RETAIL AND THE POWER OF SOUND

From overarching musical concept research, workshop sessions and an understanding of the Nespresso brand, MassiveMusic distilled 3x concept playlists: Morning, Afternoon, Evening. These playlists are live at all global Nespresso boutiques with the purpose of successfully enhancing the brand’s identity, consumer experience and in-store dwell time.

A partner for 5+ years, we curate and update the playlists at the start of each quarter. These are live across 700 boutiques globally with recently releases music based on the brief for each.

Results
Nespresso has grown from 15,6 bn CHF in 2016 to 84,3 bn CHF in 2020 worldwide. (Nespresso boutiques accounting for +/- 30%).

Nike came to us with “We need music for our mini documentary about the Nike Air Max BW sneaker, the doc will show the lasting footprint this shoe has had on modern culture". It goes without saying: when a brand is so iconic, the music has to be iconic too.

So what did we do? We put together a team of composers and producers to capture the different sounds of music subcultures and translated the request into a one-of-a-kind yet cohesive soundtrack, tapped into nostalgic 90s tracks (made by yours truly).

The documentary can only be watched in the Nike SNKRS app. A great example on how music can elevate an e-commerce experience while building brand equity.

For German hypermarket chain Kaufland, we were asked to create an authentic girl-power rap track to reach Gen-Z target groups with a bold and modern concept.

We needed to sell the concept of the ‘professional cheap queen’ without the music being juvenile or tongue-in-cheek. So with Hamburg-based rap collective VibeKingz, we created a killer rap anthem with elements from 90s/00s hip-hop and making it sound fresh and modern.

The result is a bangin’ music production for a sparkling campaign where the champagne flows freely and the bargains are too good to be true (yet, still true). What we wanted to convey through music is the feeling of finally being able to afford everything that fires the imagination of the customer. 

MassiveMusic was tasked with curating playlists for all Selfridges stores in the UK. This meant 79 different zones of music from women’s lingerie to children’s toys, each with their own unique curation playlist. Each zone's demographic was researched and analysed, to get their heads nodding and keep them browsing longer.

Playlists were refreshed every 2 months to avoid fatiguing customers (and staff), and the dozens of different playlists were all centrally curated, controlled and deployed by MassiveMusic. 

Results
Growing from 810 million GBP in 2019 to 853 million GBP in 2020.

MassiveMusic was asked by O2 to transfer the O2 sonic branding into their retail stores. We made sure that the sonic identity was subtly implemented into the store playlist and guaranteed the curated playlist was brand right while stimulating the consumers buying behaviour. Transition sounds help provide a sonic thread throughout O2 stores and build further recognition of the sonic brand.

The transition sounds are played in between playlist tracks, every hour as well as during store announcements. MassiveMusic worked with Play Network and O2 to create transition sounds that work with different playlist moods, styles, energy levels, yet all feel consistent and recognisable as O2.

This close ongoing partnership has created a comprehensive package of audio assets building on the historic ‘Fresh Food People’ melody, that includes all brand music, seasonal specials, weekly Fresh Market Updates and in-store music.

Having a very close working relationship with M&C/Greenhouse means we are often involved well before the films go into production. This could mean adaptations of the existing brand music library, composing new bespoke music, or re-recording/arranging existing well-known songs.

Although there is a wide variety of music options used by the brand, they all feel part of the Woolworths sonic family.