By Matt Kyle | Assistant News Editor
Viewers got a look at the Baylor campus during Saturday’s nationally televised football game against BYU, as a Baylor commercial featuring Apollo LTD’s new song “Run” debuted on ESPN during a commercial break.
The commercial is only a 30 second snippet of the three minute long music video, which was filmed on Baylor’s campus this summer. The video features shots of the band singing around campus at McLane Stadium, Common Grounds and the Baylor Sciences Building, students running the line and fraternizing on Fountain Mall and even features a shot of Lady giving a left-handed Sic ‘em.
The video is the latest collaboration between Baylor and Apollo LTD, a pop-rock duo from Nashville, Tenn. that consists of singer Jordan Phillips and guitarist Adam Stark. The university first approached the band last year about using their song “Sunday Morning Feeling” for a Baylor commercial; the band then performed at Dinner with the Livingstones and Diadeloso.
A Baylor press release said the university is believed to be the first university to produce a music video for a new song and have it accompany a national commercial. The commercial was directed by Norry Niven and was produced in partnership with Johnson & Sekin, Baylor’s advertising agency since 2017, the press release said.
Jason Cook, vice president for marketing and communications, said Baylor approached the band last year about creating a song specifically to use in a Baylor commercial.
Apollo LTD singer Jordan Phillips said the band had been working on “Run,” and felt the song fit well for Baylor, so they finished writing the song with Baylor in mind.
Phillips said the band’s relationship with Baylor has allowed them to somewhat integrate into the Baylor community and see what the university is about.
“Anytime you get the opportunity to work with a big organization, or a big university like Baylor, you get to sort of be a part of a little small microcosm of their community,” Philips said. “It’s always an honor to be asked to do stuff like that.”
Cook said the music video was filmed over the course of one 103-degree summer day. Phillips said Baylor did most of the work on the shoot: they just showed up to film.
“A lot of it was just in Baylor’s world,” Phillips said. “They were pros, man. When we came to film the video, everybody was so kind and welcoming. The Texas hospitality is real. We enjoyed getting to hang with everybody. Everyone is just seriously so kind and encouraging and definitely made us feel at home.”
Cook said with the music video, Baylor wanted to showcase many unique aspects of the university as well as provide a sort of virtual tour of Baylor’s campus set to song.
Cook also said Baylor wanted to create a commercial that stands out from the “sea of sameness” of college commercials.
“Usually what they do is write a voiceover, write a script, then they match the video to the words on the screen and then they find a generic Musicbed that you can purchase online to throw underneath it,” Cook said. “We started from scratch with a song that drove the process. So it’s a completely different approach. We want to do something different. We want to do something creative.”
Phillips said the band’s relationship with Baylor has been mutually beneficial, and that him and Stark hope to continue working with Baylor in the future.
“It’s a relationship that we’ve really had the pleasure of cultivating and growing. We love what Baylor represents and what the Baylor community is. We love being there. We would jump at the opportunity to work with them again,” Phillips said.
