Audio Branding

Audio branding is one of the most commonly overlooked aspects of advertising and marketing, but it's also one of the most important. Sound plays a vital role in shaping our lives: our brains are conditioned to respond to sound and music on a subconscious level. These podcasts explore how audio branding uses that innate connection for advertising and marketing, and the opportunities it creates to forge a more lasting, personal connection with your audience.

Audio Advertising: Beyond the Jingle

Sound has been a part of advertising for as long as advertising itself has existed, from street slogans in Victorian England that are recited today as nursery rhymes to television jingles that many of us still know by heart. But audio branding has undergone a revolution over the past few years, evolving from straightforward pitches into musical logos and subtle soundscapes that guide the listener’s impressions while reinforcing a brand’s identity.

The advertising industry in particular has been transformed by social media, and the enormous new audience and global reach it represents. From viral videos and licensed music to streaming shows and smart devices, we take a look at how online life has opened up entirely new directions when it comes to audio advertising and branding.

Audio Marketing: A Sound Strategy

Branding isn’t just about advertising, though. Audio branding encompasses the listener’s whole experience with a brand from start to finish, with points of contact that range from traditional advertising and social media to apps and IVR sounds. Throughout these episodes, we talk about how every touchpoint, no matter how short or seemingly minor, is an opportunity to instill a sense of consistency and brand recognition, and how to make the most of them.

Advertising and marketing have come a long way over the past century, from storefronts and brand logos to radio jingles and television ads. As we move forward into the twenty-first century, digital media and audio-first industries like Spotify and Clubhouse are making audio advertising and marketing strategies more relevant than ever before. New approaches are constantly emerging, and these podcasts can help explore and navigate the changing landscape of audio branding.

Sonic Branding Evolved: A Conversation with Uli Reese – Part 1

“And what’s interesting is the agency usually comes back and says ‘this is amazing, how did you… this sounds, like, better than our music productions! This is, like, so authentic! This has grip! This seems like the Beatles in the garage!’ And I said ‘that’s what every agency guy wants.’ They want to find the […]

Creating Your Sound: A Conversation with Drop Music Branding – Part 2

“But we did a rebranding of brands that already came from a place where they actually have worked, so we work in evolutions, in rebrandings, not just like a brand from the start. So what we try to do is keep the things that are really distinctive if they’ve already made audio branding, but evolve […]

Creating Your Sound: A Conversation with Drop Music Branding – Part 1

“I think that we are in a wonderful time to do audio branding because this situation where we need to educate people is a very good situation, right, because it’s something that is happening that we need to be strategic about it, and not so many brands are doing it. Right, so I think it’s […]

A Sixth Sense for Sound: An Interview with Colleen Fahey – Part 2

“They often have a suite of sounds. Now you still have to follow all regulations that have to do with safety and that kind of thing, but now the sound inside the car can be reflected in the marketing communications around it, so that’s a very big use of sound.” — Colleen Fahey   This […]

A Sixth Sense for Sound: An Interview with Colleen Fahey – Part 1

“All news music doesn’t have to have trumpets and trombones, and all trains don’t have to just ring, you know, or honk. And all appliances shouldn’t always sound like ‘beep beep beep,’ you know, chip sounds instead of having a tune that would make people remember them better and maybe like them better.” — Colleen […]

Sines and Sounds: An Interview with Nicolae Bogdan Bratis – Part 2

“What’s great about podcasting is there’s that intimacy there. It’s just audio. It’s really fun when I listen to a podcast or I edit a podcast and I don’t know what the guest looks like, I don’t know anything about a guest, and I’m trying to imagine what type of personality that guest has. And […]