Thomas Strerath

101 Great Minds on Music Brands and Behavior

Thomas Strerath, fmr. Partner, Jung von Matt, Hamburg

Born in Neuss near Cologne, Strerath ran his own ad agency, Vogelsang Strerath, from 1992-1995, before joining TV production firm Fremantle (today Grundy UFA TV Production). He then worked for WOB AG as Chief Operating Officer, before joining OgilvyOne, Ogilvy & Mather’s dialogue marketing agency in Frankfurt as CEO. In 2007, he became COO of Ogilvy & Mather Frankfurt, and in 2009 CEO of Ogilvy & Mather Germany. In 2015, Strerath left Ogilvy to join Jung von Matt as Partner. He is one of the most famous admen in Germany, and also known as one of the most outspoken.

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“Music can achieve a lot in branding - not only in regards to execution, but in regards to strategy and analysis.”

— THOMAS STRERATH, FMR. PARTNER, JUNG VON MATT

Reese: How important is music for you personally?

Strerath: I rarely make a point of sitting down and listening to music the way I probably did as a teenager. I spend a lot of time driving. My car is equipped with a great sound system, so that’s my room for music. From time to time I even sing along to songs. But I’ve no idea what’s in the charts at the moment, despite the fact that I have a 14-year-old daughter.

Reese: So which kind of music do you listen to? What are your influences?

Strerath: Little current stuff. Everyone carries around music from two particular phases in their lives, which they always tap into. That counts for me, too. At work, however, I’m a little more open-minded.

Reese: Are there any particular brands that you admire for their use of music in their branding?

Strerath: Vodafone Germany are very good at it. They use great music in all of their films. You can feel that they make very conscious music decisions: For them, music is not a mere by-product or additive, it’s a fundamental ingredient of the film. Same counts for Coca-Cola. They have a lot of freedom when it comes to stylistic execution. Nothing is too cheesy or too modern for them. And they use music in a very strategic way.

Reese: Vodafone doesn’t use an audio logo, Coca-Cola does. Burger King doesn‘t use an audio logo, but McDonald‘s does. How important are audio logos for brands?

Strerath: I’m a fi rm believer of branding that focuses on content. Most brand managers, however, spend most of their time and energy on formal details, on their corporate identity – a logo, a color, and so on… they even sit down and think about their brand’s touch, smell, and sound. I really doubt that consumers can keep up with that. Do your customers really recognize your audio logo and make the connection to your brand when they hear it? And even if they do: Does that automatically mean they’re drawn to your brand, and become more loyal to it? I doubt that. Very few brands use audio logos that work, and by that I mean: Consumers, at the very least, accept the logo, and are not annoyed by it.

Reese: A huge misconception is that audio branding is just about jingles. It’s much more than that. It starts with a general consistency around a brand’s use of audio. Most brands, however, are arbitrary when it comes to audio. Why is that the case?

Strerath: The ‘80s and ‘90s saw a big corporate design hype. But nobody thought about what a brand ought to sound like during that time. So there’s a historic reason for that lack of awareness. As I mentioned, a lot of brands also tend to focus on formalities while failing to defi ne their core idea, their mindset. German companies are particularly bad at it: We Germans are very prone to sticking to formalities, to anything you can measure. Audio is extremely difficult to measure, hence German marketers and C-level decision-makers try to avoid it. Music and sound can trigger emotions, and that almost scares us Germans a little. We feel that we have a better control over visuals. I think that’s why the entire topic of audio falls through the cracks.

Reese: Our ability to remember audio is much better than our ability to remember visuals. And, as you just said, audio is also better at triggering emotions. Do you think agencies and brands are just not aware of the power of audio?

Strerath: Yes. The latest neurological research shows that most of our decisions and brain activity are based on emotions. You can’t apply logic or reason to it. And that’s news to most people. They are used to performance marketing, and now they have to open themselves to a new topic: Brand worlds – new findings that require a new way of thinking in their marketing. And it can be tough to translate these findings into new decision-making processes within businesses. You are dealing with managers who usually rate investments in products, production facilities, and processes. And you have to explain to them that they need to invest in something that doesn’t only trigger emotions, but is based on emotions. It’s tricky.

Reese: What’s the agency’s responsibility in that respect? Why do most creatives focus on visuals alone?

Strerath: How music is dealt with usually depends on how well agencies and their clients cooperate. Audio generally isn’t part of the initial discussion. But you can’t blame the clients for that. It’s the agency’s responsibility to bring it up. Agency management has to determine what exactly it is that makes them as successful as possible for their client. If they can identify audio as a crucial part of that, they should use its potential and distinguish themselves in that way from their competition. The fact is: If the music is great, my entire work will automatically be better. The question is if my clients will say, “These guys are great because of the music they use,” or rather, “These guys make great films.” It’s up to the agencies to make their clients aware of it. I generally believe it’s difficult for people to access their own emotions. And then we also have that lack of control and measurability of audio that makes it difficult for creatives to include audio at an early stage in the project. That’s the downside. The upside of it is that audio brings with it a certain creative freedom. It’s different with the visuals. Market research offers such a high level of measurability for visuals that the creative freedom is minimal.

Reese: Why do so few agencies participate in music revenue streams? Are they aware of the fact that they can earn airtime royalties through music licensing?

Strerath: We agencies can’t blame others for our problems. Traditional ad agencies tend to only have one source of revenue: hourly or daily rates. We have to become better entrepreneurs and come up with new business models. Licensing, for example. It makes sense to own master and publishing rights for my creations. And it’s not just a new revenue stream that I can tap into. It’s also a good indicator of how well I’m performing. If my work isn’t broadcast, I won’t earn money with it. And that will ultimately also lead to an improvement of the quality of my work.

Reese: Can music play a strategic role in branding?

Strerath: I have had frequent discussions about that. The one thing is to see music as part of the execution. The other thing is to look at music in regards to your target groups. If you think about target groups and product categories – what is the product’s and the brand’s function in peoples’ lives? Music can help answer that question. Most people defi ne their grown-up perception of themselves between the age of 13 and 25. That’s also the time in your life when you defi ne your taste in music. So if I can figure out which music a certain target group was into at that age, I know immediately which emotions I need to trigger, and how a strategic branding approach could look like. That’s a lot better than defining a person abstractly based on their milieu and their current living environment. So in that way, music can achieve a lot, not only in regards to execution, but also in regards to strategy and analysis.

Reese: We have to become more intentional in our music decisions. Music in branding is like a golden key. If I do I right, it is extremely efficient.

Strerath: It’s similar to the haptic and olfactory senses. Music is even a little more complex than the others, but it appeals to everyone. If I return to my grandmother’s house after fifteen years, my childhood memories are immediately reactivated purely through my sense of smell. Music can do the exact same thing for you and your brand. One little trick gives you access to very deeply rooted emotions. 

Reese: Brands are like people. We respect people who take up a stance on things. Thomas Strerath is a brand: You have an edge, you‘re authentic and outspoken. It’s about trust-building. I can only gain your trust through a consistent behavior. I can’t buy it.

Strerath: Once again, this goes back to the difference between formalities and mindset: I really don’t care if you’re wearing a blue shirt and blazer today, a polo shirt tomorrow and a sports jersey the day after tomorrow. You don’t have to always wear the same clothes – I will still recognize you as Uli. It’s not about your formal identity. It’s about your attitude, your behavior, and your values. That’s the trust I have to gain. And that’s where music comes back into play. Around the time that a young person defines his or her own attitude, music plays a big role in the development of their personality and in the way they see themselves. It’s deeply connected to music.

“Music was so important to me back in the day! I used to listen to Pink Floyd night and day. It’s not as important to me now, but I can always reactivate the same feelings I had then when I listen to the music now. That’s why music bears such a huge potential, and so much power. Attitude and music are more closely connected than attitude and pictures, or other things that work in a manipulative way. “

Reese: Let’s talk about something different: How did you develop your ability to distinguish successful ideas? And how do you feel when it happens? After all, you have been quite successful in your life.

Strerath: Well, I have also failed a lot. But I think I have developed a certain sense of knowing what could happen next. I think a lot of kids who grow up under adverse conditions develop that sense. It’s something you can be afflicted by… but I have turned it into a virtue. A lot of times I don’t listen to what people say. Instead, I have this intuition of what’s going on inside them. When I talk to managers, partners, creatives, I have a good sense of what they’re afraid of, even if they don’t voice it explicitly. That’s also how I judge whether people will be captured by something or not. As a student, I worked at a little newspaper kiosk. And I developed a habit of trying to guess which cigarette brand a customer was about to buy. A little silly, I know. But I believe I generally have a good empathic understanding of people. Which might be a little contradictory to the way I come across in the media – where I’m portrayed as this cold-blooded, technocratic guy.

Note: The interview took place in Frankfurt on March 9th, 2015.

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