The most important piece of business advice I was ever given when I first started talking about sonic and sound branding, was from John Bartle, the first B in BBH. “Yes’ he observed profoundly, “all that theory is all very interesting but can you measure it? If you can’t measure it, it ain’t any bloody use to me”.
Those of us who were in Hamburg at the beginning of November for the first ‘Audio Branding Congress’ in the world appreciated that brands are now acknowledging the emotional importance of using sound and music in their marketing. Some are looking at imposing more rigour into the process of choosing and briefing music, but existing business evaluation frameworks are still ‘missing a beat’. It would seem that cost outlay and how to reduce that investment into procurement and production fees is still the only metric that is applied to measure the value of music by those brand guardians in charge of the process
But it was in Hamburg, amongst much sharing of sound branding concepts and processes, I realised that I owed a huge debt to John. He was so right. Understanding how to define and produce a sound identity is just the first step. For if brands are to understand the role and impact of music, they need systems that allow for comparison of costs against market rates, potential savings, process optimisation and best practices is vital. What is allocated to finding and acquiring music properties will then be an easier conversation. It has taken my team and myself at soundlounge 10 years, but it was so worth it.
Ruth Simmons, CEO
soundlounge
For further reading: Putting the Metrics into Music.
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