The Creative Outpost audio team worked on the sound design for ASDA’s recently launched Christmas campaign ‘Make this Christmas incredibublé’, starring Mr Christmas himself, Michael Bublé, as the new Chief Quality Officer tasting the festive fayre including the delicious looking Truffle and Parmesan Pigs in Blankets! The campaign was created by Havas London and directed by Oscar winner, Taika Waititi.
Sound engineer Tom Lane gives some insight into creating the unique sound design to blend with Michael Bublé’s music track in the teaser ad. “It was great to be working with the team from Havas on this campaign as there was plenty of scope to get creative with the environments, the gargle and of course, Michael Bublé's music.
“When it came to Michael’s gargle it was all about finding the right balance between making it sound as if it was coming through the pipework of the building but still making it clear what the sound was. A fair bit of time was spent tweaking the various EQ and reverb parameters to achieve the desired balance of comprehension and clarity.
And, it's always fun when you can play around with the music stems from famous tracks and ‘It’s Beginning To Look Like Christmas' was no exception. Being able to hear individual elements in isolation gives the track a new perspective and helped with the tone of the cut downs.
Head of sound Dave Robinson tells us about the process involved in designing the mix for the main ad. "Well, this was certainly a fun one to work on. Not just because it was a nice mix to be involved with, but also getting to enjoy watching Mr. Bublé flex his comedy chops ‘Well, jingle my bells’. Even after spending many hours working on it, it continued to make us giggle which is always a good sign.
“Along with building up the layers of sound design and accentuating particular comic moments with sound, I would say the most challenging aspect was the music editing. We were fortunate to be supplied with the stems for Michael’s recording of ‘Walking In A Winter Wonderland’ which allowed more flexibility when cutting the track to the film but the edit required working within certain constraints. Most notably, having to work backwards from the end scene where Michael sings the main lyric acapella whilst hitting key moments throughout the film.
“Once I had the shape of the music edit I was able to remove certain elements of the track here and there to allow the overall mix to breathe a bit."
