What do you imagine when you think of the World Cup? Probably words such as “passion”, “excitement”, and “despair” pop into your head, which is probably why we often see adverts such as Nike’s “Write the Future” made for the World Cup, which encapsulates all these emotions beautifully.
The Guardian & Observer however have taken a much more light-hearted approach with this playful and happy cartoon accompanied by a very witty folk-style song.
The writers of this song did a great job in making a catchy and genuinely memorable tune which, coupled with the amusing rhymes and great animation, helps make a refreshing change from the other ads out there. Hopefully we’ll see more like this in the future.
Pick up almost any article on sonic branding and somewhere you will find a sentence that exalts the ability of music to connect with ‘people’ on an emotional level. But for any brand – ‘people’ is a very big universe and responsible brand gurus know they’ll need more information than just these broad emotional promises, before they can allocate precious time and money to the sound branding process.
Maybe this explains why music and sound still represent a big hole in many marketing strategies. It would seem that the major brands are very aware that when they try to plug this hole with one-off hit music ’strategies’, or low budget tracks, they don’t support their branding but often simply just fill the silence. A recent Marketing Week report reveals that finding and judging music are still major hurdles for many brand managers. BT‘s Fraser Smeaton honestly admitted:
“When we started using music in our direct response television campaigns, I sat in the room with the creatives and asked them two questions: How do I decide? And what’s the framework I use to make this decision on music? One of our leading agencies simply replied: ‘Whichever one you think works best’…You can feel incredibly exposed. [We are missing]…the segmentation to give us a framework for choosing music”.
Turns out a few smart brands have already found these frameworks to help them choose and judge music. With all the buzz surrounding the new Audi sound style guide, a lot of brand managers out there are probably wondering, should I be doing this? Does my brand do enough with music to need a sound style guide? And what exactly goes into one?
To set your creative gears in motion, take a few moments and explore how Audi approached the process:
But this is just Audi’s approach. Maybe you’re selling chocolate bars, and aren’t interested in recording noisy chewing and lip smacking in surround sound. So where do you start with your sound style guide? Or more importantly, why should you start?
First we’ll address some of the common fears we hear from brand managers on the fence about sonic branding. And then, we’ll get into the benefits of having a sound style guide on hand.
Key Fears
1) Music has perceived limited shelf life…
Some say: Think of the red Coca-Cola can or the yellow McDonald’s arches – these visual applications are timeless. But music doesn’t work the same way. One too many commercials with the same song and the audience will reach for the TV remote.
We say: Yes and no. It’s true that most commercials use one track per execution, literally to support the visual narrative. But some brands can use the same track for time immemorial. Think BA, think Hovis, think Marmite. Just as the visual branding evolves, so can the sound branding. All of these brands rearranged and refreshed their music to keep it relevant whilst maintaining the integrity of the original.
A sound style guide worth its fee should do more than define a repetitive jingle, a 4-note audio logo, or a single track that survives for a couple commercials. It should create a timeless palette of musical “colors” and “fonts” that any composer or music supervisor can draw from for each new campaign.
2) Sound style guides are a BIG time commitment…
Some say: Audi spent about a year and a half developing their sound style guide. We don’t have that sort of time; we have events and commercials and upcoming deadlines to worry about.
We say: Not every brand is going to need that amount of time at the drawing board, but it will require some longer-term commitment to understand what works for your brand and then develop those sounds. It doesn’t happen overnight but neither does visual branding On the other hand, consider how much time and money is actually wasted trying to find the right track amongst the millions that are out there in the ‘cloud’? Daniel Mathieson, Head of Sponsorship at Barclaycard, says:
“There was a lot of trying out of different tracks…There was an element of luck involved in trying to find that track because right at the last minute, another option was thrown up and that was the one we went with”.
At soundlounge, we’ve found that with the focused attention of the brand stakeholder for just a few hours and access to their brand archives, we can create a sound guide for brands in just a few weeks. It’s a quicker and more effective process than the usual game of creative ping pong, where the brief gets changed and reinterpreted, and decisions are based on “I’ll know it when I hear it” criteria.
3) Sound style guides cost too much…
Some say: What about the costs to produce the guide? Then on top of that, will we still have to demo, record a master sound recording or licence the track?
We say: Yes, you will still have to pay for copyright licences and/or for commissioning new demos. But with a sound guide, the briefing process will be…well, on brief. This allows your music supervisors, composers, recording artists, and sound engineers to do their job more efficiently , which will mean cost savings for you on every campaign
4) Sound style guides restrict creativity…
Some say: A sound guide will restrict our creativity. Every situation demands a different piece of music. What happens when Audi’s creative team comes up with a hilarious new idea that will only work if they can use ‘Ode to Joy’?
We say: Great – if the sound DNA is suddenly and consciously changed for a reason, the consumer impact will only increase. Think Mars’ white wrappers for the World Cup. Contrary to urban myth, these frameworks actually stimulate creativity and open up opportunities.
We know that not everyone welcomes change, and some creative teams do resist the whole concept of a sound guide. I often wonder if Stephen King, Head of Planning at JWT in the ‘70s, had the same issues when he first outlined his ideas for a visual corporate manual!
So if you are going to take those crucial first steps, what are the benefits of having a sound style guide? We have quite a list, but here are some of the highlights…
Key Benefits
Brand recognition: Imagine an era when consumers can identify a brand just from how it sounds. Not just a sonic logo, but an integrated sound DNA that is as recognizable as your sister or brother. Impossible? Great music industry producers have been doing this with bands for years. A few beats from U2 or The Beatles are all we need to pick them out. We believe brands can be every bit as recognizable with the right sound strategy.
Sound consistency: With improved music briefing, brands often find that they can remedy their past sound schizophrenia (different tracks, different instrumentation, and varied production quality from one campaign to another). The immediate result – more consistent sound that keeps your audience subconsciously “connected” from campaign to campaign.
Sound assets: Every time a brand uses sound – in marketing, sales, or PR – it influences the public’s perception of that brand, effectively creating an asset or a liability for its overall brand equity. Using precise brand equity metrics with a great sound guide will help build a reservoir of sound assets that reflect the brand’s core values, are measurable, and add to the bottom line.
Brand differentiation: When your creative team can consistently identify songs that fit your brand, when your customers can “hear” your brand from the other room, and when your competitors are jealous of your unmistakable sound DNA, then you know your sound branding has set you apart from the rest of the marketing noise. The sound guide is your first step.
If you are considering creating a sound guide and want to know more, simply pick up the phone or drop us an email. We would be delighted to put you on the right track.
If you type ‘Advert’ into Google ‘Advert Music’ appears immediately after ‘Advertising’ and ‘Advertising Standards Authority’ and before all other dimensions of a television campaign. From these analytics, this would seem to suggest that it’s the music in TV commercials that captures most peoples’ imaginations. Yet in my 30 years of being in this business, the Advertising Trade press rarely give the track or music supervisor who called the tune in the first place, a mention – that is until the national press pick up the story of course.
However, considering how many commercials use music each year, it is curious that we can remember so few. When one comes along, like the recent John Lewis commercial using Fyfe Dangerfield’s version of the Billy Joel song ‘Always A Woman’, it is extraordinary how much coverage the music track elicited. It would seem that suddenly everyone becomes a music supervisor – social commentaries and explanations emerged from The Guardian to The Times to Style Magazine as to why and how the writer of the article believed the track worked. Yet the real creative minds behind the idea, the creative team at Adam & Eve and Abi Leland, (the Music Supervisor) are still, well…anonymous.
Are these tracks happy accidents (chosen in post-production and just seem to work), or are they the result of careful planning and strategic decision-making? While we are all aware that music can operate on a deep level, we still seem surprised at the level of emotional connectivity that the right music track can have with the right visual. It’s as if once a track touches us on a personal level, we are all driven to explain how those emotional connections are being made – deep meanings become attributed to a campaign that’s selling a department store.
The magic of the latest John Lewis commercial is that it takes us on a visual journey, supported by a song that has its own intrinsic narrative. The advantage of using such a well-known track is that it creates a familiarity for the viewer and whats more is perfectly ‘on brand’ with the target market – the John Lewis female customer. Joel’s song leads us into the commercial, like an old friend opening a door and welcoming us in. However what truly makes this commercial resonate so well, is the perfect match of song and imagery. Some have criticised the seeming mismatch of the lyrics (“She steals, she lies, she takes what she can.”) with the ‘cosy’ visuals. Putting aside the fact that the song is about loving someone despite their failings, we have seen many times before that it’s the overall emotion of the song that’s important and not just the lyrics – remember the emotional impact of The Cars track ‘Drive’ with footage of starving African children on Live Aid?
Music and visuals have to work seamlessly together; when one outshouts the other, it can be de-stablising to the whole experience. We literally feel out of synch. Sound and vision must have an almost symbiotic relationship with each other. It may seem an obvious conclusion, but perhaps it is only through the perfect convergence of all these elements, that we will see more commercials as successful as the recent John Lewis campaign. The agency have done a brilliant job, our only regret is we can’t add this to our showreel!
I read with interest MarketingWeek’s article ‘Agency sees opportunity for brand and music tie-ups’. But having been around the brands, agencies and the music industry for 30 years, I felt compelled to share my doubts about band-brand alliances.
Let’s face it – the music industry is seductive to all those on the periphery of it. The possibility of rubbing shoulders with all those glamorous artists beats product launches and sales conferences any day. And yes, ‘Brand Guardians’ have been flirting for years with record companies and managers to try and get close to all the excitement of rock ‘n’ roll. But we’ve also seen some of the music industry’s shamelessly vague ‘relationships’ with brands who quite honestly have a cheque book to offer a flailing marketing budget.
On the one hand, ask most bands or die-hard fans how they feel and they would rather that the two parties were kept apart and the music remained the last bastion of creative integrity without the influence of the corporations (Think James Corden’s speech for Sport Relief). But, as we know, we live in a world of “what’s in it for me?” and no fan will turn down subsidised tickets to a tour.
Having worked with all parties over the years, I know there is a space for companies that who independently and expertly manage the initial enthusiasm of a music campaign through to final execution. But I would also add that enthusiasm and contacts in the music industry are just the beginning. It is dangerously easy to get swept up with the artists or the songs or the delivery platform. Go down this route, and you’ll soon lose sight of branding from the brand’s perspective, the nuances of brand values, brand wheels, sound DNA, and how sound strategy connects with all these principles, product launches and brand campaigns.
In the end though, either party might lose in an ill-conceived band-brand alliance. Whilst the brand can simply write it off as a bad experience with the music industry, a band can be scarred for life by a commercial partnership gone sour.
Bottom line is that bands are not simply for slogans or sound bites – please handle with care!
Sound Branding, Brand AlliancesWith 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.
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?
Here at soundlounge, we’ve been working with brands to understand and develop their sound branding for three decades. We’d like to share some of the most common sonic branding sins and some simple strategies you can apply for absolution.
1. LUST – Being seduced by the Music Industry. Being offered a link up with an iconic artist or a hit song can seem irresistible. And it’s true that well-known tracks in a commercial can create an instant emotional connection with consumers. But if the popularity of the song overshadows the advertiser’s message and consumers remember the song and not the product, it can prove to be a very expensive liaison.
ABSOLUTION: Resist the temptation to just look for hit tracks and big names. Have plan B and C and consider music from unknown or emerging artists; explore library music or commission an original composition. Re-record/re-invent an existing copyright so that you incorporate your brand sound DNA. Challenge and rationalise creative choices against fees and costs.
In the summer of 2007, dance duo Groove Armada sent shockwaves through the music production industry by opting out of a deal with a traditional record label. In April 2008, the duo, who have become a household name thanks in part to the use of their music in commercials, instead signed-up with Bacardi making them the first mainstream group to turn to a major brand for investment. Considering the majority of digital music is downloaded for free, through the expansive networks of user to user file shares – it is not difficult to imagine that as record companies’ profits suffer amid the current economic squeeze, the emerging trend of band-brand partnerships will continue to develop.
The one-year deal has sparked a mixed reaction from fans. Although the majority are in support of the partnership and feel the pair is a good brand fit, some have expressed surprise that the group would choose to associate so freely with such a major commercial corporation. But speaking to the BBC, the band’s Andy Cato defended the move. “You’ve always needed big business to get your music out there,” he explained. “That help used to be major record labels, now it’s all kinds of different things. If you say one corporate pound is any more or less corporate than another, then you’re wrong,” he added. “What is a record label if it’s not a commercial brand?” So how long will it take for other global brands to become the major investing foundation of the music industry? In some ways the ball has already started rolling. Read more…
The day of reckoning has finally arrived. Today, the much-lauded Barack Obama brand machine, which has been working around the clock to inspire and influence a global audience, will finally stand up and be counted. And so far, so good, with recent figures from CBS and the New York Times suggesting that 80 per cent of Americans feel positive about the next four years under the former Illinois senator. But while few would cast doubt on Obama’s personal sentiment during his stirring speeches, his success is by no means one solely of his own making.
Like all politicians, Obama has marketed himself to the max and earlier this week uniquely demonstrated the invaluable impact of a relatively new kind of branding. This technique uses music to represent a brand’s core beliefs and values – it’s about finding the sound of the brand. While we are all exposed to music in commercials on a regular basis, Sunday’s We Are One concert held at Washington DC’s Lincoln Memorial, was a first-class demonstration of the importance of music branding on a different scale. The event proved to those in attendance and indeed, the rest of the world, how sound can not only trigger strong emotions but target any number of different groups and simultaneously unite them.
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.
In the summer of 2007, dance duo Groove Armada sent shockwaves through the music production industry by opting out of a deal with a traditional record label. In April 2008, the duo, who have become a household name thanks in part to the use of their music in commercials, instead signed-up with 
The day of reckoning has finally arrived. Today, the much-lauded Barack Obama brand machine, which has been working around the clock to inspire and influence a global audience, will finally stand up and be counted. And so far, so good, with recent figures from CBS and the New York Times suggesting that 80 per cent of Americans feel positive about the next four years under the former Illinois senator. But while few would cast doubt on Obama’s personal sentiment during his stirring speeches, his success is by no means one solely of his own making.
