#42 - Jingle all the way 🌞

Happy Sunlighter Sunday! You answered, so we listened. Based on your responses from our poll last week, we’ve added new segments to the newsletter to focus on our mission of artist discovery while mixing in some recurring web3 content, industry analysis, and memes.

Here's what we have queued up this week:

1. 🌶️ Review of Bunny by Beach Fossils.

2. 💿 This Week in Music: Fix the Tix, DJ Diesel, and 50 years of hip-hop.

3. 🔀 Recommendation Station: Lil Durk, Peso Pluma, d4vd, Yng Lvcas.

4. 🎙️ Who’s Writing Commercial Jingles?

Rating Rationale: If you’ve been following Sunlighter for a while, you know we appreciate a 30-minute album. It’s me, Donya, and I love this one. It’s one of the better alternative-rock albums I’ve heard in a while, and so far, it ranks within my top 10 albums of the year. What started as a solo project for frontman Dustin Payseur became a Brooklyn-based band in 2009. After Dustin took on most of the songwriting and producing on their self-titled debut album, he opened up the creative process to the rest of his band from their sophomore album, What a Pleasure, and beyond. Years of fine-tuned albums led them to lyrically and musically find their groove. The production is cohesive and strong with a sound reminiscent of The La’s and The Shins—so if that’s your jam, you’ll love it. Standout tracks for me include “Don’t Fade Away,” “Feel So High,” and “Tough Love.”

Who’s Writing Commercial Jingles?🎙️

Have you ever wondered, “What happened to all of those catchy jingles that used to be on commercials?” While there are a few that come to mind today (like Liberty Mutual or Arby’s), it remains an elusive question that surfaces every few years, garnering plenty of speculation on its potential resurgence. We’re throwing our name into the hat as we attempt to explore whether a resurgence might happen.

Some History on the Jingle

The origin of the word “jingle” can be traced as far back as the 1600s, which initially referenced the sound of metal “clinking.” In 1926, flour-milling company, Washburn Crosby (who later rebranded to General Mills), was credited for creating the first commercial jingle for their brand, Wheaties. This was a paradigm-shifting moment for commercial advertising as the jingle became a novel, intuitive method for advertising on TV and radio. Using catchy audio snippets also tapped into cognitive science, which appealed to people’s instinctive ability to associate a particular melody with a brand.

However, as the times changed, so did society’s preferences. Jingles became old-fashioned, and by the 1980s, Michael Jackson ushered in a new era of pop music that ultimately disrupted the way the industry approached jingles. Instead of creating a commercial jingle, why not adapt a popular musician's hit single to the brand? This was the Cambrian event that The Atlantic claims “killed the jingle” (yes, we know it’s an old claim). Moving forward, companies would begin licensing music from recording artists. Aptly put, “Instead of jingles, we have singles.”

Audio is Consuming Our World

In the 2000s, Pusha T, Pharrell, and Justin Timberlake’s “I’m Lovin’ It” became the new slogan for McDonalds, while Apple iPod commercials kicked off a new trend of boosting artist singles that appeared in their ads. In fact, it’s become so popular that Apple now has a “Heard in Apple Ads” playlist. Despite the decline in commercial jingles, there’s reason to believe that a revival is due.

In 2022, advertising on digital audio grew faster than any other category, reaching $4.9 billion but a mere 2.6% share of total internet advertising revenue. That slice of the pie should grow in the coming year as music streaming and podcasting numbers continue to hit all-time highs. In fact, Pandora’s Definitive Guide to Audio highlights the importance for brands to focus on a sonic strategy to assist with humanizing brands to listeners. It’s clear that changes in music trends (streaming being the biggest tailwind) continue to greatly impact commercial marketing and advertising, and we think both artists and songwriters have a unique opportunity to partner with brands to revive the jingle. They’re the ones who should write commercial jingles.

Metrics that Matter

Since we think a jingle revival is coming soon, we want to quickly highlight metrics and the methodology utilized by Veritonic, a leader in audio research and analytics, to support strong audio marketing. They primarily focus on three aspects:

1. Effectiveness, which is measured by logo recall

2. Creative resonance, which incorporates brand uniqueness, trustworthiness, and innovation

3. Association, which measures connection to the brand and industry

To no surprise, in 2022, quick-service restaurants and insurance companies were the industries that outperformed the overall average across all industries measured by Veritonic, with both industries scoring high marks for creative resonance and brand associations. Interestingly, most of the successful audio logos don’t contain their brand but rather focus on melody. Take a look at the list below for the top audio logos of 2022:

Finally, for your enjoyment, Three Loco (aka Andy Milonakis, Dirt Nasty, and RiFF RaFF) and Diplo team up to sample an iconic jingle:

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See ya next Sunday 😎

Chris and Donya