Syncs from British acts accounted for the best part of half (41.2%) of the tracks used by brands and their advertising and media agencies to promote their products and services to the general public, reveals independent research by Adbreakanthems published today by the UK record labels’ association, the BPI, and the MPA – the Music Publishers’ Association.
Leading the way were a string of British female artists, with material by Paloma Faith proving particularly popular as no fewer than four major brands (Calvin Klein, Dixons, Simply Be, and Eastern Western) turned to the BRIT Award-winning singer for their TV adverts. Paloma also claimed the title of “most-synced” song of 2015 with a track she co-wrote, Ready for the Good Life – a distinction she shared with the Motown classic, Sunny,which was also widely used last year.
Faith also claimed the title of “most-synced” song of 2015 with a track she co-wrote, Ready for the Good Life – a distinction she shared with the Motown classic, Sunny, which was also widely used last year.
The survey, which monitored nearly 800 TV and online ads first aired in the UK during 2015, is the most comprehensive snapshot of the sync market available to industry. Synchronisation or ‘sync’ is the industry term used for the placement of music into audio-visual content such as advertisements, trailers, video games, films and TV programmes.
Relative newcomers Jess Glynne, Ella Eyre, Charli XCX and Foxes were also among the leading British female artists whose sounds were selected to accompany adverts for well-known brands, such as Emporio Armani, Coca-Cola, O2 and H&M as well as campaigns by Oxfam, National Citizen Service and the United Nations.
Commenting on the appeal of Paloma Faith’s music to advertisers, Ian Neil, Sony Music UK, director of synchronisation, said: “I have had the pleasure of working with Paloma’s songs since I joined Sony six years ago. “Upside Down” has proved a popular track with brands for a number of years, but the big breakthrough came with Paloma’s astonishing take on the INXS’s classic “Never Tear Us Apart” for John Lewis, which was subsequently also licensed for a worldwide Calvin Klein campaign. More recently "Ready for the Good Life" has also proved massively successful as a sync track that conveys the perfect message for advertisers.
“All this does not happen without great communication between the sync team here at Sony Music UK, Paloma’s label RCA, her music publisher and, of course, Paloma and her management. However, the popularity of Paloma’s music among advertisers is, most principally, a testament to her incredible talent as an artist.”
The top three industries making the most of music in adverts in 2015 were Motoring (Ford, Honda and Volkswagen), Food (Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco) and Fashion (H&M, JD Williams and House of Fraser), while the brands that turned to music most often for their ads were Apple, who topped the chart with 23 tracks synced to adverts, followed by Tesco with 17 and McDonald’s with 10.
The data, supplied by specialist agency adbreakanthems and analysed by the BPI, also reveals that pop music is the genre of choice for brands, with pop tunes accounting for nearly a quarter (24.2%) of music used in ads. Brands also appear to favour more recent chart success as they reach out to younger consumers in particular, with songs released less than five years ago preferred to heritage recordings that are 20 years or older. Contemporary tracks accounted for almost a third (30.4 percent) of the music used whilst deep catalogue tracks represented just one in five (22.6%) of songs used in adverts.
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