Bob Harrison is “Luckie” in Advertising and Alabama’s Music Scene

Bob Harrison is a Creative Director Luckie Advertising and is an accomplished blues musician. On today’s episode of Sounds Creative Bob shares his story of how he went from playing in garage bands in his youth to a career in Advertising.

Early in Bob’s career he was a Creative Project Manager always having to bug his creative team to enter their timesheets. This led to him recording silly parody songs on their voicemail. His natural inclination was to solve the problem with audio.

Some of Bob’s favorite work in advertising has been when he has an opportunity to record original music for his campaigns. For Little Debbie Bob teamed up with Boutwell Studios on the “Today We Bake” campaign. The team collaborated remotely with a talented composer and musicians to create an authentic, modern track better than any needledrop they could have found.

He also created a hilarious music genre-hopping series of radio spots for Express Oil Change. The spots featured original songs in Country, Blues, Hair Metal and 70s Soft Rock styles. Talented musicians and composers have the ability to pull ideas out and turn them into a creative vision. Bob’s theory is that radio ads are a playground for creatives. Anything is possible in the theatre of the mind. That’s what makes it fun and scary. You have :30 to :60 to create something that is compelling and fun. You can create images with sound.

Bob’s musical journey started when he was a kid playing in garage bands with a tape recorder and a bass, creating silly albums with original music and taking epic band photos. This lead to his discovery of Blues music fell in love with the harmonica.

Boutwell Studios collaborated with Bob and Luckie Advertising again for a project for the Year of Alabama Music. The campaign featured testimonials from prominent Alabama musicians creating original music with Bob on the harmonica. Alabama is full of fantastic musicians who want to stay in Alabama and don’t flock to Nashville like so many others.

Bob and Kelley share the importance of quality voice talent. He can usually tell within a few seconds of a voice audition whether a talent has an actorly ability. He appreciates voices that are attached to people who get a concept and can bring new meaning where there was little meaning before. Writers are often voice talent because they get it. They know what the script needs and what the director is looking for. These days people can easily have a decent mic and sound dampening devices at home but not everyone has the talent.

For more on the world of audio branding and sound design, subscribe to the Sounds Creative podcast at https://soundscreative.libsyn.com/. Check out more of our work at www.boutwellstudios.com.  Boutwell Studios, Podcast Division. Your words. Our Expertise.