Sound Branding, Brand Alliances With Music, or Branded Entertainment, call it what you like, these are effectively a form of advertising disguised as: a game, event, sponsorship or hospitality. Midem, the largest international music convention dedicated several sessions to that almost Holy Grail, ‘How Can Bands and Brands Work Together?’ So it is not surprising that some serious players from the brands were invited to take the stage, from Nokia to Coca-Cola (‘Top Brands talk Music Strategy’ and ‘Converse, Pepsi and Cornerstone talk Music Marketing’). Music and Brands are big business. According to the Association of National Advertisers, in 2006, the top 100 US advertisers splashed between $150 million and $2 billion just on sound-enabled media, such TV ads and the Internet. In the UK, it is estimated that in 2008 the production spend on acquiring copyright music for synchronization, that is the right to choose a well known track and use it in a commercial, hit £60m ($98.8 million). Current predictions are that in the next decade, advertisers will be looking to invest an eye-watering $240 billion on branded entertainment.

With marketers freely admitting that music makes up 50% of the total consumer experience, it may have been a little surprising for the Music Industry to learn from Emmanuel Seuge of The Coca-Cola Company “The music industry is much more open and willing to find new creative models in the way we interact with them…but at the same time it’s much more complex. The management of the artists are more smart marketeers than I am! They have a real vision of what they want to do with their artists, and the artists themselves have a point of view. Aligning everyone on a shared view is the challenge.”

This brave comment goes straight to the heart of the issue and it may be some consolation for Emmanuel to learn that he is no alone. Whilst 63% of Brand marketers use music, 56% have no idea how to measure the use of sound and music and 20% don’t even try (Resource Association of National Advertisers).

So having heard from the Brands – it was the turn of the Music Industry to take the stage. Management giants like Chris Morrison from CMO Management (Blur, Gorillaz, Grace Jones and many more) had some very important things to say about bands and brands. Morrison agreed that Brands will be involved in some of his artist projects with a word of warning: “You have to be very careful about branding – there’s a great danger of music being corporatised at this point, and I see things that certainly worry me considerably.” When asked what kind of things Morrison is seeing that he doesn’t like: “The Duffy Coca-Cola ad was abysmal, and Robbie Williams on T-Mobile was terrible…You have to be very very careful with how you associate with brands.”

One thing is for sure, simply slapping a brand logo on stages is very different to becoming true partners. And with an increasing number of events and artists now wanting to enter the dialogue and the projected figures brands are willing to invest, we have to be talking real music strategy rather than just brand involvement. We know that just like any relationship, it will need trust, honesty, shared values and vision and that will mean a shift to what can I do for you, from WIFM. Then Emmanuel, we can start to get real alliance round the table.

Ruth Simmons, CEO
soundlounge

Imagine a commercial with music so alluring and contemporary that it draws thousands of YouTube visitors within weeks with comments like “can you tell me from where i can download the song please?” and “it’s really awesome!!!”. It must have used a hit song or a track from a new artist with Record Company marketing clout, and it probably cost tens of thousands of dollars to licence, right? Listen for yourself…

In reality this track chosen for the new Canon commercial (”Blackbird Song” by Ben Cocks) was from a production music library. The truth is that it was significantly less expensive for our client than a hit song would have been. And the song’s production quality and “catchiness” is on par, if not ahead of, most higher-profile tracks out there. Read more…

Music is one of the most valuable tools at an advertiser’s disposal. In 2006, the top 100 US advertisers splashed between $150 million and $2 billion just on sound-enabled media, such TV ads and the Internet, according to the Association of National Advertisers. In the UK, it is estimated that in 2008 the spend on acquiring copyright music for synchronization hit £60m ($98.8 million).

But brands have worked to understand how a particular target group, with shared values and aspirations, forms a loyalty to a specific brand. They have figured out how to manage and measure how we respond to color, texture, lighting, and other apparently visceral stimuli. So is sound simply the next frontier?

For the full article, please click here.

So which tv Christmas commercial most holds a special place in your heart? At soundlounge, we have created a list of our own personal selection. Let us know if we have left out your favourite…

1. Coca Cola (Holidays Are Coming)
2. John Lewis (From Me To You)
3. M&S ( This Party Started)
4.Budweiser (Horses)
5. Coca Cola (Polar Bears)
6. Irn Bru (Walking In The Air)
7. M&S (Most Wonderful Time Of The Year)
8. Heineken (Let It Snow)
9. Kellogg’s
10. Lucky Strike

As I was watching Sprint’s clever “What if ____ ran the world?” ads, I noticed they used no music, no jingles, nothing that would traditionally qualify as a sonic logo. Only one sound stands out consistently in each ad: the walkie-talkie-like bleep of the Sprint phone itself. And every time we hear it in Sprint’s commercials, it’s followed by a joke. By the end of each ad, we’ve heard it 6 to 12 times, and it’s no longer just a phone bleep. It’s a brilliantly timed comic device that has preconditioned us to laughter.

Of course, the same sound can mean vastly different things for different people. For the majority of us, the sound of an incoming text message is exciting, a happy beep signaling a new message from a friend. But for my mother, it’s a sound that strikes terror in her heart and gets her adrenaline flowing. For her, it means she’s received a text from my younger brother in Africa. Often his messages bear bad news – he was robbed on the street once and lost all his money. So this seemingly harmless sound evokes fear and maternal instincts in a split second. One day she told me, “I hate that sound more than any other sound.” Who knew a simple, neutral beep could stir up such an emotional reaction?

The finest sound designer can craft the most perfect sound for your brand, but context is everything. Though most of us don’t start salivating, we’re a lot like Pavlov’s dogs once we’ve been trained to hear a sound in a certain way. Sprint was smart; they trained us from the beginning to hear their phones as fun, even before we interact with one in real life. As soon as a strong sonic branding plan meets a positive customer experience, the Pavlovian buttons will be pushed in just the right ways. For 99.9% of us, this is good news. For the unfortunate alarm clock marketers of the world…I wish you luck.

Charlie McCarron, Sound Consultant
soundlounge

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.

It was designed to remind advertisers of the continuing influence and effectiveness of television but in fact served to highlight the remarkable power of sound branding. Thinkbox, the television marketing body for major UK commercial broadcasters, recently unveiled its very first TV advert featuring a man on a psychiatrist’s couch who is prompted to go to a “happy place” in his mind. Far from imagining a sandy beach or flower-filled meadow the patient blurts out a series of famous jingles from the last 30 years. Among the slogans are Just One Cornetto, immortally sung to Italy’s O Sole Mio, the beautifully harmonised Mild Green…Fairy Liquid and of course, the unforgettable WOAH!! Bodyform.

The Thinkbox ad has received mixed reviews, with a post on one forum claiming it “shows our minds are full of the most worthless garbage serving no function or purpose other than to drive us absolutely insane”. But for many, it provides a nostalgic, 60-second trip down memory lane. As Thinkbox says, it’s the sort of commercial that starts conversations about TV ads – which ones we like best and why we remember them above other types of advertising. So why are these jingles so memorable, so effortlessly able, decades on, to allows us not only to recall a particular time in our lives but an individual product? Read more…

Radiohead, one of the UK’s most coveted bands (and until recently a reluctant source for synchronisation) have allowed one of their tracks to be used in the National Coalition for the Homeless’s most recent commercial.  The use of Radiohead’s “MK 1” on the NCH commercial titled “It Can Happen to Anyone”, is a subtle and effective marriage of band and brand. However, even an avid listener of Radiohead might find it challenging to identify the music.  Drawing the connection is not what the NCH is after; instead it undoubtedly relies on the emotional elements of the track which make the sound fit to picture naturally – and most importantly, to brand.

But why use Radiohead?  How does it work?  What does it tell us about sonic branding? Read more…

It would seem that choosing the perfect music for a commercial is such a rare and special occasion, that we almost speak in reverent, hushed tones when we discuss its success. But with at least £40million being invested in copyright music a year in the UK alone for commercials (which works out at roughly 15,000 ideas that are executed), it would not be unreasonable to ask why so many ideas fall into anonymity, neutrality and are just plain uninspiring. Music & image partnerships such like Leftfield & Guinness, Dvorak & Hovis, or any of the of Waitrose tracks that genuinely and consistently reflect its quality and values, and should give us the foundations to learn.

Another exceptional partnership is the much-feted winner of this year’s Cannes Lions Grand Prix, ‘Gorilla’, created by Juan Cabral at Fallon. ‘Gorilla’ has become the most successful campaign in recent years, with over 10 million hits on YouTube and 93,000 references on Google. With so many devotees, what is it about this particular film that has us all so captivated and spellbound? Read more…