Grey & Pantene Seek Song at MIDEM for New 2009 Advertising

January 22, 2008 | 4:04 pm

NEW YORK, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Pantene and its U.S. advertising agency, Grey New York, announced today they are inviting delegates attending MIDEM's Annual Conference to submit tracks for possible use in Pantene's 2009 advertising campaign. MIDEM is the world's largest music market and its 2008 Annual Conference is expected to gather 9,500 attendees and 1,300 participants in events from all over the world. The conference will be taking place in Cannes, January 27-31, and all attendees have been invited to create and submit their songs by January 22, 2008.

"This is a great example of a major global brand marketer converging with the global music industry at large," said Josh Rabinowitz, Grey New York's Director of Music. "Along with TV shows and video games, advertising has become one of the best ways to get your music out there. It's the new A&R."

Grey and Pantene will evaluate submissions and create a Top 20 Playlist, which will be presented at an open listening session on Jan. 29 in Cannes. All conference attendees are invited. The Pantene listening session is one of three offered to delegates by MIDEM, which bills the listening sessions as onsite auditions for major video games, films and TV shows, and now advertising, with tangible results. Last year, the UK rock band Motorcity Daredevils won a feature role in a "Tony Hawk" videogame following an Activision listening session at MIDEM.

"We are always looking for new ways to emotionally connect Pantene, the number one haircare brand in the world, with consumers," said Freddy Bharucha, Marketing Director for Pantene North America. "Music is an important element of our advertising, and MIDEM provides a unique opportunity to access top international creative talent that we might otherwise not have access to."

The MIDEM website shows recent Pantene commercials and lays out the brand's requirements for the winning song: a main-line, loved-by-all sound; makes women feel strong and empowered; immediately branded but never a jingle; works as an instrumental in varying lengths and formats; creatively interprets the brand message of "shine" and "let the best of you shine through." Participant songs will be uploaded by via MIDEM's website: http://www.midem.com/en-gb/conferences/295.cfm.

About Grey

Grey New York is the flagship and largest office of Grey, a unit of Grey Group. Grey Group ranks among the largest global communications companies. Its parent company is WPP (Nasdaq: WPPGY). Grey Group's total offer includes G2, activation marketing; Grey Healthcare Group, healthcare communications; MediaCom, media planning and buying and GCI Group, public relations. Grey New York's blue-chip client roster includes many of the world's best known companies: Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, BAT, Diageo, Darden Restaurants, Wyeth, Canon, 3M, Eli Lilly, Dairy Queen and E*Trade.

About Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG): Three billion times a day, P&G brands touch the lives of people around the world. The company has one of the strongest portfolios of trusted, quality, leadership brands, including Pampers(R), Tide(R), Ariel(R), Always(R), Whisper(R), Pantene(R), Mach3(R), Bounty(R), Dawn(R), Pringles(R), Folgers(R), Charmin(R), Downy(R), Lenor(R), Iams(R), Crest(R), Oral-B(R), Actonel(R), Duracell(R), Olay(R), Head & Shoulders(R), Wella, Gillette(R), and Braun. The P&G community consists of over 135,000 employees working in over 80 countries worldwide. Please visit http://www.pg.com for the latest news and in-depth information about P&G and its brands.