Jingle Punks opens Australian office to source sync deals

Jingle Punks, one of the Top 10 full-service audio creative agencies in the United States, has opened an Australian office in Melbourne.

The agency has hired former EMI Music Australia and Mushroom Records executive Janine Kerr to return from Los Angeles to run the new office.

First order of business for Kerr is to pitch the company’s 500,000 music songs for Australian movie, TV, games and ad producers.

“There’s a lot of growth in the Australian market,” Kerr tells TMN. “What we’re offering is a cost-effective way to control budgets.”

Australia is the second market outside North America where Jingle Punks has opened an office, after Brazil.

It has creative studios in New York, Los Angeles, Nashville, and Toronto, where it services a client roster of over 1000 television shows including NBC’s The Voice, worldwide smash Pawn Stars and The History Channel’s Roots, and such clients as iHeartRadio, UFC, ESPN, the NBA, Old Navy and Pepsi.

In recent times, Jingle Punks worked with songwriter and producer Poo Bear on creating original music for Roots, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler’s branded Hold On (Won’t Let Go) for Pro Bull Riding, Lil Wayne/’s No Mercy for Fox Sports 1’s Skip And Shannon: Undisputed, and G-Eazy’s Vengeance On My Mind for use by UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) marking Ronda Rousey’s return fight.

Jingle Punks also offers technology solutions that simplify the process of music licensing, and has a patented search engine called The Jingle Player.

Eventually, Kerr will widen Jingle Punks’ footprint to New Zealand and Southeast Asia. Down the track, the company will sign up local talents to supply original content for sync.

Jared Gutstadt, co-founder, CCO and President, confirms, “Our goal is to build a physical presence on the ground in Australia and ultimately grow into a fully-fledged creative studio.

“Janine is highly regarded both in the U.S. and Australia for her in-depth knowledge of music at all levels, and I’m stoked to bring an innovative partner on board that will complement our efforts in raising the bar when it comes to branded music.”

Kerr relocated to Los Angeles in 1993 and worked in the sync sector after a stint at Sony Music Publishing and being a PA to Tina Turner and Sonia Dada.

She was Director of Promo Music Services at NBC Universal and more recently Vice President of Fox Sports Music, running the music for all shows and promos under the Fox Sports Group.

In her time in Los Angeles, she managed to gain sync opportunities for Australian acts including The Temper Trap, AC/DC, Guy Sebastian and The Sick Puppies.

It’s difficult to estimate the size of the sync market, given the versatility of the players involved. But in 2015, revenue generated by sync departments in publishers was US$849 million and those in record companies was $355 million – respectively showing growth of 6.6% and 5.8%.