Turning instruments into inspiration

The Yamaha Music London Christmas Sessions were conceived as a digital celebration of the variation of music that is possible, with the goal of highlighting that no matter your musical style, background, or experience, everybody has their own personal sound they can share with the world.

By producing a series of videos featuring a curated mix of past and present Yamaha Music London ambassadors, we aimed to be a major part of the festive experience in the music space, with the added intention of building long-term brand equity when it comes to Yamaha’s association with Christmas.

We faced a number of challenges during this campaign. The first being in the “commodity trap” of the music industry, where instruments are often marketed based on technical specifications rather than the inspiration they provide. 

We wanted to help our ambassadors tell their stories of how powerful making music has been for them, and display that everyone has the ability and right to start making music.  We approached this with the intention of using the exact same source material, and tasking our ambassadors to play in their personal style, which highlighted just how unique everyone can sound.

The implementation of the ambassadors project has led to us becoming the only company to create grass-roots support for young players, starters and those on a music journey, providing the perfect inspiration for new musicians.

We also wanted to highlight the store as the one-stop-shop for music at Christmas, filming each video in a different area inside. We used the Christmas Sessions to highlight this “physicality” and heritage, creating a sense of exclusivity. By filming in a way that showcased the store’s unique architecture and history, we feel we executed our intention of making Yamaha Music London the undisputed “home of music” for Christmas.

Challenges

• Planning shot locations and styles for 10+ videos that allowed the ambassador to shine, the gear to pop and the store to continue to function
• Coordinating logistics between ambassadors, store team and crew, totaling to around 20 people
• Each musical instrument/genre required a different setup. Transitioning from a high-gain electric guitar setup to the delicate, nuanced grand piano within a tight filming window is a major logistical feat.
• Ensuring that 11 different videos, shot over several days with different artists, all feel like part of a cohesive “series” while still allowing each artist’s unique musical style to shine through.
• We needed to find a creative tone that felt prestigious enough for a 100-year-old+ brand legacy but brief and energetic enough to engage a younger, social media-led audience

Solution

• We personally visited a number of different locations across London to ensure we found the locations that suited all of our needs
• The filming days were meticulously planned out to highlight exactly what products, set dressing and camera equipment were needed to ensure that the production was as smooth as possible
• We handled all levels of communication, from the talent and production crew, to the location managers, delivery crew and client, ensuring everybody was on the same page