It was important that the piece stood out from everything else in the category. Instead of following musical trends we wanted a piece that blazed new ground.

The spot’s music pulls inspiration from analogue TV era color-bar test patterns. The opening clarinet notes have the same tonal purity of the sine-wave sound that accompanies classic color bars. This was the perfect starting place and the way we translated that into a delicate instrumentation felt really fresh. It broke through the clutter and gave an excellent shape to the rapidly changing visuals of the spot. A dynamic and unusual melody grabs the viewers’ attention from the start, using simple instrumentation to convey the product’s ease of use. There are cinematic pauses and builds that play homage to classic film music. By choosing familiar instrumentation, the focus is on Apple TV’s innovative navigation and use of apps.

We experimented with different sounds for this; everything from contemporary instrumental music to rhythmic beds. It was clear that we didn’t want the music to play a conventional role so we continues pushing different executions until we found the perfect piece. Hearing the clarinet evoke the sound of the sine-wave was a big turning point for us creatively. We worked on the music until the very end, building a close relationship with the visuals for maximum impact.

The spot launched on December 8, 2015 and ran in US, UK, AU, CA, DE, FR.

• drove 1.8b impressions on TV

• 6.1M views on YouTube to date

• has been directly mentioned by 2.7k opinion leaders online, leading to 16M online impressions