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Adam Faulkner is a pretty interesting guy; whether it’s his background as a creative at agencies, his biketrip from London to Tokyo, or the seemingly endless catalogue of music references he can speak to at the drop of a hat. This week, we brought him onto Dig In to talk about his company, CreativeAF, and the power of sonic branding. CreativeAF builds music videos for brands of all shapes and sizes, like Amnesty International and Sipsmith’s Gin.
Welcome to Dig In, the podcast brought to you by the minds at Dig Insights. We're interviewing some of the most inspiring brand professionals in marketing, innovation, and insights to discover the story behind the story of their most exciting innovations.
Ian: Hi, I'm Ian, co-founder of Dig Insights and president of Dig's innovation insights platform, Upsiide. Welcome to Dig In. Dig In is the place to stay up to date on what's happening in the world of innovation, research and technology, to find inspiration from today's business and innovation leaders, and to properly dig into hot topics that matter for consumer brands right now and when applicable, we'll bring our own research to that conversation.
Meagan Healey: Welcome back to this week's episode of Dig In. I'm Megan, the Marketing Director here at Dig Insights, and I am joined by Adam Faulkner today, who is the founder of Creative AF. Adam, how are you doing?
Adam Faulker: Hello. Megan, I'm very good. Thanks. It's very nice to be here.
Meagan: Oh, well, we're happy to have you. Can you tell the listeners a little bit about who you are and a little bit about Creative AF and the work that you do?
Adam: Yeah, well, , I could go right back to the beginning, , from birth obviously, I’ve done a lot in my life. I'll probably just not do that, but I'll stick to the more recent past, I guess. But , I've had a few different careers in media, actually, so I used to be a newspaper journalist and a TV producer, and followed a big adventure across the world on my bicycle. And when I cycled from London to Tokyo in 2018 and 2019, I decided to take the plunge and start my own business, which is something that I've always wanted to do, and my parents had their own business in advertising. So all roads led to that.
And yeah, I basically started Creative AF in March 2020, two weeks before they were about the country, and, indeed, the world went into a state of lockdown, which seems like a terrible time to start a business, really. It was a bit risky. I decided to do it before I knew that was going to happen. So then it was kind of like I said, “here we go”, but I'm glad I did. And I believe personally, I believe in being, , within restrictions, you can be creative and sometimes that actually can help you because you don't have as much choice. And , the possibilities are endless. So you have to work with what you have, and I believe in being quite resourceful in that way.
Meagan: Awesome, and what kind of work do you guys do like, what does Creative AF do for the clients?
Adam: Oh yeah, I should explain that. Creative AF stands for creative as fuck, but I'm very lucky because my initials are actually AF, so I can have this little play with people where people go, “For real?”.
MeaganL Yeah, I didn't even realize that, that's so funny. I love that.
Adam: Yeah, it's as they say in France, it's a double entendre.
So, yeah, I am basically, , a huge audiophile like, I love music, I love sound. And a lot of people say it up. But like, I love making it. This is basically a production company that makes music videos for brands.
I'm just trying to condense it into a kind of digestible term. So it's like it's making video content and it's making bespoke music for all of that video content. Because, as I explained, I'm an audiophile and I believe that in this world bespoke video which people make in production companies deserves bespoke music. So it's born out of a love for music and sound, which is why we make the music ourselves. We want video content to have the best sound possible and have a sound that represents the brands that we work with rather than just looking in almost all the stock music libraries that exist out there, which are a great asset and a great resource. But I don't believe that that's the way I want to do things. So I basically don't.
Meagan: And what kinds of brands do you typically work with?
Adam: Predominantly because of COVID, we worked a lot of food and drink brands because we could film those things. It’s very difficult to be around any people during COVID. It feels a bit different now, things are a bit more open, but back then it was like, “Don't leave your house because we're all going to die.”
And so as I said, I started the business during COVID, so I identified things that couldn't catch COVID i.e. products, and then got them to send them to me at home. And we were very lucky. I was very lucky. I lived with a mixologist and one of my best friends. And we built a bar in the garden during the first lockdown in the UK in 2020, and we were like, “Well, we will build a bar. We just thought, and then we'll make videos from the bar and then it just kind of escalated from there, really. And we picked up some actual clients, which was strange because it was like, “Well, what's going on here?”.
And then it just kind of went from there, really. And it was a very fortuitous situation, but I think that we endeavored to make something happen. And I think when you do, fortune favors rave.
So we developed a roster of drinks clients and food clients. And then over time, it's kind of diversified now because it doesn't have to be that way. And I love variety. So I believe the concept of what we're doing can work with any brand. I don't want it to just be food and drinks. We're just done a project with Amnesty International, which obviously is a very worthy charity. But the concept works for them because we've just done it with them. So I'm excited about doing it with any brand, any company in any sector because the concept is the same. But , the sound and the vision is different for each of them because not every company brand sounds the same.
I'm making these music videos bespoke for each of these brands in whatever sector is an exciting concept, I think, for people and one which they've not really thought about before.
Meagan: Why is sound so important to you? Why is it so important for it to be prioritized when you're thinking about video content?
Adam: Sound is important to me because it's an emotional language - music and sound.
It's like it's got the ability to evoke powerful emotional responses from chills to thrills to tears to just like euphoric joy. It's just amazing. Whether it's somewhere where music's been played and you're physically there or you are actually watching something on your television or a film or TV or whatever it is. If you take that away, it feels very different. It sometimes doesn't feel like anything at all because actually the emotional connection is coming from the sounds. So when I decided to start Creative AF and get that off the ground, I knew how important finding the right sound was going to be for it and basically the huge driving force behind what we wanted to do. So, yeah, it's exciting. I really enjoy it.
Meagan: Why do you think sound has been such an afterthought when it comes to creating campaigns?
Adam: I’ve done a fair amount of research. It’s the best way to find out the information you're after. The word “afterthought” has not necessarily been brought up by me. Some of the people have used it, which is strange, because you would think that they would exist side by side.
The visual and in the audio identity. But I think for something so emotive and powerful, as I've just said a sound is so emotive, so powerful. It's crazy that that's the case because you're missing out on whatever percentage of you of the human senses and by not using it…
I don't mean not using it at all, because sometimes silence is powerful. What I'm saying is that if there's no real thought or creative impetus behind it, if it's just kind of tacked on to the end, that's not really going to work because it doesn't connect. It's not going to connect with what you've made. And so how is it supposed to connect with the people who are watching it or listening to it?
And I think people can be so focused on the visual. They don't think about their senses sometimes, and a project can get so far down the line and then they start thinking about it in the end. They should be there at the start.
Don't get me wrong. Not everyone does that. It's not hard and fast. Hundred percent people are doing it wrong. But in my opinion, it should be at the start and it shouldn’t be postponed because that way you can craft something unique and you can change it to be whatever you want it to be.
When you’re using stock music like that, the risk is that, A. it doesn't quite fit and you can't change it. So you’re just kind of shoehorning it in. You're listening to however many tracks are there. And you’re just basically going “I don't know if I’ll like any of these by the end”. Trying to take in too much. Because it's not music that you've never heard of and actually, you don't even really know how you feel about it. It's not like a famous song. And then B. anyone else who's got access to that as well. So they're not special, so anyone could pick. I hear the same music on different things, I know because my ear remembers it. I remember things, audio, music and sound are very memorable if they get stuck in your head. You will always remember it.
You mentioned Mark Ritson, the article that you just talked about Sonic branding. All of those brands have very recognizable sonic identities, and it might be a jingle. I think a jingle can sound quite cheap. Sometimes it's very, “oh, it's a jingle”, but if you know what it is and it's stuck in your head, it's doing the job and it might be annoying, but actually it works because you can kind of remember exactly what background is, and sometimes you just sing it to yourself
Meagan: When I was growing up. Ages ago jingles kind of had their time in the limelight. I feel like they were. They were so popular. I still remember the jingle for a local optician in my neighborhood. It's pretty powerful stuff. But they kind of went out of vogue like, I feel like they got uncool. But you're kind of seeing them come back a little bit.
Adam: I think I just want to say that jingles are musical identities. But they're not they're not I'm not suggesting that we just write jingles. That's not what we do. What I'm saying is we have done that, like we can't write jingles and pieces of music like that. But what I'm saying is, if that's what's required, then yes, that's not the problem.
But sonic branding, audio branding goes beyond that. It's like I was watching Netflix last night and the first when you turn Netflix on it has an audio identity because it's got like that drum. And you just know it. It's not really a jingle. It's just sound. But it's weird how if you closed your eyes and that sound played somewhere, you'd know what it is. And I think it's just that it's memorable, it creates brand recognition at the first touchpoint.
And , all of the companies have an audio identity like you just know. Coca-Cola and McDonald's… “I'm lovin’ it”. It's just it's it's just three words, but it's just like, and it's actually in every country, but it's bespoke for that.
And it's just ways of making you remember things. And I think because human beings are so visual. I'm being bombarded with so much stuff. How are you supposed to remember, like all the things that you see?
So actually, my argument is if you do things for the ears and I remember them better than what I see. Not how many people are doing it. So if you actually do it, maybe there's a chance, a very good chance, that people will remember what you were trying to show them more than what if you do it this way. It's an argument in my theory. But I think it would work for me.
Meagan: We've talked about how within other branding agencies processes, sound can be an afterthought when they're coming up with a campaign and you kind of worked in that space and talked to people. I guess as someone who doesn't create video content and doesn't work on the agency side and come up with these campaigns creatively, how do you change the process of developing a campaign to prioritize sound within those?
Adam: So one of the things I like to do at the start of the development process with a new client or new brand, is to get a feel for both the visual and the audio. Now, when you speak to that brand. It's very, very clear on what it looks like, they’re very clear. These are the colors, these are our brand attributes and this is our brand identity. And they've already got these images that they had taken by someone, whether it be the food and drink brand or a lifestyle brand, whatever it is, they've got it in abundance for you to look, like a whole guide like pages and pages of it.
But then I'll say, “I know what it looks like, but I'll ask you, what does it sound like?” And they're not really sure what to say because they've never been asked that before. So it's not a question. Brands are used to being asked, so it makes them think about their own brand in a different way because they've never had to answer that question before. And it's a fun process that means we get to talk creatively about the sound of that brand.
What mood does the brand convey? If you could get an artist to play, make you a song, who would it be? That's a good question that I ask people. So we can kind of work out what it does sound like and what it definitely doesn't sound like. And then you kind of end up refining this process where you kind of drum it down into this kind of clearer revision.
And I think with the visual, they give you so many cues that it's very difficult to get that wrong. I'm not trying to say that there isn't any creative emphasis on the visual side from us. Of course there is, but you've got so much to go on already. But then you bring in all the sound sound as well and you’re creating this more rounded piece, which they know is going to look right because you've already given you, they've given you that information, but then you add in the sound as well and the music and they just they're going on this different journey.
I have to reference one of our long standing clients here, Sipsmith is a gin brand from London. And , it's done very, very well recently and it's a very classy brand and it's got its own identity, it's got a swan as its brand ambassador. They do incredibly good television ads with animation and all that stuff. So over the last 18 months, we've probably written, I'd say, between 15 and 20 different pieces of music to go with all the content we've made for them.
We know their sound because you worked out from the beginning. It's like old world jazz with some gypsy swing. And I mean, if people are listening, they'll go, “Ok, what does that sound like?”. Well, you'd have to watch all the videos. It's fun because you have to delve into this kind of process and customer experience. It offers a different way of doing it.
And I think I love doing both because I like putting the best of the two things together. I mean, recently, I think I mentioned Amnesty International, a charity, earlier, but we just did a project with them as a branded video campaign and we needed a soundtrack that worked for them. And we had a consultation process and then created a playlist. We often do that as well during the sound branding process, after the consultation and the questions. You put together this playlist. It’s bespoke because it is based on this consultation process. People like listening to music that they think represents their brand. And then we went away and made this track and the video obviously to go with it. And they loved it. And you left with a bespoke piece of content, both for the eyes and the ears.
I love the process. If you are just someone who just creates things, I love the process. Forget it is a business. I just love doing that. I mean, it's like a way to spend my time because it's just like, you feel like you’re soundtracking your own films, which I love. But this is not a film and it's not a drama, and it's not a TV program, it's advertising. And that's what I want. I want it to be and what it is and what future projects are going to be.
And I think because it's quite unique in what we're doing. As I said, I'm not reinventing the wheel. I've got these skills, and I think it's quite a powerful, emotive thing. And as I said, there's so many different brands to work with out there in so many different sectors and industries, and I'd love the opportunity to try anything in that space because they're all a bit different.
Meagan: Who do you think's kind of doing sound really well?
Adam: I'm a big fan of Apple, and I always have been. I'm not talking about things like, “Oh, I love an iPhone or I love Mac”. I mean, I do. I do like their products. I think their marketing strategy is to position themselves as innovators, really, and that's how people see them. And I think that's completely fine with me. I think they use sound incredibly well. I'm the kind of iPod child, so I remember when that came out. MP3 players were very basic little devices that you couldn't really put that many songs on. And then suddenly there was the iPod and you could have like 10,000 songs in a personal library. I remember the old iPod adverts. The one that really sticks in my head was it was like a kind of colored background with silhouetted people, silhouetted animations of people with earphones, dancing to different music. And I was just like, “Yeah, it just works”. I mean, it wasn't bespoke music, it was Jet - “Are you going to be my girl”. Maybe it could have been any song, but they obviously chose that. It was memorable. And that was 20 odd years ago. So it just shows you how it sticks in your head. And I think they just continued. They’ve just done an advert and there’s a guy in America cycling around. I don’t know the track. I've never heard of it and I looked it up and it's a little known rapper, but it's great. But I remember the song, and when you look online, people are like, “What's the song? What's this song? What's this?” It's making you kind of search for what it is.
Apple continues to do this today, as in, even just a few weeks ago. Other big companies know what they're doing. I'd argue that some of the big companies like Coca-Cola and McDonald's don't actually even need to do any marketing.
But they obviously want to because they like to. People just go to McDonald's anyway, whether you advertise it or not. But with Coca-Cola’s “holidays are coming” song, every Christmas it’s there. And that's a whole song. It's not a jingle. As I mentioned before, McDonald's with “I'm lovin’ it”. And I also have to give a special mention to the Cadbury's Gorilla ad from a few years ago, where there's basically a gorilla playing the drums. And it's aPhil Collins song that has got nothing to do with anything, but it’s literally guerilla marketing. I loved it because of the music. If it's just a guerrilla life, I would be like “what is that?” But it was so well done.
I'm drawn to any kind of advertising that uses music or sound very well. Sometimes I think I can find it a bit of a turn off when I'm not really getting much in these adverts, but I listen intently with my ears to every piece of advertising.
But these are like mammoth international companies. But there's no reason why this can't trickle down, in my opinion, to smaller startups to create sound design that is memorable and has got that hook.
Meagan: Going back to your Apple ads example, do you think there's something distinctly “Apple” about them?
Adam: Yeah, I think predominantly they are excellent at matching up music that already exists with something that advertises their cause. I read a book recently called “Start with Why” and the guy who wrote that loves Apple. He always talks about how Apple are championing their0 “why”, they're not always telling you about what they're doing and how they're doing it. They're just like, “This is why we do it. We're innovators”. And that is how people see them and they put that out there.
So I think with music, it's not like they choose because this is the biggest song at the moment, because actually, I don't think that really aligns with that brand identity and brand voice to just go, “well, this is a really popular song, so we might as well use it to further our cause”, which I actually think other people would do more. They're just like, “well, people like this song, so I'll stick that on there”. If you remember the song, it was the most popular song for about ten years, Uptown Funk. And that obviously about how expensive that would be to pay the license fee for your advertising. However, what ended up happening, I think, it got watered down because people just kept using it. So going back to your question about Apple, I think they just know music well or whoever's doing this for them knows music well and they choose music very, very well.
I'd have to go through their ad catalog to find if they actually wrote something or wrote pieces of music that would be bespoke because their audio identity is on all their products. This is a sound for Apple. But I just think that that choice of music is exemplary of the things that they're doing. I can't remember the song when they brought out a new iMac last year. And that was like a music video for an iMac. And I really enjoyed it. I can't remember the song. But I had a lot of different colored iMacs, just kind of basically dancing. It aligns with the stuff that I like to make, and I'm putting myself in the same bracket as Apple, but it would be a dream brand for me to work with. I know you haven't asked me that during the podcast, but I am saying.
Meagan: OK, talking a little bit about Creative AF. You've kind of carved out this niche for yourselves as people who really know how to work with video and sound and make them harmonious together. You've grown a lot over the last couple of years since the pandemic began. What does the future hold?
Adam: After the first two years, which were very COVID-centric, hopefully this year will feel like a lot more of a normal year for everyone in their lives. But then as a business, it creates more possibilities because you've got people acting on the projects rather than waiting. And that's been on the line the whole time.
When you are working with restrictions, you have to do what you can. But when you must work from home, how are you supposed to do ambitious things if you basically can't go anywhere? So I think in terms of that, the possibilities will only increase. So I'm very, very pleased about that. I mean, one thing I'm very keen to do, and I am doing, is expanding our network of creatives both to the visual and the audio because I want the process to be one of collaboration and have different creatives with different but fantastic skills working together because it's easy for me to go “I can do both of these things'', but I have certain ideas. Another person will have different ideas and that's what creativity should be. Actually, I don't want to make every single piece of content because actually there might be someone better suited to make that jazz piece. I mean, I can't play every instrument in the world. I love collaborating with other people. I think that will make a more unique piece. I want to work with different people on the visual branding strategy and or work with different people on the audio. So that's a big thing.
But now I feel I'm in a position to do that. So that's really exciting. I'm confident the niche is there, in working with brands and this dual purpose and getting them to think outside the box to develop not just what the brand looks like, but what it sounds like as well. When you try to tell people to think about something that they never thought about, the take off that is not going to be immediate. If you're asking someone to think about something that they've never thought about, some people don't get it. I have to admit, you have to sometimes explain and I think offering something different will always be of interest to people, but they have to understand what that journey looks and sounds like. And that's what I'm trying to ask people to envisage. It's a bit conceptual, I guess, but it's not as clear as making a video.
I think for this year, things are looking very bright and I look forward to working with different people on these projects and having that core concept at its heart because the ones that do get it, they really do get it. And I love that and it makes the whole experience for all of us both making it and the people we’re making it for. They just seem to really enjoy it. And I think that's great. I want it to be a creative, collaborative process. It's looking like it's going to be a good one, Meagan.
Meagan: Awesome. Thanks so much for joining us today. If you want to check you out, where should they or should they go?
Adam: The website is the best place. www.creativeaf.co. I love to connect with people and just have a conversation and anyone who wants to talk to me about music and sound, it doesn't always have to be a business thing, I just love talking about it. So yeah, anyone wants to get in touch, drop me a line, or I'll be more than happy to chat.
Meagan: Awesome. Thank you so much. We will be back next week. Adam, I will talk to you soon.
Ian: Thanks for joining us for this week's episode of Dig In. If you want more information about Dig Insights or Upsiide, please check us out on LinkedIn or on our websites, diginsights.com or upsiide.com. If you have any ideas for future episodes or would like to be a guest, please feel free to direct message me through the LinkedIn app.