NEW YORK, NY – A killer combo calls for the perfect score. Leading original music house Pull provided just that for agency McCann’s new campaign that pairs Verizon with the new iPhone 6s. The :30 spot “Emoji” details a national promotion offering cellular customers the chance to trade up to the iPhone 6s when they switch to a Verizon plan. 

An iPhone 6s is the star of the ad, hovering front and center as playfully simple images, emoticons and animations work with the VO to tell th story. “If you’re going to get the best iPhone, wouldn’t you want the best network?”

Pull composer Mitch Davis paces everything with an upbeat Americana-tinged original composition. Working in collaboration with Eric Johnson, SVP & Executive Music Producer for McCann, Davis devised a score where guitar, mandolin and tambourine provide a natural-sounding counterpoint to the high-tech offering.
 
“’Emoji’ called for instrumentation that had to strike a number of balances for Verizon,” Davis says. “Eric and I agreed that it should sound light but not childlike, fun without being silly, important without being overly serious.”

Striking A Musical Balance:
For Johnson, getting the music exactly right for this was a challenge. 

“We had to strike a balance, making it celebratory but not too saccharine,” Johnson says. "That’s what led us to Pull. They have a great instinct for making something beautiful, but with just a tinge of melancholy that makes the track feel genuine. Mitch historically plays unique instruments that puts his compositions into their own musical territory. As a result, I can get sounds from Pull that I won’t easily find anywhere else. Mitch is a great engineer, instrumentalist, and songwriter – you put all of that together, and you’ve got a special musical resource.”

No Stranger To iPhone Ads:
Davis is no stranger to the iPhone: his music was used by Apple in 2007 for the first-ever iPhone commercial. The gentle acoustical accompaniment that he supplied is an important reason that the spot for that landmark launch stands as a classic ad today.

“It’s a pairing that still makes sense,” says Davis. “It’s good to know that some of my favorite sounds remain right for the iPhone.”