The Key to Memory: How Sound and Emotion are the Best and Most Underused Branding Tools
More and more brands have become privy to modern sonic branding strategies or have found a way to shore up and diversify their existing sonic identities, writes Austin Coates.
If you ask any top-tier marketing executive what the most important part of building and maintaining a brand image is, their answer will be consistency. For this reason, amp sound branding’s Research and Insights team created the annual Best Audio Brands index to analyze and measure brand sonic output in external communications, with an added focus on consistency.
For the longest time, when a brand wanted to stake its claim sonically, the brand decision-makers would kickstart the owned music creation process, establish a clear sonic logo, and pierce the realm of collective memory by taking a single sonic asset and activating it across channels to drive brand exposure.
This method spawned some of the globe’s most widely known jingles (ask any of those same marketing executives if they can hum the Don Don Donki song after passing by the Japanese discount store). However, as the advertising landscape changed alongside the understanding of the science and psychology behind marketing, brands were forced to connect with consumers on a more personal level.
This personal connection is facilitated by what we call a sonic identity. Sound is known for its unique ability to establish and maintain strong emotional connections. Through the sonic identity creation process, brands can access and own a composition of music that represents all their attributes and values. This sonic identity is designed to be flexible enough to allow a brand to express a broad array of emotions, from happy and exciting to awe-inspiring, driving, and more.
“Through the sonic identity creation process, brands can access and own a composition of music that represents all their attributes and values.”
Rigid “non-holistic” sonic assets quickly become misaligned with brands’ values given the shifting nature of consumers and the advertising market. Brands need sonic assets that reflect their current and ever-evolving brand voice. Rather than invest in, and quickly abandon short-term sonic solutions, brands can adopt malleable sonic identities designed to perpetuate consistency across an endless variety of moods, genres, and situations. Brands can fit seamlessly in international markets where there are localized music preferences and still execute one-of-a-kind campaigns with an effective holistic sonic identity.
The modern holistic approach to sonic branding is enabled by what amp calls Sonic DNA®, a mixture of flexible sonic assets distilled from brand attributes. Evidence has shown that variations outside the common sonic features are more easily learned as they become processed on a deeper level by the brain. The only caveat for brands here is that they must present this holistic sonic identity consistently.
Within our Best Audio Brands index, currently, only three brands have done this to a point where their sonic identity truly exists in the vast majority of their brand’s touchpoints. amp uses a data-centric and holistic point of view to assess which brands will have the best long-term return on investment for their sonic branding expenditure, and thus the best sonic branding.
“Within our Best Audio Brands index, currently, only three brands have done this to a point where their sonic identity truly exists in the vast majority of their brand’s touchpoints.”
To have a return on that investment, it first must have been spent on something that gives the brand an identifiable and unique brand sound. If that brand sound can apply itself in more places, it is inherently paying itself off better than if it were only applicable in limited campaigns. Thus, a measure of consistency becomes the best measure of the Best Audio Brand.
You would think that these brands must surely have a long history of sonic branding to make it to the top of amp’s Best Audio Brands list, like NBC which has nearly a century-old sonic logo. However, NBC did not even place in the BAB 2023 rankings because they use their sonic logo inconsistently and have neglected to invest in flexible sonic assets.
In fact, the top three brands within the index have scaled the ranks from sonic branding obscurity to elite audio users in a relatively short space of time: Mastercard, in first place, developed its sonic identity in 2020; Shell coming in at second, developed its strategy in 2016; and Aviva, whose sonic identity is not even a year old, came in third place. Each of these brands were at the top of this year’s Best Audio Brands list for the same single reason, consistency of sonic branding presentation.
Aviva is truly exceptional given how quickly its audio branding took off. The brand created a core of five key sonic tracks that are watermarked with its brand sound. These tracks can be used interchangeably as called for by the emotional context of their brand communication. This has majorly cut down on Aviva’s reliance on music sourced outside of its holistic sonic identity, with only 19% of its communications demanding external music.
Other brands that have a sonic identity that is non-holistic, or at least not as filled out as Aviva, Shell, and Mastercard, should more closely evaluate whether it is cost-effective to keep spending on low-quality stock music tracks, or invest in brand voice. Not only are brands getting a more direct payout by having a clear and consistent sonic brand, but they are also saving money in the long term. Brands spend less when they own flexible assets and do not have to purchase music for every use.
More and more brands have become privy to modern sonic branding strategies or have found a way to shore up and diversify their existing sonic identities. We here at amp, have been able to quantify and rank these brands within our fifth edition of Best Audio Brands. Our data-driven methodology does not give value to owning sonic assets, rather it gives value to the pinnacle of modern advertising: consistency.
