Target recently teamed up with Chris Riehl and the talented folks at Motion Theory to build a high energy animated world to tout their newly remodeled stores. It’s a behind the scenes look at what it would take to remodel a store if you could only use cartoon characters with cartoon devices and cartoon methods and cartoon safety standards. So naturally they asked us at Rumble if we could create a cartoon score and make some cartoon sounds that would ignore cartoon audio standards make it even more cartoon fun. We said, hell yes in fact we’re a cartoon music house.

Rumble Composer Tommy Barbarella penned and produced the score and sound design man Jerome Rankine imagined all the cartoon style fun sounds, and of course our own cartoon character Rick Meyer as the voice of the foreman.

Showcased on Creativity Online – AdCritic Spot of the day July 27, 10

Composer / Sound designer Rick Meyer drew upon his own enthusiasm for racing to attack the project. “This was a sweet piece to work on. We were given several hours of raw car audio, and had to put something together that not only pumped up an already exciting visual, but had to be realistic, as any real racers would know what was going on.” Rick worked with Editor Phil Hamer at DC, with input from DC Founder (and driver) Ken Block and Creative Director Nate Morley making this one of the most downloaded web-films of its kind.

Rumble would like to congratulate DC on receiving a Bronze award at this year’s One Show (link).

We’re glad we could be a part of this very fun, (and very loud) adventure.

(click to view webisode series)

The storyline follows Bird and Bee on the quest for a little one. Agency mono created the campaign for its client.

Composer Rick Meyer comments, “ We scored these playing to the realism of their situation, all the while ignoring the fact that we’re dealing with a grown man and woman in a bird and bee costume,” he adds, “The ukelele seemed like just the thing to tell their story.”


Adds Jess Ford, “Having Scott Vincent direct and Charlie Schwartz edit the project made our involvement easy. We knew it would be  great.”

CREDITS
Agency:                mono
Creative Dir:       Chris Lange
Copywriter:         Paula Maki Biondich
Art Director:       Jim Landry
Producer:            Lisa Keljik
Composer:           Rick Meyer
Exec Prod:           Jess Ford
Director:              Scott Vincent
Editor:                 Charlie Schwartz, Schnitt Edit

Bowl Games, Valentines day, Charitable giving. What else is there really? Well plenty actually. Target asked Rumble to create a massive amount of music and audio bits to accompany these Facebook based e-cards for Valentine’s day. As a result of this promotion fans of Target’s Facebook page increased by over 20% , which is a HUGE number. And let’s not forget the huge number of dollars that Target donated to the 4 charities as a result of this promotion. As usual, Rumble is in the middle of another WIN – WIN. Here are just a couple of examples of the work.

“Target ‘Art Unfolds’ Spot Breaks During Golden Globes”

(Minneapolis, MN – January 21, 2010)

Target breaks the latest in a series of art-inspired animated television commercials, “Art Unfolds” during this year’s 2010 Golden Globe Awards.

Click to play spot

The dream-like spot begins with a simple red box that opening to reveal the Target Bull’s-eye gliding along a series of unfolding, falling panels as playful illustrations spring to life. The spot’s percussive-driven underscore carries and builds as the panel montage of illustrative imagery depicting film-making, dance, music, and painting unravels then cleverly refolds into the signature Target Bull’s-eye.

Rumble composer Tommy Walter comments, “The box opens in way that feels whimsical, yet clock-like and ‘measured,’ so I began experimenting with a shuffling rhythm that when ’straightened out’ would naturally speed up with the quickening pace of the visual reveal. I found the organic ‘quirky sound’ by intuitively experimenting with hitting pots and pans, and discovered that a sock covered spoon struck the perfect percussive ‘pitch’ that I was looking for.” Jerome Rankine supported Walter’s score with a subtle, yet complex blend of folds, clicks, whirrs and billows.

This project, like the other ‘Art’ inspired projects was uniquely challenging because when the visuals are SO compelling, because the music has a really big responsibility to be just as engaging. The challenge is to make sure the score doesn’t overpower the picture, while making it smart enough to convey the message,” said Rick Meyer. Tommy Walter adds, “And the pots and pans that I used were really purchased at Target.”

Credits:

Agency: Good People, Minneapolis

Creative Director: Shannon Petinni
Producer: Barth Ward
Principal: Betsy Treinen
Production Company: Eyeball, New York
Music Company: Rumble, Minneapolis
Composer: Tommy Walter
Sound Design: Jerome Rankine
Mixer: Rick Meyer
Executive Producer: Jess Ford

Minnesota State Lottery Scratch Games “Pizza” from anavarrete on Vimeo.

“These spots — beyond being terribly adorable because of the furry creatures — were all about the dialogue. Colle McVoy creatives had approximately 13 hours of dialogue to play with… They gave us such great bits of stuff that we had trouble picking the perfect line to convey, say, a rodent’s love of deep dish pizza.”

“It’s always an adventure with Colle McVoy. We’re just happy it was Hamsters and not Circus Clowns. We’re scared of Circus Clowns.”

Here’s a good article about how jingles are back, and that “getting stuck in your brain forever…” can mean some seriously real ROI for advertisers.

Read the article here

Our friends at VocalEssence, with help from Target, are ringing in the season with a new take on an old carol:

Twelve trucks a-towing,
Eleven plastic Santas,
Ten thousand lakes,
Nine warming houses,
Eight skaters skating,
Seven Snoopy statues,
Six loons a-laying,
Five hours of sun,
Four Fargo jokes,
Three salt bags,
Two “ya, you betchas,”
and a giant cherry on a huge spoon!

Rick: Tommy’s hair was better than Nick Jonas’.
Just sayin’.

Jess: true, the new Nick Jonas hair is not as good as old Jonas brothers era Nick Jonas hair.

Rick: It used to be more Nick Jonas-ey and truly Jonas Brother-y

Camille: Yeah, Nick Jonas does have the best hair in the Jonas brothers, but Tommy’s is still better than Nick Jonas’ or any of the Jonas brothers

Jess: Which Jonas brother is Nick Jonas again? Is he the funny Jonas Brother? or the serious Jonas Brother? Or the brooding Jonas brother?

Camille: Nick Jonas is the cute Jonas Brother. Kevin Jonas is the cute Jonas Bother and Joe Jonas is the cute Jonas Brother.

Jess: what she said. But does Tommy have to change his last name to Jonas now?

Click on player below to listen:

Produced by Matt Kirkwold & Joel Sayles
Recorded & Engineered by Matt Kirkwold at Rumble, Minneapolis MN
Additional Recording by Chad Carlson at Hipposound, Nashville TN
Mixed by Alex Oana
Additional mixing by Chad Carlson

Chris Hawkey: Lead & Background Vocals
Matt Kirkwold: Electric & Acoustic Guitars, Background Vocals
Brian Kroening: Acoustic Guitar
Joel Sayles: Bass, Background Vocals
Don Smithmier: Lead & Background Vocals
Billy Thommes: Drums
Tommy Barbarella: Organ
Jonathan Yudkin: Fiddle
Mike Johnson: Pedal Steel Guitar