Friends at the Martin Agency approached us to help pitch some new business. In this case, the new business was Papa John’s, and we worked hand in hand with the agency, and our visual post-production besties MONDIAL, to create the audio-visual representation of one of humanity’s most base desires: “pizza-lust”.

They came to us with a strong concept - they were looking for a hypnotic feeling rap track with repetitive phrases of ooey-gooey desire. We helped them refine the lyrics, and quickly arranged the track while Mondial furiously put together a psychedelic visual experience. The client loved the concept, the pitch video, and the track, and ultimately chose the Martin Agency as their Agency of Record, and this concept as their re-launch. The agency brought in Radical Media and Dave Meyers to produce and direct the spots, and we got to work making the real thing (with more time to dig-in to the details). We demoed a bunch of different flavors to make sure we’d landed on the perfect mesmerizing soundtrack, then Sunset Blvd helped negotiate and secure Big Boi as the voice of the campaign launch. We also tracked alt language versions with rappers in Spanish (Xcelencia), Mandarin (Summer), and Korean (BB & Fabi). The response to the campaign has been huge, and the client continues to generate new spots based on similar creative with updated lyrics for new products / deals, but the best part for us, is the way that Big Boi signs off each new spot with a different southern slang gem. J’YEAH!

Taking a song, and rewriting it into three different eras / genres was a dream! For this project, Tiny Lion partnered with Doordash’s internal agency “Superette” to increase awareness of their ability to deliver meds and other drug store amenities. To do so, we took the agency provided melody and lyrics (written from the p.o.v. of a tired, overworked bowl of soup during cold and flu season), and created three wildly different versions of the song. The three versions (1980’s rock ballad, 1940’s vocal harmony group, and 2000’s boyband) were created specifically for three different animator / content creators (Sam Cotton, Mathias Lynge, and Smallbü) to then develop three distinctly different visual styles / storylines to deliver the song. Fans loved the videos on social media, and even contributed to a sing-along / duet tiktok with the Sam Cotton video.

Tiny Lion partnered with favorite director Dan Opsal and the Martin Agency to bring the Geico gecko into four rich, distinct, film-genre-trope worlds. For each spot, we created an authentic cinematic score that immerses the viewer into that world (Sci-fi, Neo-western, Sports Anthem, and Who-dunnit), only to pull the rug out when the gecko shows up, and reveal that it’s actually just an ad for insurance. To push things even further, we also wrote and incorporated a signature melodic sting to herald the Gecko’s abrupt entrance, within the sonic palette / tonal world of each cinematic score. The spots are beautifully cinematic, so it was a blast to match that depth, and then let the air out of the balloon with the entrance of the Gecko.

Tiny Lion worked with our friends at Fallon on these cheeky spots for the brand “Frontdoor” - from building the conceptual pitch all the way to air. Fallon brought us in at this project’s inception to help build authentic-sounding proof-of-concept demos to sell the concepts through to the client. We worked hand in hand with the team on an exploratory list of iconic songs to find the most impactful sections of the best songs to fit into 60/30/15/etc. The client loved the concept, greenlit the project, and once the rights were negotiated and secured with Jefferson Starship and Shania Twain, we moved into production with the agency, Hummingbird and director Rami Hachache. The goal for both tracks was to nail the instrumental track authentically with era appropriate instruments and sounds, then crown them with a confident “real person” singing their heart out (A “karaoke-crusher” if you will). We created pre-pro versions of both tracks for them to choreograph and shoot to, and then polished the songs up once the edit solidified, to really capture the dream-world comedy of each spot. Making puns with Shania Twain lyrics? That do impress me much!

Carmax was looking for a brand mnemonic that would be the sound that opens and closes all of their TV, social and radio content. Something short, sweet, and memorable, that would help solidify their brand positioning, and the message that “every Carmax moment is a positive one”. We worked hand in hand  with our friends at The Martin Agency to dig into the feelings and associations behind the sounds, and explore lots of simple, joyful, and fun options - some more musical, some more sound-design based, and some that landed right in between - leaving no stone unturned in the search for the right little earworm to get stuck in viewers’ heads for years to come! After a thorough habitation and examination of the “feelgood car buying experience headspace” what that translates to sonically, and why… they ultimately (wisely) went with a recontextualization of a little melody that we had made for use on a couple of previous spots featuring NBA and WNBA athletes that made it more universal to suit all of the applications that it would now be used for. Sometimes the first idea is the best idea! (*sometimes)