An Award-Winning Score for Lincoln of Wayne and Ramsey – Built Beat by Beat
On 9/16/26, I had the pleasure of attending the 58th annual New Jersey Ad Club Awards dinner, where East Main Media was honored with a runner-up award for Original Music Score for the “Just Good Deals” campaign we produced for Lincoln of Wayne and Ramsey.
I’ve been making music for over 35 years, and East Main Media turns 25 this year, so it means something to be recognized by peers for the part of my business that’s closest to where I started.
About the campaign
“Just Good Deals” is a series of spots we shot on location at the Lincoln of Wayne and Ramsey dealerships, built around Peter Spina Jr., LoWR general manager and executive vice president. Peter is the voice of the brand, so the spots are driven by his dialogue, intercut with Lincoln vehicle footage and life around the dealership.
We produced them in collaboration with the Lincoln of Wayne and Ramsey marketing team, and EMM handled every stage of production: filming, editing, and the final mix.
About the score
Most dealership spots run on a stock bed of upbeat guitar that sits politely under the voiceover. I wanted something with more personality. The score for “Just Good Deals” is built on trip hop drum loops and vintage keyboard samples, layered with sound effects and phrases written in odd meters.
The odd meters were the key. Instead of laying the music underneath the picture, I cut the phrases together rhythmically so they lock to Peter’s speech and to the edit. A line of dialogue lands on a downbeat; a cut to a Navigator hits with a sound effect; a 7/8 phrase resolves right as Peter finishes a thought. The music and the picture were built to move together, which is a very different process from scoring a finished cut.
That approach only works when the composer, editor, and mixer are in the same room, which in this case was one person. Doing all three at EMM means the score can be written into the edit rather than added to it.
Thank you
Thanks to Peter Spina Jr. and the Lincoln of Wayne and Ramsey marketing team for trusting us with a campaign that sounds a little different from everything around it, and to the New Jersey Ad Club for the recognition. The spots are running now on the Lincoln of Wayne and Ramsey YouTube channel, and I’d love for you to watch them with the sound up.
