According to an article put out by Marketing Brew, 2022 Super Bowl ads that used sonic branding outperformed those without by 64% (up from 43% in 2021)*. The crazy thing is that out of the 62 national Super Bowl ads (from 55 different companies) only 29% incorporated sonic branding at all!
How did so many companies miss the memo?
What Is Sonic Branding?
Sonic branding is a tricky word. As someone that has been studying it for quite a few years, I can tell you that hardly anyone really “gets it”. Some say it’s a jingle (which is a yes and no depending on context). Others say it’s linking a catchy existing song to a campaign (that’s a hard no). Still others don’t have any idea at all and so they call any kind of music sonic branding.
I’m here to set the record straight.
What is sonic branding?
Sonic branding is the integration of custom branded sound into a brands’ marketing strategy.
Using existing music is sound marketing but not sonic branding.
As I’ve written about before, sound should not be an afterthought. Branded sound has to be baked in otherwise the best case scenario is that it’s a “happy accident”. Which as I speak about in one of my sound strategy courses, is not something you can take to the bank.
Happy accidents are the same as going viral. It is beyond anyone’s control. You can not control a happy accident.
Sonic Branding and Large Crowds
Specifically in this Super Bowl scenario, sonic branding is integral to forming strong bonds between large groups of people. Case in point; ALL SPORTS.
Imagine sitting in the crowd at a football game or a soccer game and your team enters the field. The music plays, the crowd goes wild. This is the workings of sonic branding.
Sound is an emotional connection that completely ups the value of the experience for every single patron.
As I know baseball better, here’s some sonic imagery. In America, each player chooses music to walk up to bat to that we all go crazy for. At the top of the 7th inning, everyone stands up and sings “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. Chants reverberate through the arena constantly to either distract or pump up the team. You hear the vendors yelling things like, “hot dogs, get your hotdogs here” in a very rhythmic and repetitive way to blast through all the other sounds in the air. The rhythmic “stomp, stomp, clap. Stomp, stomp, clap” is impossible to ignore. You must join in.
Sports is full of branded sound. Whether the teams choose to realize it or not is up to them. Yes some was pre-existing music but, put into this specific context, becomes something more.
We Will Rock You exists in sports in a different way than it does when going to a Queen concert.
Brands Need To Take Note
No one would argue that sports is extremely popular and stupidly lucrative. Their use of sound is staggeringly effective and it’s amazing that brands (especially ones that advertise within it) aren’t taking their cue.
Only 29% of commercials in the 2022 Super Bowl used sonic branding and sound marketing to their advantage. However, sonic branding’s performance effectiveness increased by 21% from 2021.
The tiny grouping of brands using sonic branding in the Super Bowl became a lot more relevant to the consumer and probably much more profitable just by using music more purposely than their competitors.
How much of an increase in sonic branding effectiveness will 2023 bring? What if the performance successes jump another 21% to 85%? Will brands continue to ignore sonic branding or will they finally catch on?
Small Business- This One’s For You
Obviously, buying a Super Bowl spot is over budget for pretty much all but the top 1% of brands. However, using sonic branding isn’t.
If small and medium businesses learn anything from these Super Bowl commercial fumbles it should be this.
Sonic branding is extremely effective.
Audio Advertising
Maybe you can’t advertise at the Super Bowl but you can advertise online and in your store and on the radio. Perhaps you can afford a local commercial spot or maybe even a non Super Bowl national spot. Imagine the possibilities using sonic branding in these scenarios.
IPSOS did a study in 2020 measuring the effectiveness of audio advertising that used sonically charged elements. Ads that featured sonic cues were 8X as likely to be recalled as opposed to visual cues that were only 3X as likely.
And this is the real crazy part.
Only 8% of those ads surveyed used sonic or music cues….at all!
So if the heavy hitters aren’t getting it, perhaps the Stan’s Fans of the world will.
Use Sound To Your Advantage
I hope brands start catching on more quickly because we will all benefit from it. Maybe just maybe we could go back to …dare I say it….funny and memorable Super Bowl commercials again?
*The Marketing Brew statistic at the beginning of this article was from EDO, Inc but not from a published study. The information given to them was pulled as custom data specifically requested by the Marketing Brew writer.
