EMI Music Publishing boasted the biggest presence in TV and cinema campaigns over the first half of this year, racking up full ownership or a part share in 38 of the songs used to soundtrack adverts.
According to exclusive new research the publishing group, whose £1.4bn buyout by a consortium led by Sony/ATV was finally green-lighted by anti-trust bodies this summer, boasted a full share in 25 ad campaigns - well ahead of its nearest rivals Universal and Sony/ATV.
The adbreakanthems analysis shows both these companies racked up a full share in 16 adverts apiece, with Universal taking a cut of the spoils in a further 10 adverts (making 26 in total) and Sony/ATV notching interest in another nine ads (25) screened on UK commercial stations or in cinemas between January and June.
EMI Music’s total presence represented an investment in almost 20% of the songs featured in the 194 commercials surveyed and ran the gamut from back catalogue classics - including Jackie De Shannon’s Put A Little Love In Your Heart for Benecol by ad agency Adam & Eve - right up to current chart acts such as The Enemy, whose Be Somebody written by Thomas Clarke, was used by ITV during its FA Cup Final coverage in the summer.
EMI Music had an interest in ads for blue chip brands from HSBC to H&M working with ad agencies including Leo Burnett and JWT.
EMI Music senior licensing manager Chris Jones said he was surprised to be so far ahead of Universal, but that the company’s presence in so many ads is testament to EMI Music’s range. “We’re fortunate that we are very strong in so many areas,” he said. “It is such a big catalogue and we always get good requests and are flexible in the way we work with clients. It’s definitely been a good year for syncs.”
Universal Music ownership or share of songs meant it worked with BBH to produce one of the stand-out ads of the Olympic summer: the British Airways/Support Team GB ad, which featured The Clash’s 1979 single London Calling. The company’s wide ranging repertoire also found its way onto ads for Adidas, Visa, Barclays and John Lewis, where it matched Zero 7’s Destiny to the retailer’s New Year clearance sale campaign.
Sony/ATV’s breadth of artists and songs also saw it successfully pitch critics favourites such as Efterklang, who provided the track Modern Drift for a BBH advert for Audi, alongside standards such as Neil Diamond’s We for furniture giant DFS.
Warner Chappell had a presence in 24 of the ads surveyed, representing just over 12%. Among the 15 songs featured in ads that the publisher had a full share in were The Boo Radley’s Wake Up Boo written by Carr which featured in Publicis’ Nescafe ad and Bruno Marr’s Runaway Baby by Brody Brown that supported McCann Erickson’s Vauxhall Corsa campaign.
Over the six months, BMG Chrysalis managed to plant ten songs in ads that it had a full share in and another dozen that it had a part stake in. These included The Kraken written by Faris Badwan and Tom Cowan of The Horrors as the soundtrack to TBWA’s Nissan Juke ad.
A total of 60 publishers were tracked in the research with Imagem, Kobalt and Carlin performing well amongst other publishing groups placing songs including Ruby, All Smiles and La Bamba.
EMI Music was purchased last year by the Sony/ATV-led consortium (this also included the estate of Michael Jackson and music and film business veteran David Geffen) as part of Citigroup’s sell off of EMI assets. Just recently (in August 2012) it was revealed that Guy Moot will head up the UK office in the new post-acquisition group, however Sony/ATV, which will administer EMI Music on behalf of the consortium, will remain as separate entities.
