I've had that Jack Harlow song stuck in my head all weekend (you know the one). I've always been able to remember song lyrics—pretty much anything set to music is imprinted on my brain. This is why I can embarrass my son by rapping along with 90s hits when I drive him places... but I digress.
Why are lyrics so memorable? An article in the Wall Street Journal suggests that music, being derived from chanting, was actually created with memorization in mind. The structure of a song, including the rhythm, helps us repeat information in a specific cadence. Add to that the language tools like rhyming and alliteration, and you've got a catchy tune. Regulators, mount up!
"But Sarah," you're thinking, "I don't write songs for a living. How is this information helpful to a copywriter?" Never fear my friend, I'm going to show you how writing commercial melodies is similar to copywriting for nearly any purpose—with a little help from jingle-writer extraordinaire, Barry Manilow.
As an Elder Millennial, Manilow's roster of jingles are as familiar to me as my childhood home. From Band-Aid to State Farm and even McDonalds, these songs have real staying power! So what are the secrets to his success?
- You've got to have an amazing hook. "You’ve got to get a hook in 15 seconds that people will remember for a commercial," said Manilow in a 2023 interview. The same is true for marketing across any channel, from website copy to print ads to Instagram reels. If you can't capture your audience's attention quickly (15 seconds might even be too long in the digital age), they're on to the next thing.
- You should always try new things. So many C-suite execs would love to direct their marketing departments to go viral... yeah, we'll get right on top of that, boss! Manilow readily acknowledges that he got paid peanuts for even his most long-lasting jingle—like $500 for the State Farm jingle that has lasted 40 years. "When you write them you don’t know what it’s going to do," Manilow said. "Some of them don’t last more than a month." You can't anticipate how well your copy is going to perform, but you can (and should) aim to be innovative, creative, and clever—while also being concise.
- Always know your audience and medium. "I wrote a Dodge commercial, the melody to it, to the lyric that they gave me and because my commercial - not knowing anything - came in, like, you know, at 4 minutes or something." Manilow reflects on his first try at jingle writing and remembers way overshooting the mark. (Most TV commercials, as we know, are only 15-60 seconds.) This important lesson underscores one of the fundamentals of marketing and branding: you've got to understand both who you're talking to and how to reach them.
- Learn from your experiences—good and bad. Despite having studied at Juilliard, Manilow says that writing jingles was “the best music college I could ever imagine.” It's not enough to simply try new things. You've got to measure your efforts to know if you're succeeding. Maybe your LinkedIn campaign only has a 0.23% click-through rate... but knowing that, you can make adjustments and see where the problem lies. The next time, you will start on better footing and improve your return on investment.
- Go with your gut. This is often easier said than done, especially if you're marketing by committee or have higher-ups dictating your moves. But one of the catchiest jingles Manilow wrote (the Band-Aid one) was off-the-cuff. "It was easy, it was one pass…I wrote it in one pass," he said. Trust your own judgment and don't feel pressured to rewrite extensively. If it's one-and-done, celebrate the win!
Writing this finally got that song out of my head... but now it's been replaced by "Mandy." Off to go listen to some Biggie and Tupac to try and cleanse my brain before bed! ??
If you enjoy my ramblings, check out the Silverbrook Marketing blog. It's a little more formal and a lot more infrequently published, but there's some great stuff to be found! And feel free to forward this newsletter to a marketing friend. ??
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