The Europe In Synch Podcast
The Europe In Synch Podcast
EP11: Grégoire Bucaille (Prodigious) - The Lure of Paris & Its Luxury Brand Soundscapes.
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Welcome to episode twelve of the Europe In Synch podcast.
We are talking with Grégoire Bucaille, Artistic Director of Music Supervision at Prodigious, the Paris-based, in-house production agency of the Publicis Group.
Grégoire shares insights into his work uncovering compelling music for ad campaigns with luxury brands like Hermès, Cartier, and Armani.
We hear about his creative process, from brainstorming with his artistic partner, Maxime Rouge, to utilizing the latest AI tools to discover interesting new music.
He talks about differences between film and advertising, and how brands are embracing artists as ambassadors, as they try to authentically position themselves as cultural communicators rather than just sellers of product.
We find out that Grégoire is a cultural architect in his own right, organizing parties and events in and around Paris, influenced by experiences visiting some of the world's coolest clubs.
What comes across is Grégoire's passion and belief that "there is nothing more beautiful than a sync", that the musical matchmaking moments he helps create, represent the absolute pinnacle of his craft.
We recorded this conversation during Reeperbahn Festival, Hamburg on 19.09.2024.
Thanks for listening!
More about our guest:
Grégoire on Instagram
Grégoire on Spotify
Prodigious Paris homepage
Prodigious Paris on Instagram
Notable Campaigns:
Armani (Publicis Luxe) – Stronger With U. 2025. / Music : Underworld – Born Slippy (Nuxx)
Hermes (Publicis & Nous) - Terre d’Hermes. 2025 / Music : original music by Ben Lukas Boysen & Anne Muller
Coach (Publicis Marcel) – Sneakers. 2025 / Music : Leikili47 – Jay Walk
If you have feedback about this episode feel free to contact us at feedback@europeinsynch.net.
Europe In Synch is created, managed, promoted, and driven by several European organizations and companies and is a truly cross-border collaboration.
The goals are to bring together professionals from the music sector with decision-makers from film & advertising to provide a real-life, hands-on, learning experience, and to promote European music in the complex field of synchronization, through communication, knowledge-building and networking via focused mentoring and peer training sessions.
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Intro/Outro music is an instrumental edit of "Gimme" by Daffodils.
They're on Soundcloud.
Europe In Synch is co-funded by the European Commission.
This podcast is a SuperSwell production.
Introduction to Gregoire Boucaille
Speaker 2Welcome to the Europe in Sync podcast . I'm back at the Reeperbaum Festival in Hamburg and I have the pleasure of talking with Gregoire Boucaille , the Artistic Director of Music Supervision at Prodigious , an agency responsible for advertising campaigns for many of the world's most prestigious brands . Gregoire , hello , and thanks for finding time for us in your very busy schedule today .
Speaker 3Thank you , paul , for having me . It's a pleasure .
Speaker 2And are you based in Paris ?
Speaker 3Yeah , I'm born and raised in Paris . I lived in New York a bit at the end of my 20s . In fact , I've been there to discover a bit more about electronic music . It was not maybe the place to go to discover electronic music , because Berlin , london , amsterdam or Detroit would be maybe better targets , but I had an opportunity to go there . So , yeah , I lived a bit in New York , but I'm 38 years old and I lived , I think , 37 years in Paris .
Speaker 3It's not a bad place to live . It's not a bad place to live . It's not a bad place to live . It's not a bad place to live . And when I was young , I had the opportunity to have some foreigners who came into the apartment where I was living in , because I'm the youngest of a big family and my older brother and sister left home , so there were like empty room , and my mother choose to welcome some students from all around the world South America , indian , american as well came into my apartment and so , yeah , I like to say sometimes that the world came to me and I loved it , of course . So , yeah , I have a bit of a capacity to speak English , even if I never really lived in a foreign country .
Speaker 2And regarding your work , you spent 10 years working in film music supervision before moving into the advertising world . Is that right ?
Speaker 3Yeah , I did . I worked for a fantastic music supervisor agency called my Melody . It's one of the biggest agencies in Paris and the film business in France is doing very well . The state is protecting the industry and there are lots of movies releasing all the time , so there's a business for that and my melody is one of the biggest agency for movies . So I had the opportunity to work on 70 movies , something like that , including some movies that were not only french production . So , yeah , it was a marvelous adventure and it was good to work for astrid Gomez-Montoya and to work for Rebecca Delaney , who are super interesting and good manager and good businessman . So actually , we were not doing only a feature film , if I may say . We were also working for advertising , but specialized in perfume . Music for perfume was a bit the same as for the feature film . You know it has to be powerful , cinematic , and so , yeah , I've been in a position quite early to work for good ads and for perfume , and so , yeah , this is how I started my little career , if
From Film Supervision to Advertising
Speaker 3I may say .
Speaker 2So it was the work that you did on those ad campaigns that made you realize that that's an area that you would like to move into full time .
Speaker 3No , no , I was super happy to be there , but I was not earning enough money . And the big guns called me and I said yes , also because of you know the salary and I was living in Paris . I was super happy to do that job . I like lots of freedom , but when Publicis is calling you to work for them , you have to think . I'm not saying that I'm following the money more than my artistic conviction . Of course no , but at that time I needed to have a bigger room where to live in .
Speaker 2And you moved into the Publicis group .
Speaker 3Yeah , yeah , actually I'm working for Prodigius . It's the in-house production company that belongs to Publicis . So basically everything in Publicis is produced by Prodigius . As a music supervisor in Prodigius , I'm challenged to have an opinion on each musical direction for their advertise . Of course we work for mainly I would say mainly a publicist's .
Speaker 2Okay , could you tell us what you think are the basic differences between working in film , music , supervision
Differences Between Film and Advertising Music
Speaker 2and advertising ?
Speaker 3Well , it's quite easy to understand that the process of a feature film is long . I'm working right now on a feature film and I've been pitched a couple of months ago , so it's a long process and so it allows you to think about your musical direction a lot and the timing is different . Then it's the budget , of course . But I wouldn't say that the budget is a problem , creatively speaking , because if I call Daniel Lopatin , which is a marvelous film composer and artist and producer , he might be ready to work for low budget for a feature film , but he would ask for more money for an advertise . You know what I mean .
Speaker 3So the prestige of the topic allows you to reach some fantastic music or copyright . You know , sometimes , like people say , like well , in advertise you have the money , you have the cash , you know , but you're not going to be able to make a sync with Tom York or Radiohead because they don't want to go into that kind of business . I don't want to talk for their right owners , you know , but it's known that some artists are saying no to that kind of business and for a feature film , they think that they want to be part of the piece of art , you know . So , yeah , I would like to change the perception of what people have into the advertising world . Then the fact that you have like fast deadline allows you to be fast and creative and to have a few days to think . So you're super focused and you have to show what you have in a couple of days , a couple of moments , which is , like also creatively speaking , very important , I think the fact to have like a frame where you have to be creative gives you a little boost , it's obvious .
Speaker 2it's been for a long time this perception of filmmaking being an art form and having credibility and advertising being more of a money making exercise . Perhaps so very interesting that people like you are involved in trying to change this perception . But I wanted to ask you about some of your clients that you have . They're very high end luxury , big name brands like Cartier and Armani , for example . How is it for you working with companies like that to make sure that they understand this level of artistic input that is needed ?
Speaker 3First , it's important to know that , in our position , people like that are paying us for having an opinion , a strong opinion . This is why they are calling people like us . It's because we have an input , we have an opinion , we have an artistic vision of what they are doing , of what they did , of what they should do , and if you're not talking to them like eyes to eyes , they're not going to improve , and this is why they are paying us . You . They're not going to improve and this is why they are paying us . You know , like to have strong advisors .
Speaker 3If I may say that there are brands that we are rather working with because they already have a background . You know . They already have like something that they build little by little , you know , and there is a vision that you can see . So this is why we are trying to push them to have like a bit of consistency . For example , there is a brand that I work with . It's Hermès . They have a vision .
Speaker 3They have this manufactured way to think about the music . You know , something that is built with a hand , very organic . They have a vision very interesting into music and they are using , most of the time , you know , unknown musicians or unknown music , but there is this vibe that is like really a parti-pri , and this is something that I admire a lot when you work for a brand , for two brands that are competitors in the same market . It happened to us because we have the ability to do it , because we are working for Publicis , which is like a giant of a media , it's also like helpful , because you try to completely change your mind and change your brain and you understand also , like sometimes better , the difference between two clients , and it's something that , personally , I love to do . You know , it's not a problem for us and it's a challenge , and I think working for two competitors in the same market is very interesting .
Speaker 2I liked your answer when you said that these brands , they're paying you to have a strong opinion . But what about the music ? It's good that they value your opinion . Of course you're a specialist , but one of the big criticisms I hear from talking to people on the podcast is that campaign managers don't
Working with Luxury Brands
Speaker 2always value the music itself , and there's a problem there . Do you think that they do ?
Speaker 3Well , my opinion I'm doing it since six years now like it's changing , it's evolving . The importance of the music gets more and more space , because now , if you want to be a big brand like Louis Vuitton , they are not making traditional marketing anymore . They want to be a brand that pushed musicians , you know , because they are valuing the music more than ever . You know , if I'm thinking of a brand like Cartier , they took labyrinth as faces for their brand , you know . So they're pushing the musicians and it allows the music to be a stronger thing for them . Like it pushed the music further and stronger and it allows , like a guy like Pharrell , to have even more freedom , and he's a musical genius , so he's going to like , select and pick , like even better choices than they were doing before . I'm sure , even if I respect the people who did the job before , you know , like I'm not like having any judgment , but in my opinion it's improving . And , yeah , when I'm thinking of a big client of us , it's Lancôme Lancôme . You know they are like they choose the Aya Nakamura , which is a superstar in France , like she's a black woman making like a kind of hip hop from the territories that belongs to France , but they choose Diana Camorra as a face , and they know that picking up some actors , picking up some model , is not the thing that they need to do anymore . They need to pick up also , like musicians and so yeah , so in a way , it's improving through the fact that big brands need to position themselves as not like a traditional media that sells product but that communicate to the culture . They need to be in the center of the culture and music is part of the culture .
Speaker 3On the other side , of course , in a production ladder , music is often the last thing that you do . Sometimes you're going to think about the music in the beginning because it's going to be the center of the campaign , but most of the time , of course , it's the last thing that you put on , more or less . You know this . You can't fight it . So if it's on the last thing , it's going to be the last thing on the budget , it's going to be the last thing on , like everything . But for me it's not really a problem . It's more of a challenge , I would say . And at Prodigius , I know it's one of the battles of Christophe he's trying to put the music topic more in the front .
Speaker 2Yeah , that's something that people say , that the music always comes too late in the process . It makes your job very difficult . More pressure , less time to put right , and that's what I meant about the value of music . And you said you can't fight it . But why not ? Why can't this be changed ?
Speaker 3Do you think there's any way it could be ? It's , it's something that I thought about . Of course , but when you think about how do you produce a campaign , first you pick a film director . He's gonna make a mood tape . Then they're gonna go to the shot because everybody wants to work on that first . When you put like one million euros to work with james gray , who's like a film director , you of course they're thinking of the music before . They are like having like an input . But we always say let's watch footage of the shots and then we think about the music . But at some point of you search about like musical direction . So you have like options . You know we're going to see which one is going to fit the most . Once you see the footage , once you see the image and the first with the real images , you have to decide which direction fits the most with the image . The image decides most of the thing . You decide , based on the image , that you see how to build a success with the sync of music and image .
Speaker 2So I guess the main difference is that advertising is much more about image the music has to build the image
Creative Process and Music Discovery
Speaker 2and filmmaking is more about storytelling the music has to help the story , of course , because when you think about the music that you're going to put in a movie , the silence is going to be a very important part of it .
Speaker 3The silence is the key when you treat like a movie . You don't have this in advertising . You don't have the space to give some silence . You have 30 seconds to put like some good music .
Speaker 2So yeah , you started already there , just talking a little bit about your creative process in a project , but my next question is to do with that . It's about when you have to find the perfect song or the right musician for a brand . Where do you start ?
Speaker 3Well , first I brainstorm with my brother , maxime Rouge , because I'm like doing that job with Max . So first we look at each other and we said like what do you think about that ? You know , we have other people that we are working with . Also , we have a unit of a music supervisor . So , first , brainstorming with my bro , then we have like many , many , many tools . How lucky we are Today we have AI tools .
Speaker 3You put a song in a software , they're going to give you music that sounds the same . Honestly , this is like a revolution and this is why the client is more and more demanding , and he's right . He's right to ask you for the song that fits with the lyrics , with the mood , and he's right to ask you for the song that fits with the lyrics , with the mood , and he's right . You know , if all the brands of the world knew how easy it is to search for some music , they will be even more demanding . So , of course , the first thing that I'm thinking is like human to human , you know , bro to bro , colleagues to colleagues . And after you have the magic of internet , you have like 5,000 playlists on Spotify . You know , with keywords , if I'm searching for like a quirky song , I type quirky on my Spotify and then I have 10 playlists . It's amazing , and back in the days it was way harder and maybe everything was in writing , you know , with some real CDs , and today there are many , many , many ways to search for some music .
Speaker 2How does it work when you need to approach publishers and record labels ?
Speaker 3Well , back in the days we were sending some mail , we were calling our friends from the business , because by the time they all become friends , more or less , you know . And now we use a tool called Mewo . It's a platform like Disco or others and we use Mewo and it's super handy for us because we ask people to register it's free , and they drag and drop their music into the platform and in one click we receive all their music . It still allowed us to talk , of course . It still allowed us to have some phone calls , but the volume in Prodigius is so giant that we need to simplify our life , so we use Mewo .
Speaker 2Okay , and do you find that the publishers and labels ? They tend to be positive whenever you approach them . Do they see a lot of value in syncing their music ?
Speaker 3Yeah , I'm thinking of them a lot right now because they are teaching us the job as well . You know they are like explaining . Like Greg , you can't ask that quality of music with the budget that you have . Go back to your clients , it doesn't cost this . You know we have to listen to them . You know like they have like a lot of experience in the business and for some of them , so yeah , it's not a solo job . We all need each other to like promote some good music , but we wouldn't be able to do that without the partner in the music industry .
Speaker 2Going around in your everyday life are you constantly hearing music ? It may be in a restaurant or in a shop .
Speaker 3Definitely it's because I'm obsessed and I want to know everything . I'm not a musician , I'm not focused on my own art , while I have in my guts and I wish at some point I would be like that . Of course , sometimes I'm a bit frustrated of my knowledge , but I'm super curious of what is around me . I'm obsessed by that Each place I'm going into , yeah , I want to know what is the music . For sure , and this is my obsession and at some point it's a bit of a sickness . You know , it's something that I have inside me . I want to know what people are listening . You know , at some point I was thinking I should interrupt people in the street more often to ask them what are they listening to right now ? You know , I'm very curious of other people taste , very curious about what people like and that's very important information for you to do your work these days .
Speaker 2If you know what the public is listening to , you can maybe work out if there are trends or just good ideas you have to put yourself at other people's place . You know it's extremely important how did your collaboration with maxime begin ?
Speaker 3actually , like I met him through the the music supervisor event . At that time I was working for my melody and he was working for prodigious already . I just asked him like a question about like what he was listening to at the moment . You know , typical question that I'm asking . I met him once like that and after , when prodigious wanted to hire me , I had a rendezvous with him and our boss and so maybe he said , ok , agreed , this guy sounds cool or competent or I don't know .
Speaker 3I'm not going to answer for him , but yeah , five or six years ago , the collaboration with Maxime changed my life for sure . He's an absolutely brilliant person and you should ask him one day to be at my life . For sure he's an absolutely brilliant person and you should ask him one day to be at my place right now because he has many interesting things to say . We are different . He's a musician . He has this background which is super helpful for us as a team and makes our duo , I would say , stronger , and I think at some point my personality fits with his personality and we're just super professional . I would say Like he's a monster of work and when you work with a monster of work , you just like also follow the pace and I admire him a lot and his knowledge into music and actually I was already full of friends , but you always have like a place for a guy like Maxime Rouges in your
Radio, Paris, and Personal Projects
Speaker 3life .
Speaker 2But of course you bring a lot of unique strengths as well to that partnership . But when you're on the lookout for new talent , for example , how do you discover new ?
Speaker 3artists Like Paul , I go to Riperban . Good answer . So you travel , you talk to people . You listen to the people that want to talk to you . This is very important Always available to have an ear open , and I'm a huge fan of certain kind of music , so I'm diving into it and you discover music , and it's very easy .
Speaker 3We are surrounded by new stuff . There is around like 200k of new songs that are put in Spotify every day . It's impossible to know everything , but , yeah , I use Spotify a lot . I have like a folder on my Spotify Radar des Sorties . I have 50 different Radar des Sorties from 50 musical influences that at some point shared their Radar des Sorties . I was able to subscribe to them and so I can listen to what Spotify is going to add into the Radar de sortie of , like , different music supervisors and musicians . And I subscribed to one of the duo of Bicep . Do you know Bicep ? They are magical musicians from the UK and one of them shared his Radar de sortie . I follow his Radar de sortie , so this is one of the things that I do . This is how you discover music .
Speaker 2Yeah , and I think you said earlier that I think it was Hermès . That is a brand that is open to using unknown music Totally . Is that quite a new thing that a big brand would choose to go with artists that are unknown ? Do they understand that their new music brings often a fresh perspective into their brands ?
Speaker 3I think that the brand is so known , it's so perfect , it's so giant , it's so French that they don't need big music . They already have the fame , they already have the memorability . So the way that they decide their musical direction is very artistic . They do very well . They do very well , they have like a vision into their commercial and this is why also the brand , in my opinion , is thriving .
Speaker 2It's one of the reasons it sounds like an interesting brand to work for , gives you a lot of creative input , a lot . Yeah , I wanted to ask you if you don't mind about other things you do . You work as a programmer for certain independent radio stations and you curate parties in Paris .
Speaker 3Yeah , so radio is like one of the ways to discover music as well . I'm a big fan of NTS , which is a platform based in UK . I'm a big fan of Radio FIP , which is a French radio that play like more than 50,000 different songs a year . Radio is part of my life and I want to be surrounded by the radio as well . So of course , at some point I wanted to work for an independent radio . I did it and it's an exercise that is very difficult but super challenging and I loved it .
Speaker 3And , considering the party in Paris , it's important to know that as a French . Of course we dreamt about the scene in London . We dreamt about the scene in Berlin . I've been told about the Tresor . You know the Berghain so much . You know . At some point you want to leave that in your own city . You know , so I've been to those places . You know I'veghain so much you know . At some point you want to leave that in your own city , you know , so I've been to those places . You know .
Speaker 3I've been to a fantastic club all around the world and I wanted to , yeah , to just organize a party where the vibe were like quite similar . It's impossible because we don't have the same crowd , but at some point , yeah , I wanted to organize some party with a good creation of DJs , where people stand for music and respect each other on the dance floor , so I did it . It was fantastic . I think you learn so much about music on the dance floor and , yeah , it's fascinating what you can do when you organize some parties . You meet so many people in a different zone of the day-to-day work . You can have like deep conversation and I learned so much from the parties that I organized in Paris and I have to mention the fact that the musical scene , the musical nightlife in Paris , is pretty interesting right now .
Speaker 2Yeah , but also Paris is in everybody's mind . It's always seen as a perfect location for these kind of brands you work for . It's almost like a brand in itself , isn't it ? These kind of brands you work for . It's almost like a brand in itself , isn't it ?
Speaker 3Well , we've seen with the Olympic Games that there's a good side of the brand of Paris . Me , as a Parisian born and raised , I want to support my city . I want to make it more friendly . I want to make it . I don't know . I don't want to feel pretentious . It's very tricky for me because I know that we sound pretentious sometimes .
Speaker 2The pretentiousness is one of the things people like about it .
Speaker 3Maybe , like as a French I don't know it's hard for me to talk about Paris . It's just love and hate . I'm just so happy about what happened for the Olympic Games . I'm so happy , I'm so happy . It was such a success . People were super
Future of Music in Advertising
Speaker 3fed up about the Olympic Games in the beginning , super upset because of all the works , all the money spent , even if we didn't spend that much money , because most of the thing was already built , but Paris was blocked for like one month before the Olympic Games . You know , like people start to struggle and I said , why are we doing this ? And then the magical of those two weeks was incredible and it was marvelous . So just want to highlight the fact that it was a success and it's part of the magic of Paris . We struggled a lot with Paris recently . You know , we had the attack of Charlie and of the Bataclan . Then 2018 , we had the Gilets Jaunes . So just taking like one minute to talk about some joy about this city .
Speaker 2But if we talk about some joy , about this idea , but if we talk about it in terms of the advertising world , I think the outside world see Paris as the standard set of beauty , luxury and very iconic images , and a lot of these have been used in advertising campaigns . Does this put extra pressure on you when you're creating campaigns for brands that are using Paris as a backdrop , because the standards have always been so high ?
Speaker 3No , it's a challenge . I mean , like I was born and raised there , I have this in my blood . You know like I take it as a challenge . But when I'm searching for some music , for a beautiful ad directed in Paris , I'm thinking of Nils Fram and Max Richter , who are not French . So I'm just highlighting the fact that I'm not searching for some French musicians , just really beautiful music .
Speaker 2I just wanted to ask you about looking forward . Do you have a vision for what the future of music and advertising might look like ? You mentioned AI as a very useful tool , but how do you think this is going to impact the work that you do ?
Speaker 3I think the music industry took the problem of AI quite well . I mean , they took the problems in their hand . You know Sony , universal , warner they are completely involved into that topic . We need to protect ourselves . We in our team who is prodigious ? We defend the artists so much . We are completely against the AI . Of course , maybe some actor they're going to buy a library musical , use it as a data set for AI generative and allow some client to use music made by AI and the music industry is going to be destroyed by that . But I'm a positive person . I think no one is going to allow that to happen . There are lots of software that musicians use , that use AI . You know there is lots of tools and lots of software that already use AI . So let's use AI as something that can benefit the musicians and be careful about that . But the position of publicists and of prodigies is pretty clear on that , like we are completely against and it's completely forbidden .
Speaker 2You obviously come across as a very positive person , very enthusiastic about what you do . You obviously love music . What do you still find exciting about the work that you do ?
The Power of Synchronization
Speaker 3I think I had this conversation with a musician that I admire . Yeah , after a show of Nils Fram , we had a conversation . Man , such a beautiful soul , such a great guy . At the end of his concert he was like offering some drinks to the people that was at the backstage . You know , imagine a giant of the music .
Speaker 3I asked him , like Niels , when are we going to work together , when are you going to like , make some original music for me or for the client that I'm working for ? But he said , like , well , for me , there is nothing more beautiful than a sync . There is nothing more beautiful than existent music that puts into a new image , thought about like a film director , and the power of the synchronization that make the music even more impactful than what you were listening before . There's nothing more powerful than a sync in my mind . But there is nothing more powerful than a sync in my mind . But there is nothing more impactful than a sync . I think so and I agree with Niels . And , on the other hand , if I may say , when you have the opportunity to promote , like a young talent in an ad , of course , like you're super proud and it's marvelous to be able to help young musicians .
Speaker 2So you feel like that's an achievement for you and the artist as well .
Speaker 3Yeah , definitely . But even , like you know , there is that known Emma Hoyt Sege Gebru from Ethiopia , who did some piano in the 80s amazing and she died a couple of months ago . And I've made a sync for a brand called AXA and I was super proud . She was like she was at the end of her life but was happy to promote her music . But I'm still super proud to promote some music from the unknown people . One of the best things that I worked for was Aza Brocchi sample Moby , the track Porcelaine Marvelous track , of course and he rap on it and we did a thing for armani code with this . It's massive music that everybody knows , but I was still proud of it . You know , like there is a different example of of way to be proud to do that job , like it's like , of course , like a super cool job I really enjoyed this .
Speaker 2I'd just like to thank you for taking this time to talk to us . It's been very special , thank you . Thank you it taking this time to talk to us . It's been very special .
Speaker 3Thank you . Thank you , it was a very beautiful experience for me .
Speaker 2Lovely , thank you .
