A brief intro to audio branding

We interact with the world around us through our sensory organs — eyes, ears, tongue, skin, and nose. After a particular snapshot of our surroundings made of sensory stimuli arrives in our brain, it gets integrated and processed into something we can understand.

All the sensory organs are impressive, but each has particular limitations and advantages depending on the situation we are facing at a given moment.

Probably, our eyes are leading the VIP Sensory List. But this leading position made them the main target of every effort to call our attention. From the electric color palettes that some animals and plants use to let us know they are poisonous to the efforts undertaken in advertising, based on sophisticated and appealing visuals, aimed to get a product in our minds. But the times are changing. For good or for bad, we are in the age of "multitasking" and we can only look in one direction at once... but we can hear at 360 degrees. And this is where the audio branding comes into place.

We are saturated with visual stimuli. There are plenty of entertainment options that we consume through our eyes. Also, there are several job-related things to which we need to dedicate 100% of our visual system, like, for example, writing down this article. So: how can multi-taskers be reached effectively nowadays? How can we become aware of something, like a new product or company? Or be aware of their presence when we are not looking?

The answer is: reaching out to us through different sensory stimuli.

Two exciting areas of sensory branding have been gaining more and more traction in recent years. On one hand, the olfactory branding: linking a brand with a scent (did you think Subway stores smell that good just because of the sandwiches?). On the other hand, the audio branding.

Since we are music people, we want to talk, share and, of course, further explore audio branding. And in the following posts, we'll cover more and more of this fantastic discipline.

To start, we'd like to highlight that audio branding is a complex discipline that requires an in-depth analysis of the brand's values and personality and a deep understanding of the links between musicality and emotions. Sometimes audio branding is just about a short sonic stamp (who doesn't recognize Netflix's opening sound? or Intel's entry window?).

Sometimes audio branding is a complex collection of sounds and compositions. A full soundtrack designed to put everybody related to a particular brand/company on the same page. This covers from the songs played to the employees before a meeting to the music used while clients are on hold when they call customer service. The music sets a tone, personality, mood, etc.; thus, it has to support and be coherent with the brand's personality.

Don't you think it is fascinating how much it is to learn, explore and build up within this discipline?

More soon!

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SmartMusic is a Songtradrs multidisciplinary team made of engineers, musicologists, and neuroscientists that aims to boost the music world using a cool cocktail of data, science and a huge, huge love for music and artists... where amazing things can become true!

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