The full-sing jingle has had a kind of renaissance in the last couple of years. More and more commercials are using original, sung music throughout. The great thing about modern jingles is they don’t sound like jingles. They just sound like music. We covered this a few months ago. Here I want to focus specifically on Desjardins Insurance.

This might be a perfect commercial, and you can tell it was created brand-first. The music, the look, the message, the vibe, all the pieces fit together flawlessly. It also gets points for being entertaining while staying on message and on brand. Lots commercials go entertainment-first. When they do, they essentially become a comedy sketch with a logo at the end. Not this one.

I also give them points for creating music that matches their sonic logo. They’re in the same key and everything.

Not every commercial does this. Sometimes a brand has a sonic logo, but no sonic style guidelines. You can usually tell because the music and the logo don’t match. The logo is just kind of shoehorned in at the end. Kia is often guilty of this.

Focusing on brand is very beneficial, especially in the insurance industry. Insurance has a long history with sonic branding. Let’s face it. People don’t go out and buy insurance with the same gusto that they might when buying food, cars, or coffee. Insurance companies generally need to invest more in brand in order to stand out and be memorable. State Farm’s jingle was written by Barry Manilow in 1971. Here in Kingston, Shaw Insurance stays top-of-mind with their sonic identity (produced by SoundWise, of course).

Sonic assets are often the key to playing the long game. It’s always tempting for business leaders to focus exclusively on producing sales activation spots. Promotions usually do create increases in sales, but once it’s over, things typically go back to the way they were. Brand building tends to be more incremental, but when done right, it usually overtakes those sales spikes.

Another thing that impressed me about Desjardins’ new jingle is it’s becoming quite prevalent on radio as well. A sonic identity needs to be pervasive across all media. You want to create a consistent sonic ecosystem. If all your assets live and die in one medium, you’ve failed.

Overall, 10 out of 10 for Desjardins.