A campaign for the largest sporting event in the world.

Scoring the World Cup

When our friends at Crispin reached out to us for this project, we knew it was going to be special. Howling has scored many spots for different leagues, teams, and other sporting groups, including a Fox spot for the 2018 World Cup. But this one appealed to us for a different reason; the spot came to us with a message that was about more than the product and bigger even than the game.

Buchanan’s and Crispin had a vision for a piece that would represent unity and multiculturalism, blurring the lines between nationalities and celebrating the communities brought together by the World Cup. The story is about Latin Americans and the quandary of identity presented by the World Cup; who to support, the United States or the Latin American country?

The Piece

The Challenge

The musical direction had three key elements that were must-haves:

Chant: The source material for the musical direction was the well-known “I believe that we will win” chant made famous by the United States Men’s National Team. The track needed to be staged so that the talent on set could record the chant audio to replace guiding vocals.

Instrumentation: The story needed supportive, percussive instrumentation that could provide a lift as the chant grew. We knew it would be important to use simple elements like drums and buckets, but accenting the track with well-placed sound design added another degree of intensity.

Languages & Accents: The mission from the start was to have a full length version of the track that incorporated English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Additionally, the film was set to have multiple shorter versions that featured one language or one particular Latin American country and its respective dialect.

The Process

To start exploring options, we sent the brief out to our awesome composers and submitted the following demos to Crispin.

The track that was chosen to build on was composed by our very own in house engineer, Raph. Landing this spot meant more than just producing one great track, though. Raph would have to work closely with the creative producers who would be on the set at the shoots and who led the editing process.

“We prepared guide tracks in advance which established the tempo, cadence, and intensity of the performance. We did different version for each country, with their respective language and accent.”

Raph, a native Spanish speaker, said this about composing the Portuguese sections of the film: “It was a bit tricky, but it wasn’t too much of a departure from my native language—Spanish. Getting the pronunciation and cadence right were the most crucial parts. Luckily, the talent was all Portuguese speaking, so the end result turned out beautiful.”

Our friends at CPB were thrilled. For a project with so many moving parts (multiple languages, multiple cutdowns from the full length, international shoot), we knew having an air-tight plan would be essential.

“We needed to nail the tempo - the beat to follow. This was most important for all parts as it informed the shoot and then the post. We also needed to know exactly what we were going to chant lyric-wise, and to be sure we kept it simple since we were working with so many talent at once.” - CPB Producer

In building out the various cutdowns, we had to find a way to maintain a crescendo in a much smaller window of time. Luckily the structure that we came up with alongside CPB did just that without overtaking the spot. According to CPB’s producer, “Client loved the music right out of the gate. They love how it builds on the longer film and helps tell the story. And then even in the :15's how it supports the chants and doesn't overwhelm.”

The Short Forms

Mexico

Brazil

Argentina

Ecuador

Mexico | Bumper

Argentina | Bumper

What People Are Saying

  • "Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Howling Music and their team of musical savants. Not only are they incredibly talented, but their spirit of collaboration and who they are as people, make the journey even more rewarding."

    David Angelo, Founder / Chairman David & Goliath

  • “I’ve been a fan of David Grow’s since he was a puppy. A very talented, pleasure-to-work-with puppy. Always delivers. Throw him a job and see what I mean. Good human.”

    Cameron Day, ECD Two Headed Cam

  • “They make us look like geniuses. No matter where I’m at, Howling Music stays in my contacts. They’re go-to for me.”

    Alan Whitley, Group CD Wunderman Thompson ATL

  • “You guys have amazing gifts! Thank-you for continuing to share them with us at GTB.”

    Kirk Sieder, Creative Director GTB, Atlanta

  • “Howling Music not only brings incredible talent to every assignment, but they continually push to top themselves every step of the way.”

    Margaret Bond, VP / Group CD LGA

  • “These guys are so bad at their job that I keep going back to them with music briefs. I keep hoping that they’ll fail so I can finally tell them to GTFO. But, they keep nailing it, so I guess I’ll keep running back to them.”

    Ann Truong, Producer David & Goliath

  • “Howling Music has done first class work regardless of the size of my budget. That’s the mark of true integrity.”

    Ken Butts, Creative Director Zimmerman Advertising

  • “Outside of having great original composition skills, Howling Music’s library hits the spot.”

    Celestina Lucero, Producer Innocean USA

Give us a shout.

And by shout we mean it, we’ve got the tunes cranked!