Campaign Trail is our evaluation of a few of the most effective latest creative efforts from the marketing world. View past columns within the archives here.
Brands for years have commissioned original songs and, increasingly, remixed old favorites into latest jingles to have interaction music-obsessed consumers. For its latest campaign, CSAA Insurance Group went even further than that, recruiting a bunch comprised of familiar faces from boy bands past.
The campaign, “Boys No More,” revolves around an eponymous group featuring Joey Fatone (NSYNC), Joey McIntyre (New Kids On the Block), Nick Lachey (98 Degrees) and Wanya Morris (Boyz II Men). Together, they seem in a pitch-perfect song and video, “Make It Right,” that taps into nostalgia for boy bands of the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s.
Along with the unique song and video, the trouble — created by experience consultancy Deloitte Digital and music house Heavy Duty Projects — features TikTok and Instagram dance and karaoke challenges and out-of-home elements including mobile billboards, stadium promoting and a roving tour bus.
Beyond the novelty of starring a band that lives as much as its name (with a median age approaching 50) and a song that would have been a success on MTV’s “Total Request Live,” the campaign plays on the undeniable fact that the lyrical content of boy band songs and the guarantees offered by insurance firms are sometimes the identical. Deloitte Digital delivered that strategic insight and Heavy Duty Projects was pleased to run with it.
“Almost in the identical way that Christian rock songs may very well be a love song, nevertheless it seems they’re about Jesus, these songs could thoroughly be ‘90s boy band love songs, nevertheless it seems they’re about insurance,” said Zach Pollakoff, executive producer at Heavy Duty Projects. “There’s an important listener experience once you catch the joke.”
Making the band
CSAA and Deloitte Digital in 2022 found great success mining musical nostalgia with an “Ultimate Rick Roll” campaign and decided to go down an analogous path for what would eventually grow to be Boys No More. The consultancy had began doing talent searches when Heavy Duty Projects was brought on, however the music house didn’t start writing until the talent was locked.
“It made quite a lot of sense to put in writing with those specific people in mind, not only because our temp vocalists would match those singers, but additionally, they’ve different timbres of voice and different calling cards about their careers that we’d wish to play into,” Pollakoff said.
By coming on very early in the method, Heavy Duty Projects was capable of craft the trouble with the team quite than being reactive or serving as a “life raft” to get the campaign past the finish line. The music house demoed 10 songs, providing a verse and chorus for every and using some ex-boy band singers as temp vocalists. Soon, the campaign team gravitated towards what would grow to be “Make It Right,” a song that uses the keyboards, drum machines and a sonic palette popularized by hitmaking producers like Max Martin.
After tweaking lyrics and harmonies with Deloitte Digital, Heavy Duty Projects recorded the 4 members of Boys No More at a studio in Los Angeles the day before a music video shoot helmed by director Calmatic (“Old Town Road,” the “White Men Can’t Jump” remake). Like the song, the video required the nostalgic touchstones of boy band music videos from the past, manifested within the transitions, matching outfits and dance sequences.
“It was essential to us to create something that felt grounded within the era without being a parody of it,” Lora Faris and Zac Carroll, Deloitte Digital creative directors, said over email. “We will need to have watched over 100 music videos in preparation for the shoot, so we knew going into it that we desired to create a loose storyline that was complimented by a number of key visuals prevalent within the boy band era.”
Tapping into nostalgia for the ‘80s, ‘90s and 2000s continues to be a go-to strategy for marketers seeking to connect with consumers navigating a very fraught few years. For brands like CSAA, music is a key channel to hit those nostalgic notes (The AAA insurer isn’t the one brand to nod to boy bands this 12 months: Cat food purveyor Meow Mix last month created a cat boy band to remix its iconic jingle).
“[Music] has a certain type of stickiness that visual mediums don’t. The brand’s goal is to get in someone’s head, and I believe music has that quality,” Pollakoff said. “Music has grow to be a extremely useful gizmo to try this for brands.”
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