Chris Rogers, Deputy Director of Products & Marketing at Arizona Lottery, debuts original music on the lottery’s new advertising campaign to promote their Summer Jackpot Progressive family of games (link to lottery ad). A long-time musician, Rogers started playing guitar at 12 years old and within a few years was composing his own tunes.
“Growing up, my family moved from the Midwest to the East Coast,” said Rogers. “The new friends my brother and I made were into punk music and influenced us to start a band and write our own songs. While my playing and songwriting style has evolved considerably, writing has always been a creative outlet and part of the various bands I’ve been involved with since I was a kid.”
Rogers took on the recent project for the Arizona Lottery after noticing the stark difference between more generic “needle-drop” library recordings and the custom music of his favorite ad campaigns. “Music has so much to do with establishing the tone of a TV spot. Where would VW be without Nick Drake, or The Gap without Daft Punk? Their songs made those spots,” he said.
For the Summer Jackpot Family campaign, Rogers pulled from personal experience to get inspiration for the soundtrack. “This spot highlights a typical Arizona family’s staycation – the moment you can break out of the extreme heat with the people you love and spend time together. There’s a relaxed vibe that goes with enjoying the cool temps and beautiful scenery. Hopefully we captured some of that here,” said Rogers.
Rogers recorded the song using home audio equipment, layering electric and acoustic guitars. “Typically, a process like this starts at the post-house with an audio engineer working from needle-drop, or, custom music. It was fun to create and record at home and then deliver the music to the post house, where they added bass guitar and a new drum track,” he explained.
While fun summer vibes won’t last forever, Rogers is already working on writing more custom music for new projects. He recently finished a track inspired by western film composer Ennio Morricone that will be the soundtrack to a free play online game currently under development. “I’m very grateful to have an opportunity to combine personal talents with my professional life to help make these projects more unique and marketable. Everyone at the Arizona Lottery has been so supportive,” ended Rogers.