It turns out that singing on TikTok can have the potential to turn you into an advertising star in the United States. A viral jingle created by content creator Romeo Bingham, 26, for the popular soft drink Dr Pepper caught the attention of the beverage giant and ultimately earned a spot in a national commercial aired during a live college football broadcast.
“I have a theme song for Dr Pepper,” Bingham declared. “Dr Pepper baaaby, it’s good and nice! Do. Do. Do.”
The 11-second clip racked up more than 40 million views. Bingham said the jingle was posted “impulsively,” explaining that she felt an urgency to act before someone else came up with the same idea. “I had to act before someone got this idea in a dream and stole it from me,” Bingham said in a post.
All it took was a short jingle and a well-placed tag of one of America’s most popular beverage brands. “Dr Pepper, please get back to me with a proposition, we can make thousands together,” Romeo wrote in the video caption. Dr Pepper saw the clip and replied to the creator: “You might be onto something.”
About two weeks later, Romeo’s jingle made the jump from TikTok to television, appearing in a national Dr Pepper commercial. The 15-second ad follows the visual aesthetic of a typical beverage commercial and features a produced version of Romeo’s original melody. It aired twice during the same college football game about six days ago, which drew an average audience of 30 million viewers.
The value of the deal between Bingham and Dr Pepper was not disclosed, but U.S. marketing sites estimate she received a contract worth millions of dollars.
Since then, more than 35 brands have reached out asking Romeo to create jingles for them, including Hyundai, Buffalo Wild Wings and even the NBA’s Miami Heat.