A death-metal daddy hits the high notes in new Yousician campaign via UltraSuperNew Tokyo
From break-ups to birthdays, first dances to funerals, there’s a song for every special occasion. But, like everything else, musical taste is subjective – which is why interactive music-learning app Yousician has launched a quirky campaign celebrating unconventional, unexpected and downright inappropriate song choices in a bid to inspire everyone from beginners to professionals to pick up an instrument and explore music.
Created by independent Tokyo-based agency UltraSuperNew, 10,000 Songs To Choose From spotlights the app’s vast library of tracks available for music learners while learning to play instruments including guitar, bass, piano, ukulele, or to improve their singing. From rock and pop to blues and hip-hop, the 10,000-strong database makes finding the ‘right’ track to mark a special moment easy – unless, of course, someone gets it wrong.
Launching today the campaign is led by a humorous film which riffs on a well-known wedding scenario: a musical tribute to the happy couple. In the 70-second film, the father of the bride movingly dedicates a song from his youth to the newly-weds – but as he starts strumming his guitar, what emerges is not a romantic ballad but a rather unconventional death metal anthem. As the guests look on in polite bemusement, the spot closes with the reminder: “From 10,000 songs, learn to play for that special person. The song choice is up to you.”
The campaign will run across social platforms including Google, Meta and TikTok in Japan.
Yousician Creative Operations Lead, Elisa Eklund, said: “For this campaign, we set out to grow Yousician in Japan with creative and meaningful stories that inspire people to learn new songs. Our goal was to connect emotionally with the local audience while keeping the stories authentic with a touch of humor. As the app allows people to learn from a vast amount of songs, that was another thing we wanted to highlight through the story.”
Yousuke Ozawa, Creative Director, UltraSuperNew Tokyo, added: “When we came up with the idea, we wanted the ad to stand out—even on mute. That meant the concept had to be not just interesting and funny, but visually captivating as well. We also put a lot of thought into making the emotional twist hit harder by starting with something sentimental and ending with an unexpected gag.
“What we found both funny and intriguing was that, while Yousician offers a massive range of songs to learn—from beginner to advanced—picking the right song for the moment relies on human choices. You can sharpen your skills and have fun, but knowing what to play and when? No algorithm can do that. So we decided to lean into that idea and see how far we could take it—pushing it just enough to be hilarious, yet still relatable.”
Credits
Creative Director: Yousuke Ozawa
Project Director/ Head Producer: Daiki Shimizu
Producer: Ryubi Fukuda
Art Director: Diana Ganea
Editor: Earl Standerford
Production: Boomachine
About UltraSuperNew