Jingle All the Way
How a new tune is adding sparkle to my ornament business
It’s funny that I didn’t think of it earlier—a jingle! A catchy melody to play under my Facebook and Instagram ads to soak into your long-term memory and resurface whenever you see a Vancouver Christmas Ornament.
Two weeks ago, I attended an online webinar on growing your holiday sales. One of the speakers shared two underrated ways to grab people’s attention. The first? Create a jingle.
A jingle has staying power
I can’t argue that. Whenever I eat Smarties, I break into the full rendition of “When you eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last?” Same for putting on a Band-Aid… “I am stuck on Band-Aid brand, ‘cause Band-Aid’s stuck on me.” And when I’m surrounded by Woodward’s Tower ornaments, it doesn’t have to be a Tuesday for the “$1.49 Day” jingle to pop into my head.
Being a solopreneur, I don’t have to run things by a marketing department, so I decided then and there to make it happen. After all, what could be more appropriate for a Christmas-related business than a jingle?!
Crafting the perfect soundtrack for the season
Lucky for me, my husband, Michael, is a songwriter, arranger and music producer at Saga Recording. So, I threw him the challenge. A couple days later, he invited me out to the studio. He had just finished producing a big album for a client. Typically, he’ll play a song or two for me. But instead of playing a track from the album, he rolled his chair over to the piano and began playing a simple tune, to which he sang:
“Sparkling, shining, for all to see… Vancouver on the Christmas tree.”
It was a perfect lyric and a sweet little melody, with just the right amount of sparkle.
One part retro, one part joy
He wanted my input before fully arranging it. Did I want a mellow Vince Guaraldi vibe, like A Charlie Brown Christmas? (He knows it’s one of my all-time favorite holiday albums.) Or something more traditional? I reminded him that my brand is all about joy—with a big dose of retro charm—so he suggested a 1940s Big Band feel.
A day later, Michael played an initial arrangement for me. At first, I couldn’t get the simple piano version of out my head. I was Lucy at Schroeder’s piano going, “No, no... I mean ‘Jingle Bells.’ You, know, Santa Claus and Ho Ho Ho…” But once the full arrangement came together—with bass, strings, horns and, of course, jingle bells—I fell in love.
All we needed was our friend A.J. Turner to lend a joyful, Nat King Cole-style vocal.
Meet the sound that adds the sparkle
Now, with Christmas just a month away, I have my very own jingle!
Depending on the algorithms, you may or may not hear it in my Facebook and Instagram ads, so I thought I’d share it here on my blog first.
Give it a listen, but be warned, you might just find yourself humming it long after the holidays.
Oh, and that second piece of advice from the marketing webinar? Put a dog in your ad. 🐶
