Passive Advertising In Sound

Marketing your brand through sound is the most subtle and passive form of advertising you could choose. It allows you to market to your audience without actually “selling”. This passive advertising that I’m referring to is a subtle call to action that does not interfere with the recipients current activities.

In the past, sound was underutilized and pretty much ignored in marketing. However, the tides are turning and it’s becoming more and more prevalent every single day.

More Opportunities to Connect With Customers

Because of the never ending always increasing forms of digital media and online advertising, we have more opportunities than ever to make ourselves heard and be creative in defining a unique sonic identity.

Now I’m going to use a word that has gotten a bad rap but stick with me for a minute as I re-define it for this purpose. Sound and music is a subliminal message that you instill in your audience.

Subliminal messaging does not have to be a negative thing.

Here’s an example of visual subliminal marketing that is not underhanded or shady but rather clever in my opinion.

Have you ever really looked at the Amazon logo? Look at it again (I had to after learning this ). Look at the arrow under the text “Amazon”. I always just thought it was an arrow…never really put much thought into it. Actually, I kind of thought it was a smiley face. You know, happy customers? Well, turns out it has a very specific message. The arrow starts on the a…and ends on the z; symbolizing that Amazon has everything “from A to Z.” Pretty good right?

Or how about the Baskin’ Robbins logo with its initials at the front. A friend just recently pointed this one out to me. If you look on the inside of the BR abbreviation before they spell out the whole title, it’s pink instead of blue. There is a reason for this. The pink highlights that the inside of the abbreviation spells 31….for the 31 flavors.

Or what about FedEx? how you seen the arrow outlined between the e and the x?

Subliminal marketing does not have to be a negative thing. In fact, it can be incredibly positive and also make your point and mission that much more clear.

All of my examples I listed hold a visual representation of their mission within the lettering. Nothing underhanded; just subtle. It’s not manipulation per se, but more a deeper form of connecting with your audience. When you think about Amazon or Baskin Robbins or FedEx after hearing about their logos it doesn’t make you mad. It probably just makes you chuckle or you’ve got a little smirk on your face…or you’re rolling your eyes right now. Whatever your reaction, I can pretty much guarantee you’re not upset.

Branding Without Bothering

If done right, you can form a deeper connection with your audience and your brand through sound that is much more likely to be recalled by them in the future. Whenever they hear that sound, your sound, again, they think of you.

Sound is a subtle way to instill your brand into the recipients subconscious without interrupting their day without pushing your agenda.

Mnemonics or Sonic Logos

We can recall the catchy tune of McDonald’s “Ba-da-bum-bum-bah”, NBC’s “Daaah, daaah, daaah”, and Intel Pentium Processor Chip’s “done…done done done DONE”. (Chances are you picked up on at least one of these musical references.)

These are called mnemonics. Short melodic phrases used as a sonic identity. Or as they used to be known, jingles. However, mnemonics are so much more than a jingle. They exist to assist in memory and recall of its intended focus. If done right, they can define the whole brand and create a foundation of a companies music style guide.

We recall McDonalds, Intel, and NBC with these short musical phrases. No one sold us anything. That knowledge is just there, sitting in the background. It’s been repeated over different platforms and campaigns of those marketing companies throughout the years. Through this simple act of repetition, we’ve learned what it means and just accept it.

In this day and age no one wants to be sold to. They want to make up their own mind without being pressured. I was listening to a podcast the other day called Brand Builder where Dave Gerhardt, former VP of Marketing at Drift, shares some huge knowledge bombs. He said that according to Harvard Business Review 75% of B2B gather all of their information before even going to your website. That’s pretty phenomenal if you think about it.

Information is free. It’s everywhere. The power lies in the consumer not the company. The consumer makes up their mind who they want to do business with, buy from, and ultimately partner with. They do all this on their own thanks to the information superhighway. They don’t even have to ask a person a question. We’ve got bots for that now.

Market Differently

We have to think differently at how we market to our audience. We can’t just sell at them anymore; we have to draw them in, in a new way; a more subtle way. This is how we stack the deck to get people paying attention to us.

Right now I’m trying to develop an “out of the box” music logo kit; for those companies and brands not willing or not able to go the custom route quite yet. I have a ton of logos that I’ve created purely off of me sitting down and going “I want this one to sound like a corporate tech logo,” or “I want this one to sound like an 80’s TV show theme” or, “this one should be a little goofy…because…you never know”. At one point, and you can find these on Pond5, I created 210 different variations off of one 5 second logo creation.

I see now that was a little excessive. But I chalk it up to good practice.

This idea of “out of the box” branding came about solely to serve as an example. To show brands and companies that were not familiar with the concept of sonic branding an example of what it “could’ sound like for them. It’s kind of a counter productive concept for me seeing as I try and educate people on creating their own unique sound but maybe people aren’t ready for that yet. Maybe they need to get their feet wet and so for that…I present to you non-exclusive licensing options.

Challenge Extended

Here is my challenge to you. Record your brand. What does that mean? It can mean anything. What emotions or actions does your brand evoke? For example, say you are a motivational speaker? Try recording motivational music that speaks to you, sounds of footsteps going up to the podium, clapping, room noise.

Listen to this over and over again until actual explainer words come to mind like “leadership”, “optimistic”, “passionate”…things like that. From there, start a mood board. Find actual images that represent those sounds as well as words. I believe that after taking an actual moment to sit in this, you’ll have a clearer idea of what your sound should be. Even if it’s not melodic, because sonic branding is not just melodic (remember the Aflac duck?), you’ll at least be able to rule out what does not sound like your brand. That in itself is a huge step.

All that you’ll really need is something easy and accessible like your phone to have on hand to capture these organic sounds. This serves almost like a doodle pad; to sketch out your thoughts. Leave the fine art alone till later.Then when you’re ready, come to me. I’d love to help! And anyone like me, if you come to them with all this forethought, creating your sound will be that much smoother of a process and potentially a lot faster. And the best part, this will truly be of your brand. Remember, us sonic branders can only go as far as you let us in. If you have done no due diligence on what you truly want before we start designing, then the sound will be more our creation than yours. Sometimes that’s what someone wants, but I’d rather it come from your heart not mine.

Experience Together

There was a super bowl commercial in 2020 for Michelob that I thought had one of the most creative approaches I’d seen that had to do with sound design. They set the stage with the backdrop. You see and hear and almost feel Hawaii; the birds, a mountain, a waterfall. You are in the tropics and it’s loud with nature.

Then they take all of that away so all you can hear is Zoe Kravitz whispering into a desktop microphone “let’s all experience something together”. Then the focus went to the sounds of her drumming her fingernails on the bottle of beer, rolling it on the table, cracking it open and the carbonation fizzing out as she pours it into a glass.

They extracted the loud outdoor scene and chose to 100% focus on the little nuances of sitting and enjoying a beverage in peace and quiet. A great use of manipulating sound to focus on the creators intentions rather than the loudest things in the foreground. Now did it make me think specifically of Michelob? No…but that’s because I’m all about the craft beer. Sorry beer snob.

My point is they grabbed your attention. They didn’t sell you per se, they just had you slow down and experience something….together.