About
Founded in 2004, by former ad agency Creative Director and film composer Andrew Ingkavet, the audio agency provides custom scoring, audio-brand consulting and music licensing for advertisers, agencies and film studios.
Ingkavet had discovered in his time as an Art Director at Digitas that though the web was exploding with new technologies for animation, movement, etc., there was very little attention being paid to the audio side. Stock music and sound effects and royalty free music collections were still being distributed on massive CD libraries or even still on vinyl (hence the other name “needledrop music”). As a schooled and trained composer and a past life as an MTV VJ and singer-songwriter, Andrew started bringing home his work for clients like American Express and Seagrams, among others, and started writing original music that really fit the mood and imagery of the animations and websites he was creating. The clients loved it, though it was still early days for broadband and animation with music, and Andrew began delivering all work with integrated sound and music.
Major advertising agency Foote, Cone & Belding tapped Andrew to help kick-start their fledgling (and late to the game) web shop FCBi in 2000 and Andrew brought along his Creative Direction vision as well as his knack for putting together diverse, talented teams. Oh, and yes, a music/sound studio was a requirement. Visitors to Ingkavet’s office/studio during that time were floored by the futuristic looking technology. It became a standard stop on any agency walkabout tour.
Around 2001, Ingkavet started scoring television spots as well and began thinking seriously about audio branding. He began to think up how to offer these audio services to corporate clients and advertising agencies and in 2003, 300 Monks was beginning to emerge.
Today the company is a full service audio agency delivering fantastic results with the latest technology and from a virtual network of talent located all across the globe.
Custom songs, or film scores can be placed with exactly the right composer for the job, no matter where they happen to reside. Royalty free production music doesn’t have to be wallpaper garbage but could actually have depth, cinematic quality, and an inherent structure that lifts your story. Broadcast music can be found instantly via search and downloaded with an emailed license within moments. And audio branding can be lifted to the same levels of visual branding.
Ingkavet’s unique background as former big agency Creative Director and Film Composer/Music Producer enables him to speak the vocabulary of both visual and audio, business and marketing and Creative and Account. With a global network of artists, musicians, composers, producers and sound designers, 300 Monks is unique in focus, smarts and executional capabilities.
Here’s just a sampling of clients we have helped with audio brand strategy, custom scoring, music licensing and supervision: American Express, MetLife, HP, Starburst, Little Tikes, Nike, US Department of Health & Human Services, Mike & Ike (candy company), Reebok, Timberland, US Postal Service, Showtime, MTV, and many, many independent film studios and producers.
What is Audio Branding?
The short answer is: the aural equivalent of visual branding. Back in the early 1900’s, not everyone knew the power of visual branding. They would package their goods in different colors, different typefaces, logos, etc. The power of consistent, congruent and effective branding can be applied to other senses. Audio is one of the most powerful senses we humans have. In fact, hearing turns on in the womb. We are born hearing! If you add audio to your managed brand communications portfolio, it doesn’t just add linearly. It’s exponential. 1+1 does equal 54!
Audio is the Carrier of Emotion.
Did you ever watch a movie with the sound off? Especially a scary movie? A thriller or horror film? Notice how different the experience felt. All the spine-tingling tension that you thought was coming from just watching the film was actually being communicated by the audio, namely music and sound effects.
Is Your Brand Communication Managed?
Most corporations and larger businesses have an agency on retainer to manage marketing communications. Smaller sized companies may have a department or even an individual. At advertising/marketing agencies, the creative team is supposed to be coming up with great ideas that communicate your brand story in line with both your current business objectives AND your overarching brand objectives. When it comes to adding music to your commercial, your website, your retail environments, even your powerpoint and music-on-hold, these young, hot-shot creatives usually slap in a hot track from their favorite new artist and say, “go license this.” There’s no thought to whether it even is adding to your brand communication or making your consumer remember the first time they heard this “in the back of a car on a bad date.” Your brand’s Music and Audio need to be managed in the same way your visual branding is.
Audio Strategy
Once you have an over-arching Audio Strategy for you brand, it needs to be communicated to all relevant stakeholders such as your marketing agencies, public relations, retail managers, etc. It also needs to be executed in a way that follows the strategy. Anyone can slap an MP3 behind your voice-over and say that’s an audio strategy. Not anyone can actually articulate what your strategy is and then come up with the business and brand reasons.
Engage Us
We can work with you in one or several of the following ways:
- Full audio strategy – retainer
- Custom audio scoring – project fee
- Music supervision/search – hourly/daily rate + licensing fee
- Royalty Free Music Licensing – either self-serve – pay at our instant licensing online store or via invoice
- Audio trademark/logo design – project fee
- Sound design and audio production – hourly/daily rate
Our contact info is below.
Thanks for dropping by!
Andrew Ingkavet – Head Monk/Executive Producer/Composer
Recent Custom Work
- Nike – Custom scoring for web spots for Nike Plus.
- Kid Cuisine – Custom scoring for television spots.
- Pepsi’s Dear Mr. President – Custom scoring to short culmination documentary of the Refresh America campaign presented to the President in a coffee table book and DVD.
- New Jersey’s Red October – film score for half hour PBS documentary film on the history and science of the cranberry.
- Starburst Website – http://www.starburst.com (all sound design and original scored music for the intro)
- Live In My Skin – music scoring and audio idents for 30 minute television program for Physicans Television Network sponsored by Novartis
- Other People’s Children – film score for documentary film by Beth Botshon.
- Noelle – the film – original music score – http://noellethemovie.com – award-winning film described as “obviously labor of love for all involved” Joe Leydon -Variety
Recent Music Supervision and Licensing Deals
- President Barack Obama’s Health Reform Summit
- TASC (The After School Corporation) video tribute to George Soros and AfterSchool
- Mike & Ike website
- Showtime Mixed Martial Arts
- United Way
- Sputnik TV
What our clients say
“The advantage of working with 300 Monks is that you have a wide range of composers with different specialities to choose from which makes for great speed and efficiency for your project.” – JY, DraftFCB NY “First, I want to say THANKS for a great website. I’m a director-producer and I’m always looking for great tracks for projects that I’m doing. Your music is fantastic” -AM – Quincy Films and Media “Working with Andrew was a pleasure. Our creative team had a very specific theme in mind and the music and sound design he produced was thematically consistent and very close to our needs, right off the bat. Subsequent tweaks were turned around quickly and intelligently.” – EM, Digitas
See more testimonials or add your own.
