John A. Groves

Groves in 2007.

John Groves (* 9. August 1953 in Hamburg) is a composer and music producer for advertising and brand communications as well as consultant for Sound Branding

Biography

John Groves was born on August 9, 1953, the son of British parents in Hamburg and grew up in Slough, England. In the late 1970s he moved to Sweden, where he gained his first experience in the field of music production for advertising. At this time there was no Radio or TV advertising in Sweden, so the jingles and commercials were featured on cassette that were distributed by petrol stations. In 1983 he moved to Hamburg and worked as arranger and producer for record companies. In1985 GROVES Sound Communications was founded which specialized in jingle packages for radio stations.^[1] In 1988 he started the studios in Hamburg which was followed by GROVES Sound Branding in 2009. He is president of the CC-Composers Club eV and board member/treasure of ECSA -European Composer and Songwriter Alliance.^{[2][3] [4]}

Career

Advertising

John Groves has been active since the early 1980s. During the 1990s he was one of Germany most successful advertising composers and produced music for many famous brands such as:

Audi, Bacardi, Colgate, Danone, Deutsche Bank, Nivea, Mars, Mentos, Palmolive, Texaco and Wrigley to name but a few.

Sound Branding

The first Sound Identity which Groves developed was for the petrol station chain DEA in 1988. Since then the company GSB has been responsible for the systematic development and implementation of a number of Sound Identities for companies such as Olympus, Datev, EnBW, LBS, Winterthur Insurance, TUI and Austrian Airlines.^[5]

Lectures

Beside being member of the faculty at Danube University Krems, Austria, John Groves is a regular guest lecturer at various universities and universities in Germany and Europe, such as LIST He also speaks regularly at marketing events and institutions such as the ADC, Texterschmiede, the Miami Ad School, International Design Conference a.s.o. His lectures can be seen here.

Career Highlights

1996. A song from the musical "Edge Rounder" is nominated for "Best Song" in the Musical of the Year Competition. The song "Heard it all before" is sung by Al Jarreau while Sir Peter Ustinov takes over the role as narrator.

1998. The music from the Mentos commercial is used in 27 countries and is featured in .. (info)

2004. In anticipation for the Olympics, he produced a collection of songs by the famous Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (Zorba) with the Camerata Orchestra in the Athens Concert Hall for the singer Vicky Leandros.

2012. The book "comMUSICation - from Pavlov's Dog to Sound branding" is first presented at the Audio branding Congress, Columbia University, New York

Publications

comMUSICation - From Pavlov’s Dog to Sound Branding, Oak Tree Press, Irland 2011.
„A Brand Sound Trade Association as a Growth Accelerator - Generic Arguments for Sound Branding“. In: Bronner, Hirt, Ringe (Hrsg.): Audio Branding Academy Yearbook 2009 / 2010, 2010.
„A Short History of Sound Branding“. In: Kai Bronner, Rainer Hirt (Hrsg.): Audio-Branding - Entwicklung, Anwendung, Wirkung akustischer Identitäten in Werbung, Medien und Gesellschaft, 2007.
„Sound Branding – Strategische Entwicklung von Markenklang“. In: Henning Meyer (Hrsg.): Marken-Management 2008/2009 - Jahrbuch für Strategie und Praxis der Markenführung, 2007.
Weblinks -
John Groves

References

1. Steiner, Paul: Sound Branding: Grundlagen der akustischen Markenführung, 2009, S. 172.
2. abgerufen am 25. Februar 2013.
3. abgerufen am 25. Februar 2013.
4. abgerufen am 25. Februar 2013
5. Groves, John: „Durch die Notasensorik erlebt das Sound Branding eine völlig neue Dimension.“ Ein Interview mit John Groves, Managing Director von GROVES Sound Communications, geführt von Karsten Klepper, Managing Partner bei RED Branding, am 27. November 2009.