BRAND MUSIC
THAT YOUR AUDIENCE
WILL PLAYLIST
Gnome Attack - Reel 2025 - Original Music for Brands
ABOUT US
who we are
Just think of us as a couple of musical gnomes blessed with the magical powers of songwriting, music production, and the ability to do those things within brand guidelines.
what we do
Armed with arms equipped with enough muscle to support musical instruments, as well as disproportionately sized musical brains in our large heads, we craft custom music for any type of brand activation, including branded content, ad spots, experiential, etc... We attack and conquer our clients' music demands. Oh, and fun…We have lots of fun!
how we do it
GNOMEbody knows how we do it, but if you want to check out some of our work, let the gnomes point you in the right direction.
VALUES
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there’s GNOME way it can’t be done
We chase sonic perfection. Does every element serve the song and the brand? Did the best idea win across the board? Perfection is subjective, and therefore unattainable, but we’re gonna get REALLY close!
every GNOME is created equal
While we have certainly experienced a lot in our lives, we recognize we don’t share the same lived experience as every brand’s audience, so in order to make sure that we are including the voices that speak directly to them, we have a vast network of collaborators who partner with us to achieve the representation they deserve.
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GNOME your client as you GNOME yourself
We love partnering with brands we already know and use ourselves, but in cases where we haven’t, we humbly immerse ourselves in their identity so that we can understand the fandom they have created.
CASE STUDY
Hot Wheels Monster Trucks - "Power Up"
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the backstory​
The tiny, largely-unknown brand Mattel came to us (that’s obviously a joke), and they wanted a high-energy rock song that sounds like it could have been played on a major rock radio station, while still incorporating the lore of 3 main characters from the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks product line. We wrote and produced “Electrified”, and they flipped for it! Rumor has it, they walk around the office singing the hook and have incorporated the song into their own presentations on top of the primary use of digital branded content. Following the success of “Electrified,” the Hot Wheels team agreed that a new sonic identity had been created. Imagine our delight when a short time later, the team approached us about writing and producing another song for a new line in the Hot Wheels Monster Trucks universe…
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the brief
With the energy and tone of “Electrified,” create a full length, radio-ready song for the new Hot Wheels Power Smashers line, including lyrics that showcase 8 unique characters, and a 9th character that we may or may not be able to name for legal reasons (Big Foot).​
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the approach
Step 1 - Review brand deck and get totally stoked about each character, their identity, and how we can POWER em’ all UP with fun lyrical wordplay.
Step 2 - Get in the studio and ROCK OUT creating 3 demo tracks.
Step 3 - Send to creative team for them to fist pump, shred some air guitar, and make the difficult decision as to which rocks hardest.
Step 4 - Finish writing and demoing the full 1st draft of “Power Up.”
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the challenges
Even though the client didn’t request this, we wanted to make sure that not only would their audience love the song, but that parents around the world would jump up and down because their kids are listening to something that they would also choose to play themselves. We are big proponents of playing on the edge of brand guidelines so that we have to dial things back as opposed to having to crank it up.
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EXAMPLES
Demos - We decided to take different lyrical and musical approaches, one of which included “Power Smashers” lore, while another focused entirely on the characters. The client requested the musical direction of one demo that included lore, but preferred the lyrical approach from another demo that was character-driven. Solution: Rewrite, rephrase, and tweak the track to complement the new lyrical direction.
Big Foot - The team was not sure of whether or not they would be able to include Big Foot in their visual materials or have time to get the license to include the name. Accordingly, it was a stretch goal for the team to have us include Big Foot lyrics without actually naming him. We delivered. Solution: in the bridge section we included the line “Shout out to the heroes and legends, original monsters, battling villains.” This gave them the flexibility to include him in the video if they got the license, but not confuse the audience if they didn’t. SPOILER ALERT. They got the license.
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the outcome
You rock out to the above video, just as the creative team did!