A woman is in her kitchen one morning, her smartphone tuned into a traffic report which carry prospects for another slow commute. She then switches over to Pandora, selecting Tones & I’s song “Dance Monkey” which fuels some uninhibited dancing on her part, breaking up the kitchen in the process. Strutting her stuff to the rhythm of the upbeat track, she escapes reality for a stretch. An end tag for the Pandora brand reads, “Be You. We’ll Be Your Music.”
The spot is one of three in the new Pandora campaign directed by Paul Briganti via Tool of North America and edited by Catherine Bull of Spot Welders. The campaign was conceived in-house at Pandora.
Bull shared, “The director, Paul Briganti, doesn’t come from a traditional commercial background–he makes all the digital shorts for SNL so he is used to a ridiculously fast schedule and all the constraints that come with that. For this Pandora campaign, they shot all three spots in one day (bonkers by commercial standards), so there wasn’t a ton of footage but the production was so nimble and efficient, they were able to get exactly what they needed for each spot. And these spots really hang on the performances and the humor and grace of the choreography. They did such a good job with all that, that the editing was truly a joy. I loved working with Paul, with such great actors, such great choreography and of course the music. When you’re cutting a spot to music, you listen to the track a billion times, and it is a testament to these artists that I never ever got sick of the songs. Each night I would wake up with a different one playing in my head, and it always made me smile.”
VFX and postproduction were done at SHIPPING + HANDLING, with Casey Price serving as creative director/VFX supervisor and Matthew Schwab as colorist.
The campaign breaks just as Pandora is rolling out its most substantial update in years to all users–focused on enhanced discovery, better personalization, more on-demand music and podcasts, and unique programming across all tiers.
