NEW YORK, Jan. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Grey New York, Procter & Gamble's global advertising agency for its Pantene brand, announced today it is inviting delegates attending MIDEM's Annual Conference in Cannes to submit original songs for possible use in the 2010 Pantene advertising campaign and potentially in Pantene's corporate communications, including press events and sponsorship, and even a hit single in its own right. MIDEM is the world's largest music market and its 2010 Annual Conference is expected to gather nearly 10,000 attendees and 1,300 participants in events from all over the world. The conference will be taking place in Cannes, January 24-27, and all attendees have been invited to create and submit their songs by January 19, 2010.

"For the third year in a row, Grey and the world's premier advertiser Procter & Gamble will converge with the global music industry at large," said Josh Rabinowitz, Grey New York's Senior Vice President/Director of Music. "For musicians and performers, advertising has become one of the best ways to get your music out there along with TV shows and video games. It's the new A&R."

Last year at MIDEM, P&G's Cover Girl brand and Grey selected an original song for Cover Girl advertising that will be used in some of Cover Girl's upcoming branded initiatives, including their "I AM a CoverGirl" anthem piece.

In 2008, an original song "Shine" was selected at MIDEM, written and performed for Pantene by unsigned New York artist Rosi Golan, who since then produced her first album, secured two song placements on prime time TV shows, "Come Around" in Ghost Whisperer and "Been A Long Day" in One Tree Hill, did a 6-week national tour in March and secured premier placement on iTunes home page, music page and folk page. The song ran on ads in as many as 65 countries.

This year, Pantene returns to MIDEM seeking similar success. Grey and P&G will evaluate submissions and create a Top 20 Playlist, which will be presented at an open listening session for all conference attendees on January 26 in Cannes. The Pantene listening session is one of four offered to delegates by MIDEM, which bills the listening sessions as onsite auditions for major video games, films and TV shows, in addition to advertising, with tangible results.

"Music is an important element in Pantene's conversation with consumers around the world, a universal and inclusive global language," said Linda Mummiani, EVP/Group Creative Director of Grey New York. "And MIDEM is an extraordinary resource providing us unique access to new original songwriters."

The 2010 MIDEM website http://midem.com lays out the brand's requirements for the winning song: any genre (rock, r&b, rap) as long as it is instrumental at least 60 seconds in length, makes women feel strong and empowered, feels momentous with uplifting energy and modernity, builds anticipation that leads to something big. Instructions for uploading songs and guidelines are at http://midem.greymusicnyc.com/ .

About Grey Grey New York is the flagship and largest office of Grey, a unit of Grey Group http://www.grey.com. Grey Group ranks among the largest global communications companies. Its parent company is WPP (Nasdaq: WPPGY). Grey New York's blue-chip client roster includes many of the world's best known companies: Procter & Gamble, GlaxoSmithKline, Diageo, Darden Restaurants, Wyeth, Canon, 3M, Eli Lilly, Dairy Queen, E*Trade, NFL and TJ Maxx.

SOURCE Grey