ADVERTISERS often struggle with how to make a product or service register with viewers and stand out amongst its competitors. Several companies have made viewers/consumers take notice using popular songs that sometimes become as identifiable with a product as the original artist who performed it. And it seems to work.

When some buyers of motor oil see a bottle of Castrol GTX, the opening riffs of The Guess Who’s American Woman play in their minds all the way to the check-out line. The same association happens between Donovan’s Mellow Yellow and a stick of butter, even though the Vickers & Benson spot aired years ago. And when even hardcore Bob Seger fans hear Like a Rock on the radio, many now think of a Chevy pick-up truck bouncing over rough terrain. And so they should, advertisers would say. Millions are spent annually in North America on songs that will help make brands stand out.

A few years ago, some musicians had to deal with accusations of selling out when their tunes appeared in spots. More recently, artists have been using TV ads to get their music heard by new audiences. The recent success of Moby’s Play album, for example, is partly credited to the exposure it gained through several spots, including campaigns for Nissan and Renault in Europe. And when successful, such campaigns increase consumers’ identification with a brand.

Beverly Cornish, a freelance producer and head of Toronto-based A White Dog Productions, served as the V&B agency producer for the aforementioned Mellow Yellow butter campaign. Cornish also produced the mbanx campaign (the Bank of Montreal’s Internet banking service) that featured Bob Dylan’s The Times They Are A-Changin’. She says putting popular music in a spot can only help its chances of succeeding.

‘There is stiff competition [among advertisers] and it’s good to have something that gives the ad a leg up,’ she says. ‘The consumer recognizes certain songs immediately and can identify [them] with a product.’

Kathy O’Brien agrees. As the founder of Hot Pursuit, a Toronto-based company that assists agency producers in their quests for song rights, she says the right tune for the right spot can be an invaluable tool in increasing awareness of a product. She adds that judging by the number of requests for songs she receives in a week, many agencies think so too. O’Brien says she has fielded as many as 10 requests in a week, and the number has steadily risen since she first opened her doors three years ago.

According to O’Brien, when an advertiser uses an original track by the original artist, the record company will often also receive the price requested by the publishing house for use of the song, if it is available for use. Hypothetically, if the publisher wants $50,000 for the song, the record company will also ask for an additional $50,000 if the advertiser intends to use the artist’s original track. She points out that, despite the much-repeated myth, recordings by Canadian artists do not come any less expensively to Canadian advertisers.

‘Often the Canadian artists’ songs are not necessarily represented by a Canadian music publisher,’ O’Brien says.

Adding to the potential added expense, many times an agency draws up its boards based upon a specific song prior to getting the required licensing rights.

‘A lot of times there is a specific song that is really relevant to the advertising and the message that you want to deliver,’ Cornish says, adding that the fast pace of advertising can make the process of getting the specific song complicated and stressful. ‘At times, when [the ad] is sold, you might not have negotiated the track so you find out if it is available and if it is for sale, but you don’t know necessarily what it is going to cost.’

The negotiation process is where Hot Pursuit’s O’Brien enters the frame. O’Brien’s aptly named company works with agency producers to acquire the rights for a particular song from the music publisher and the record company. Having spent 20 years in the advertising business before opening Hot Pursuit three years ago, O’Brien says she knows the challenges agency producers face in a day. She takes on the role for the task of music clearance, and contacts the publisher and record company on the agency’s behalf to obtain publishing rights, master rights and then the licence after the agency’s approval of the logistics. She also has to let the music companies know whether the song will be re-recorded or if the agency intends to use the original track. Most agencies ask for exclusivity, she says.

The negotiations don’t always work, however. O’Brien says some artists have refused to let their songs be used in a spot because of the concept and contents of the script. Other times, bands have refused to lend their music to an ad because they don’t want to be associated with the product (like alcohol).

From O’Brien’s experience, the publisher, record company and artist also frown upon significant changes to a song, unless the proposed changes are made perfectly clear and approved in the negotiation stages of the process.

‘Any changes to the feel of a song, including French-language adaptation, are significant and it does affect the cost,’ says O’Brien. ‘You can’t say you’re going to use a song and then change it. Everything has to be approved or you’ll be subject to infringement.’

Sound-alikes are not too popular either.

‘If you do [use a sound-alike] you are subject to infringement and litigation for sure,’ she says. ‘You can’t do a sound-alike, unless they say it is OK, but from my history in doing the requests they’ve said no. Why would an artist want you to use a sound alike?’