the media budget is spent on the station or it is the only station to get the client’s entire budget) or perhaps for a lesser fee than what an agency will charge to the client. 

As radio is a localized media, the ratio of local to national advertising on it is approximately 60:40 (this statistic pertains to India. I remember it from a newspaper report of 2011). For a music label, it makes sense to pitch its catalogue to the radio station for utilization in the ads created by the station for its direct clients. But, music labels should also realize that the budgets for a local campaign are not in the same league as a national campaign. If the radio’s creative solutions team decides to obtain the synchronization license from the music label for its client’s ad, it is an additional cost borne by radio’s client. 

The key for the music label is to strike a right balance between what it will charge for granting the synchronization license to a national versus a local campaign. One cannot score a six of each ball; it is the singles that keep the scoreboard ticking!