For the German voice, 10 boys aged 10-12 were invited to a casting. Together with the client and the agency, we decided on the German character for “Oskar”. After the campaign, another commercial was recorded with our “Oskar” Voice Over Artist.
The English “Oskar” was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, supported by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. A big thank you goes to Soundlounge UK for the design of the English campaign version. We would also like to thank Smyths Toys Germany for the excellent cooperation. The Moving Picture Company, which has also worked for Milka, Coca-Cola and Spotify, was responsible for the animation of the little “Oscar”.
Rewriting and using well-known songs is a popular method in advertising to generate high recognition value. In the Smyths Toys campaign, Beyoncé’s hit “If I Were a Boy” was rewritten as “If I Were a Toy”. It was translated into German as “Wenn ich ein Spielzeug wär'”. Dacia, for example, has used this method in their campaigns for the last few years. They have already produced two well-known commercials using this technique. In 2019, the new Dacia Duster was advertised with the lyrics “Go Duster” and the melody of the Ghostbusters theme song. Two years earlier, Queen’s global hit “Another One Bites the Dust” was rewritten as “Another One Drives a Duster”.
The special feature of the Smyths Toys approach is the use of the core melody of “If I were a Boy” (or “If I were a toy”) as a catchy sound logo.
The factors that play a role in the choice of music for advertising can be found in this article by Horizont.
Smyths Toys was founded in Ireland more than 30 years ago as a family business. With over 200 locations and national online stores for toys and baby products, the company has become a market leader in Europe. Smyths Toys offers the widest range of toys, outdoor, multimedia and baby products in the industry. The acquisition of Toys “R “Us in 2018 made Smyths Toys Superstores the largest toy supplier in Europe. You can find more information at smythstoys.com.
GROVES Sound Branding GmbH
Isekai 20
20249 Hamburg
phone +49 40 47 10 35 0
email information@groves.de
