Wednesday, July 10, 2013

FOLGERS - NC Musicians Win Contest for Folgers Coffee Jingle



From Hispanic Business:
Sawyer Frye said he's a big coffee drinker. Six cups a day is his norm.

Maybe that caffeine consumption helped Frye win a nationwide jingle contest sponsored by Folgers.

Frye and his musical collaborators, brothers Zach Cox and Marcus Cox, bested more than 500 other entrants with their sunny jingle extolling the benefits of a morning cup of steaming hot coffee. The win was announced last month.

For his efforts in writing the song, Frye won $25,000 to split with his bandmates.

"I called my parents first thing. My mom didn't believe me," said Frye, who is from Carthage and now lives in Winston-Salem.

"She was like, 'You're tricking me, you're tricking me,' " he said.

The contest was launched in January. Entrants were asked to submit a music video between 60 and 90 seconds long containing the familiar advertising tag line, "The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup."

Entries were judged on creativity, musical performance and other criteria. No background music was allowed; entrants had to be shown playing their own instruments.

A panel of judges narrowed more than 500 entries down to 10. Consumers had until June 19 to vote for their favorite online.

Frye and his collaborators got the most votes, said Sarah Kranick, an account supervisor with Folgers advertising agency Cohn & Wolfe.

"It's a different sound for Folgers. They haven't done anything like that before," Kranick said. "It's a unique twist on an iconic classic."

Kranick said the song and video may be used in a Folgers commercial, but nothing has been decided yet.

Frye, who is 25 and a 2006 graduate of Grace Christian School in Sanford, said he submitted a song at the last minute to a Folgers contest in 2010. This time, he was able to spend a little more time perfecting his entry.

"I picked up a dulcimer and came up with a melody," Frye said. "It was just one of those moments of inspiration."

After writing the song, Frye and the Cox brothers -- who perform as Arm the Pioneer -- went to a farm in Kernersville to make the video.

The filming was completed in two days a few weeks before the March 6 deadline. Frye said the band's portion of the video was filmed at sundown, and he came back to the farm the next day to get the opening shot of a Folgers container.

Frye plays guitar and sings in the video. Marcus Cox plays drums, and Zach Cox plays dulcimer.

The resulting song has a sunny, welcoming feel. Although the clip was filmed in the afternoon, Frye said he tried to capture a morning mood.

"It was about waking up in the morning and having a lot of ambitions and goals," he said.

Frye, who also performs hip-hop and has a video and photography business, said he and his musical partners were in a parking lot in Winston-Salem when they got the news that they had won the contest.

"When I hung up, they looked at me and said, 'Did we win, did we win?' " Frye said. "I put my fist up, and they just started jumping and hugging each other like crazy people. Everybody was staring at us in the parking lot."

Frye said his part of the winnings will go toward recording albums, paying for equipment and making videos. The three winners also have planned a trip to the Outer Banks to celebrate.

Aside from the monetary prize, Frye said the Folgers jingle and video should draw attention to his music and video endeavors.

"I think it will definitely get some traffic, people checking out our music," he said. "Mainly, I think it will inspire me."

See the video for the winning jingle at folgerscoffee.com/ folgers-jingle.

To listen to Sawyer Frye's music, go to sawyerfrye.com.

Staff writer Rodger Mullen can be reached at mullenr@fayobserver.com or 486-3561.





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