A-MNEMONIC have been commissioned to write the song “Born Beautiful” for the launch of new beauty brand ‘bubu skincare.’
Marianne Morrison – founder of bubu, identified their target market was similar to ITV’s Love Island, typically young women between the ages of 18-30. With that in mind she sought out help from the writers of the Love Island theme, A-MNEMONIC, to write a ‘brand song’ for bubu’s product launch.
A-MNEMONIC’s first task was to understand the audience, and what the tone and feel of the track should sound like. It needed to have a recognisable sound, so people would know it was bubu, and similar recognisability and recall as the Love Island theme. It had to be uncompromising, different and have an edge. Bright, uplifting, confident, and credible. Pop.
The music team first set out to write lyrics for the song. The idea behind the brand name bubu is “be u. be unique” with the love heart above the logo that’s symbolic of self-love. The lyrics to the song needed to match this ethos. And certainly not sound like a jingle.
Marianne says “bubu is cheeky and fun, but with a serious message and purpose. I am passionate about encouraging younger women to have more confidence in themselves and to feel comfortable in their own skin. My ‘why’ around the bubu brand purpose was, why try to be anyone else, when you can be you…YOU are something to be celebrated.”
The first step was to come up with a set of lyrics. Rob Dunham: “To keep everyone on side, and heading in the same direction, it’s fundamental to get lyrics right first. Once the lyrics have the right sentiment, attitude and tone, it’s a much better foundation from which to move onto the music element. And keep everyone on board! We bought in two long time song writing collaborators, Andrei Basirov and Nicholas Alexander. In the end we wrote two very different sets of lyrics from which the clients could choose.”
A-MNEMONIC then hit the studio. Rob Dunham again: “We had hade extensive conversations with the Brand on the style and tone we were going for so the whole process was great fun. This resulted in the track ‘Born Beautiful’”
Several vocalists were auditioned, in the end we were knocked out by soul singer Nina Carr who recorded the final vocals in Toronto. Production took place in Toronto and finished in London at A-MNEMONIC’s studio in Lexington St.
“Working directly with the client, who had never commissioned music before, let alone on a pop-song, could have proved very challenging.” Said Toby from A-MNEMONIC. “However, it quickly became obvious the brand deeply understood how music can communicate to an audience, and the value of that, and our process.
The campaign is being rolled out digitally – currently launching with Pretty Little Thing before hitting other stores. Some of the featured products include #feelingdirty – a pollution busting sheet mask, #stripitoff – an exfoliating sheet mask, #soakmewet – a hydrating sheet mask, and #youplucker – a lip pumping mask.
Follow bubu on social @believeinbubu