I'm sure you know the sounds. Like the ones firmly associated with the McDonald's brand or the few tones announcing the acceptance of a Mastercard payment. Audio branding, an acoustic logo or a cohesive acoustic identity is something that can set a brand apart from the competition and become ingrained in the minds of customers, who will undoubtedly recognise it in a flood of other sounds.
Audio branding is one of the brand assets or brand assets that help a brand to be recognized by the customer. It stands alongside the visual logo, color scheme and overall visual identity. Moreover, according to a recent survey by Distinctive BAT, the jingle, or advertising jingle, is even the most powerful asset at a brand's disposal. "Jingles more often than not outperform other brand assets, they are incredibly powerful and sticky assets," describes Matthew Ovington, co-founder and head of research at Distinctive BAT.
Source: Distinctive BATWith audio branding, you can not only differentiate yourself from the competition, but also from other sounds in the area. For example, five years ago the aforementioned Mastercard brand came up with its new acoustic identity in response to the growing number of digital devices that are able to make a transaction without the consumer seeing it. It is the unified soundtrack that announces the transaction and unifies it in people's ears, and therefore in their minds.
In the Czech market this year , a new audio branding was introduced by the Bauhaus network of hobby centres, which went the route of purchasing a licence for an existing song - "Our House" by the British band Madness. "We launched our new acoustic branding as part of this spring campaign. We started from the historically existing branding, which, according to the survey, people still remembered, even though we hadn't used it for many years, and dressed it up in a slightly more modern garb," Jindřich Hovorka, head of marketing at Bauhaus, told MediaGuru, adding that the brand works with audio branding across channels - from video or radio formats, through in-store communication to the customer service line.
It is too early to draw any deeper conclusions on the benefits of the new audio branding, according to Hovorka. "The goal is obviously to build another of the brand's distinctive symbols, which won't happen by magic and will take time. But the first numbers we have are positive. People associate the branding with Bauhaus to a considerable extent," he adds.
Pilsner Urquell chose the route of audio branding created by a specialist music agency two years ago. The MassiveMusic agency was inspired by the typical sounds of the brewery and the taste of Pilsner lager itself. "We tasted the beer and recorded the sounds of the brewery's key locations, the beats of the coopers, the tones of the copper tanks and the traditional tools used in the brewing process. We also filmed the musical accompaniment directly in the brewery. Thus, we put at the core of Pilsner Urquell's sonic identity not only the characteristics that represent the brand's craft and tradition, but above all its contemporary energy, as well as the passion of the consumers who love it. The audio branding of Pilsner Urquell creates a memorable harmony of sounds that will help improve brand perception in the future," explains Joe Bush, Senior Creative Strategist at MassiveMusic.
The audio logo is being used by the beer brand in TV spots and video formats for digital campaigns as part of its core international "Keepers of the Craft" communications. "The Pilsner Urquell audio logo, which we have tested abroad and where we predominantly use it, helps us to boost our brand recognition. It's also an element that promotes consistency within campaigns, especially when they contain a lot of video content. Our audio logo meets these objectives and we are satisfied with it," says Lenka Králová, brand director at Pilsner Urquell.
According to Distinctive BAT, it's always worth focusing on just a few brand assets to help differentiate the brand. Consistency in building them is also important.
Source: mediaguru.cz
