Last Year's Win for Pantene Brings Grey Back to Cannes for a Song for CoverGirl

NEW YORK, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Grey New York, Procter & Gamble's U.S. advertising agency for its CoverGirl brand, announced today it is inviting delegates attending MIDEM's Annual Conference in Cannes to submit tracks for possible use as CoverGirl's anthem and potentially in CoverGirl's corporate communications including press events and sponsorship, and even a hit single in its own right. MIDEM is the world's largest music market and its 2009 Annual Conference is expected to gather nearly 10,000 attendees and 1,300 participants in events from all over the world. The conference will be taking place in Cannes, January 18-21.

"For the second year in a row, Grey and Procter & Gamble will converge with the global music industry at large," said Josh Rabinowitz, Grey New York's Senior Vice President/Director of Music. "For musicians and performers, advertising has become one of the best ways to get your music out there along with TV shows and video games. It's the new A&R."

Last year at MIDEM, P&G's Pantene brand and Grey selected an original song for Pantene advertising that launched in June. The song "Shine" was written and performed by unsigned New York artist Rosi Golan, who since then produced her first album, secured two song placements on prime time TV shows "Come Around" in Ghost Whisperer and "Been A Long Day" in One Tree Hill, -- begins a 6 week national tour in March and secured premier placement on iTunes home page, music page and folk page.

For CoverGirl, Grey and P&G will evaluate submissions and create a Top 20 Playlist, which will be presented at an open listening session for all conference attendees on January 20 in Cannes. The CoverGirl listening session is one of three offered to delegates by MIDEM, which bills the listening sessions as onsite auditions for major video games, films and TV shows, and now advertising, with tangible results.

"CoverGirl, the number one cosmetic brand in America, is always looking for new ways help today's women rock their beauty," said Alice Ericsson, Grey's Executive Creative Director on CoverGirl. "Music is key to CoverGirl, and MIDEM provides a unique opportunity to access top international creative talent."

The MIDEM website http://midem.com lays out the brand's requirements for the winning song: any genre (rock, r&b, rap) as long as it is inspiring and motivating; helps women feel beautiful and encourages them to get out there and DO beautiful too (inspire women to make an entrance, make a difference, start a business, change the world!). Instructions for uploading songs and guidelines are at http://midem.greymusicnyc.com/ .

About Grey

Grey New York is the flagship and largest office of Grey, a unit of Grey Group http://www.grey.com. Grey Group ranks among the largest global communications companies. Its parent company is WPP (Nasdaq: WPPGY). Grey New York's blue-chip client roster includes many of the world's best known companies: Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo, Darden Restaurants, Wyeth, Canon, 3M, Eli Lilly, Dairy Queen and E*Trade.

SOURCE Grey