If Australian music be the food of advertising success, play on

For the first time, two new ARIAs were awarded to brands and advertisers for including Australian music in their campaigns.

A still from Google's Helping You Help Others Campaign

The enduring art form that is music has entered the “creative economy conversation”, the Australian Recording Industry Association’s chief executive Anna­belle Herd has said, following last weeks’ awards which, for the first time, recognised Australian music in advertising campaigns with two new categories.

The 2023 ARIA awards marked a formal meeting of music and commerce, where artists, advertisers and marketing leaders from some of the country’s biggest brands came together to celebrate music and creativity.

The push to bring more Australian music into brand advertising was sparked on social media a little over two years ago.

In July 2021, during the Tokyo Olympics, Australian singer-songwriter Holly Rankin, who is known on stage as Jack River, posted a note on Instagram addressed to Channel 7 and corporate Australia, calling them to play all-Australian music in its coverage of the games. “These are Australian moments, and they deserve Australian music,” Rankin wrote.

Rankin’s post continued with a call out to advertisers and brands to include more Australian music in their content.

The post, which has attracted 12,010 likes, was shared virally on social media at the time.

The marketing and advertising industry heeded the call, and this moment was the initial catalyst for the introduction of the two new ARIA awards to recognise the commercial use of Australian music in the creative and advertising industries.

The new awards were then created following an initiative called Our Soundtrack Our Ads, which was supported by M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, a division of creative advertising agency M&C Saatchi Group.

At the ARIAs, Google’s campaign titled Helping You Help Others featuring renowned Yolngu Matha rapper and multiple ARIA-award winner Danzal Baker, who performs as Baker Boy, won Best Use of an Australian Recording in an Advertisement (under two minutes).

The campaign was developed by creative advertising agency 72andSunny with Campfire X, an Indigenous Australian-led creative consultancy.

It featured Baker Boy’s track In Control, which Google Australia’s head of brand marketing Zoe Hayes said was a critical choice to tell the story of the campaign, which is centred on mentoring and empowering rising talent from Baker’s community.

In the video, which aired on screens in 2022, Baker Boy uses Google’s Maps and Search-led products to help mentor emerging Indigenous musical talent.

“The song was chosen for its powerful lyrics about fighting shame. Delivered in English and Yolngu Matha, it was our score and our story. In remote Indigenous communities, ‘shame job’ is a real issue among youth and refers to perceived barriers that stop someone from pursuing their dreams,” Ms Hayes said.

“This is something Baker Boy (Danzal) has personal experience with and has had to overcome to (get) where he is today.

“Knowing the challenges of ‘shame job’ for youth in the community was one of the drivers for Danzal’s passion and interest in the project.”

Tourism Australia’s much-celebrated Come and Say G’Day campaign, created in partnership with M&C Saatchi Group, was also nominated for both awards. It featured a song by a band already well known on the ARIA circuit – King Stingray – which won Breakthrough Artist at last year’s awards. Last week, it was King Stingray’s cover of the iconic Australian tune by Men at Work, Down Under, for Tourism Australia’s campaign that was celebrated along with other nominees.

Three-time ARIA award-winner and Hall of Fame member John Williamson’s work also won the ARIA for Best Use of an Australian Recording in an Advertisement (over two minutes) for his song Voice of the Sea, which was part of a campaign for the Australian Marine Conservation Society, developed with advertising agency Innocean Australia.

It is a rarity for new categories to be added to the line-up of awards.

However, Ms Herd told The Growth Agenda when she took the idea to ARIA’s board, it was an easy sell.

“We’re about growing the use of music, the consumption of music, the value of music, and this ticked all those boxes,” she said.

“It’s great exposure for an artist to be featured in an ad; it’s also really good financially for an artist to get a sync in an ad. And they can use that financial benefit that they get from being involved in the campaign – and some of the big campaigns – and reinvest that in their touring and their promotion (and) growing their own careers.”

“We knew that the industry would get behind it because we worked closely with M&C Saatchi to develop it and get the criteria right.”

Group chief executive at M&C Saatchi APAC, Justin Graham, who also sat on this year’s judging panel said that he noticed support both from the marketing and creative leaders at the 2023 awards.

“Talking to people in the room (at) the ARIAs, there was genuine excitement around seeing commercial creativity being brought into that environment, and seeing all the different platforms that exist to promote more collaboration or what could be possible for next year.”

Justin Graham, APAC group chief executive, M&C Saatchi Group

Mr Graham said the track on Come and Say G’Day also played a critical role in the commercial and creative efficacy of the campaign, which has helped boost international visitor numbers to Australia over the past year. It has been viewed 1.1 billion times.

“In general, music just heightens the senses on what you’re consuming, whatever that content might be. Music, since the dawn of ages, has brought emotion and connection and feeling and different meaning. When it’s partnered with a brand, and certainly when that brand happens to be a country as well, it is quite extraordinary.”

Ms Herd said that the new awards underpinned ARIA’s mission to broaden the reach and demonstrate the value of music.

“They’re all incredible examples of how music and great content can really drive action and increase the effectiveness of advertising,” she said.

“When people do make beautiful campaigns, and they do use Australian music, we want to recognise and celebrate that. And use that as well to show other adjacent industries that there is huge value to using local music, and that we have a huge depth of talent in this country.”