Uniqlo “Body Tech” campaign
From now on, I’d like to elaborate “How to Solve it” by referring to specific AD reels in which I got involved. This is a campaign by Japanese apparel corporation Uniqlo for promoting their sportswear brand “Body Tech”(2006). You could say this is a Sound Design work rather than a Music Composition. Regarding this project, as we could get a pretty concrete storyboard and a message/concept of the AD clip at its beginning, it was easy to share a strategy in terms of sound/music with the other members of the team including the creative director. That is why at its early stage we could also have a conclusion not to embed a music track but to design sound which is accurately synchronized to the movie and can accelerate a sense of tension and sizzle/actual sensation which potential users (all those who get physical activity or jobs including athletes) have, which would make it appropriate for the AD to resonate with them.
Issues Level-2 & Level-3
Talking about “several issues in advertising music” I mentioned at the introduction, we hardly needed to consider Level-3 because the team (agency, creative team, etc.) had already got a great credit from the client. Also regarding Level-2, Uniqlo had already become dominant brand in the apparel market in Japan and any audience knew who they are and what kind of clothes they are selling. Having said that, at that time most people still regarded Uniqlo as one of the typical, domestic companies of SPA (Specialty store retailer of Private label Apparel) such as GAP, and though they appreciated its “high-quality and low-price” product line but still didn’t have a deep understanding of its spirit of innovation or its progressive (or even sublime) strategy/vision. Moreover this is not an ordinary casual outfit but a highly-functional sportswear which was strategically made together with experts by applying sports science.
Actual issue Level-2
Considering Level-2 more, competitors of this product is technically not (only) other SAP brands but sports brands such as Nike, Puma, Mizuno, Asics, Descente, etc. And of course, most of them had already developed their product lines by applying sports science (though there were no exactly competitive products from these companies at the same timing). So, one of the issues at Level-2 is to avoid fighting directly with them and mimicking their cliche in advertising, and to convey their message strategically by taking the advantage of the client’s strength while being conscious of its existing/potential customers.
Issues Level-4 & Level-1
Fortunately we already had a solid brand world/equity in advertising (i.e. tone and manner) accumulated over time through Uniqlo’s abundant campaigns and could apply the elements from its brand world (by the way, the creative director was the very one who had been involved in its brand building since late 90′s). So we believed that it was essential not to be too conscious about what other companies do but to focus on creating a new perspective of “Sports Science” and freshness to its own brand world and conveying specific functions/concepts “Motion, Beauty, and Comfort”, with integrity and as an extension of their basic manner of communication. From the reel you can see there is a difference from ADs of the typical cool sports brands such as Nike in terms of focusing on product “functions” and benefits specifically (as opposed to their spiritual/emotional or sometime humanitarian approaches), needless to mention the difference from general apparel ADs. In this sense, this reel seems to be very sincere about coping with its own issues Level-1.
How I Solved it with Sound
Let’s move on the story about sound designing (finally). As you already knew, there were 4 focuses in this reel regarding their message, i.e. 3 for the product functions and benefits, and 1 for the main concept which is mentioned at the ending. What I had to do was to have audience pay attention to each focus while creating a sizzling atmosphere/actual sensation which could resonate with the potential users, as well as to make this reel itself outstanding among a flood of advertising spots.
Talking of “drawing attention with sound”, basically I think there are two approaches to do that: 1. putting a sound, and 2. putting a “silence” (or stopping a sequence). Though in many cases and easily 1 works well by putting attack sounds, I prefer to the latter approach because I believe it’s more effective to have the audience “notice something different”, and generally, the more sounds you add/pile up the less effective and focused it tends to become as opposed to what you expect. Especially regarding this reel, in order to have the audience pay attention to the product function and message, I came up with a “play and pause” pattern consisting of built-up sequences of human breath & stop watch (as symbols of exercise or physical activity) and an intake of breath & reverse EFX (as symbols of a pause or climax). Repeating this pattern three times enables the audience to grasp (and hopefully memorize) each function equivalently and in good order. I chose pretty edgy, solid or cold sound elements except for the human breath, which was to enhance the concept of “Sports science wear” from an aspect of sound as well as to match the futuristic mood of the clip.
This “play and pause” method would be widely applicable to having the audience notice or emphasizing something important/different (i.e. message, attention, etc.). It would work even if you had to change this set of edgy sound to another one in accordance with the tone and manner your own project.
Posted by Tatsuya Oe
