The Audio Branding Congress is happening in less than two weeks here in NYC, so I thought I'd hit you readers with some more musings about the topic. I met a super cool cat at AES a while back, Elijah Torn of Massive Music, and asked him for some thoughts about the importance of sonic branding.
I've been around music my entire life and working directly with audio for film and advertising for over ten years. As Creative Director at MassiveMusic in New York City, I recognize the importance of sound and sonic identities for brands is very freaking important!Music and sound effect us on nearly every level- most specifically for branding is in a psychological sense. It can increase our memory recall- "Now I know my ABC's" anyone? Sound also creates specific emotions that images can't necessarily create on their own. Studies show that without sound, horror movies have a far weaker impact. Now with that applied to brands- if you have the opportunity to leave potential customers with an extra feeling beyond seeing or touching the product- why not incorporate sonic branding to its fullest?
Well, what can else can we say other than: we agree! Sonic branding aka audio branding has been around for years, but aside from large corporations and forward-thinking smaller businesses, it's still not looked at as a crucial component of a company's marketing and branding strategy. That will soon change as companies realize it's a way to set themselves apart from competition and we humans quest to inundate ourselves with stimulation of all the senses...(just wait for Smell-o-Vision theaters to return...)
Well, if you feel like coalescing with other forward-thinking nerds about audio branding, then you need to be present at the Audio Branding Congress this month (hosted by New York City's own Expansion Team). Pro Sound Effects will be giving away SONOPEDIA 2.0 to the winner of the best audio branding case study. These interdisciplinary case studies involve music, compostition, sound design, marketing, psychology, visuals, research and more. We'll see you there!
