SONGS WITHOUT MUSIC

TitleSONGS WITHOUT MUSIC
BrandBELGIAN MUSIC FUND
Product/ServiceBELGIAN MUSICIANS
Category A07. Not-for-profit / Charity / Government
Entrant BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Idea Creation BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Media Placement BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
PR BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Production BBDO BELGIUM Brussels, BELGIUM
Credits
Name Company Position
Sebastien De Valck BBDO Creative Director
Arnaud Pitz BBDO Creative Director
Frederik Clarysse BBDO Associate Creative Director
Frederik Clarysse BBDO Belgium Creative
Patricia Van De Kerckhove BBDO Head of RTV
Mathieu Schots BBDO Belgium Sound Engineer
Tom Kestens Belgian Music Fund Founder
David Dalemans Double Deeds PR

Why is this work relevant for Media?

Every day, millions of listeners enjoy music on the radio. Now more than ever. Since the pandemic reached Belgium, listening figures went up 25%. Listeners are however completely unaware of the (financial) effort it takes to create music. To raise awareness and raise funds, we used the medium radio, not by using classic radio ads, but by letting Belgium's most famous artists re-record their most iconic hits. And asking radio stations to play them.

Background

The covid-19 crisis made the situation for Belgian musicians – which were already fragile to begin with, even more precarious because they could no longer rely their biggest source of income: live shows. To create new music, rehearsing, recording and releasing new material requires a large investment. So a lack of funding prohibits musicians from doing what they do best: make new music. To raise different unions for authors, musicians and composers,Sabam, Playright+, Facir and Galm founded Belgian Music Fund. The challenge was to launch this fund with a campaign that raises awareness for musicians’ lack of funding and raise funds to record new music.

Describe the creative idea / insights (30% of vote)

We asked the country's most popular musicians and bands, such as Clouseau, Willy Sommers, K's Choice, Eurosong participant Blanche, Cargo Mas and Sttellla to re-record their most iconic hit. And asked radio stations to play these re-recorded hits. What changed? After a short intro, just the lyric of the verse is heard. No melody. No instruments. No music. Just the words, spoken by the lead singer. The first verse is followed by a heartfelt message: "a song lyric is not music yet. Many musicians don't have the funds to rehearse, play, record or produce. Support them on belgianmusicfund.be. Don't do it for me, but for the K's choice of tomorrow." After this, the song continued as normal from the second verse on. Creating a hidden message within the hits played on national radio.

Describe the strategy (20% of vote)

Every day, millions of listeners enjoy music on the radio. Now more than ever. Since the pandemic reached Belgium, listening figures went up 25%. Listeners are however completely unaware of the (financial) effort it takes to create music. To make them aware that musicians lack the funding to create the music they love so much, we used the biggest local hits of the past decades. And asked the popular, financially independent artists who created them, to make a call to action to help their fellow musicians. We let the artists create a compelling version where, in the first verse, the music completely disappeared. What’s left was the words, and a call to action: “a song lyric is not music yet. Many musicians don't have the funds to rehearse, play, record or produce. Support them on belgianmusicfund.be. Don't do it for me, but for the K's choice of tomorrow."

Describe the execution (20% of vote)

The Belgian Music Fund was launched on June 23, 2020. That day, 8 Belgian Radio stations (Joe FM, NRJ, Classic 21, la première, Studio Brussel, Radio 1, Willy Radio, Radio 2) integrated and played at least one of the hits in their programming. Combining a reach of 3.702.000 listeners, which is 40% of the country’s population.

List the results (30% of vote)

8 Belgian Radio stations (Joe FM, NRJ, Classic 21, la première, Studio Brussel, Radio 1, Willy Radio, Radio 2) integrated and played at least one of the hits in their programming. Combining a reach of 3.702.000 listeners, which is 40% of the country’s population. So far, they donated over 210.000 euro via belgianmusicfund.be, enabling the fund to support numerous musicians to rehearse, record, produce and record their material