WALKMAN PROJECT : NEW ADVERT FOR SONY’S WALKMAN BRAND
Sony has created the first ever ‘monophonic’ ad to mark
the launch of the latest generation of WALKMAN digital media players. Titled
‘Music Pieces’, this innovative commercial is created by Fallon’s award-winning
team behind the BRAVIA ad trilogy. Creative Director at Fallon, Juan Cabral,
worked with the creative team of Samuel Akesson & Tomas Mankovsky to create
this unique project.
‘Music Pieces’ brings a musical experience like.no.other to television screens,
by taking an original piece of music composed by Hollywood music director Peter
Raeburn [‘Sexy Beast’, ‘Birth’] and deconstructing it to give 128 musicians
just one note each to play in order to reconstruct the melody.
Tomas Mankovsky of Fallon’s creative team commented: "It's been an amazing
project, to see all these different little pieces of sound gather to create a
big piece music was magic. Rows of musicians and lines of sound traveling back
and forth is something you don't see everyday. It was a fun process, from
hearing the first drafts of the track, to see the rehearsals and watching all
of it fall in to place. From the beginning we didn't know if we should go with
a existing track or compose something original and with Peter Raeburn aboard we
decided to go with the latter. "
The production gathered the musicians, playing everything from electric guitars
and Kalimbas to mini toy grand pianos, in an iconic music venue – London’s
Alexandra Palace – under the direction of top music video director, Nick Gordon
[The Kooks, Muse, Supergrass]. The musicians were then arranged by instrument
group to form an ‘acoustic grid’ which created spectacular waves of sound and
movement when each note was played in sequence.
"The challenge was to be true to the claim Music Like No Other, it sort of
feels like we succeeded. Up till the very end I guess we werent quite sure if
it would work. It was an amazing feeling hearing it all come together,” says
Samuael Akesson from Fallon’s creative team. "I suppose you know that you
are part of something quite special when no one involved has ever done anything
like it before... it makes the whole process a unique experience, for
everyone."
‘Music Pieces’ forms the basis of a 360 degree integrated marketing campaign
including TV, print, online, in-store and PR. In addition to the above-the-line
activity and grassroots marketing, Sony will also establish partnerships with
key media partners from radio stations to cable TV channels.
Nick Gordon, Director, commented: “This was an ambitious project to work on. We
didn’t just want to produce an impressive advert, we wanted to challenge people
to think about music as an evolving art form. I hope that this inspires
discussion and further musical experimentation just as the WALKMAN inspired a
technological revolution in portable music players.”
Hugo Feiler, General Manager for Audio Marketing Communications at Sony Europe
said of the new WALKMAN ad: “This was a hugely complex technical experiment.
Not only were we doing something that hadn’t been done before musically, but it
also needed to provide a unique audio and visual experience. Sony always tries
to push the boundaries, and this advert perfectly illustrates that. The
combination of many people’s talent and passion has produced an organic
experience that we are sure will capture consumers’ creative imaginations.”
A teaser of ‘Music Pieces’ is available now to view online at
www.walkmanproject.com before the ad is released on TV, along with
additional behind the scenes footage shot on location during production of the
ad.
www.walkmanproject.com
