The year of sonic branding: why audio marketing is essential for brands to cut through the noise in 2020

On the occasion of World Radio Day 2020, egta unveiled its own sonic branding to serve as an example and to encourage the global advertising community to embrace audio by becoming increasingly aware of its own sonic identity. In this week’s egtabite, we look closer at the topic of sonic branding, why is it important and the process of creating a sonic logo. This analysis can serve as an inspiration for radio and audio publishers to help clients leverage the scale and reach of audio as well as the creative and innovative potential of new platforms. See the egtaradioday website for additional content.

Why is 2020 the year of sonic?

Audio is now omnipresent across a multitude of platforms and devices. With the rise of voice technology, there are more speakers than screens out there and brand perception is therefore increasingly driven by sound. Audio messages can reach people everywhere where a video can – at home, in the office, on public transport, on the go AND on top of that, audio reaches people on various occasions where video is either not available, not safe or not convenient to consume – driving, running errands, exercising, working, etc.

What is sonic branding?

Sonic branding is an audio identity that serves as the acoustic equivalent of a visual identity and is thus essential for brands to distinguish themselves in a screen-less environment. Sonic branding is the strategic integration of sound into a brand identity, as one of the main components to convey a brand’s values, message and trigger emotional recall with consumers.

Why is sonic branding so important now?

Audio communication without a proper sonic branding is like a visual communication without logos, colours and proprietary fonts – doable, but less effective. Audio in 2020 is more than ever an essential component of brands’ distinctive memory structures (DMS).  As How Brands Grow, the renowned book by marketing professor Byron Sharp, teaches us, the secret to growing a brand is to build ‘market-based assets’. These come in two flavours, maximised distribution (physical availability) and clear and distinctive branding using sensory cues (colours, logo, design and SOUND) that are easy to remember (“distinctive memory structures”) and recall.  The real challenge of marketing is all about availability – available in the mind and in the store.

It will have its (important) place within the standard brand identity kit, like a visual logo, colours, fonts etc. Audio must be a “by default” part of creative briefs in 2020.

How did egta develop its sonic logo? What is the typical creative process for sonic branding?

egta’s sonic logo was developed in cooperation with Belgian creative agency Het Geluidshuis and is currently being implemented across various channels.

Het Geluidshuis is an agency with more than 30 years of experience in audio communication and has developed more than a thousand sonic logos for various organisations as well as other audio content. They focus on two core values – the process and the quality. The agency works closely with the client to find the sonic style that is aligned with the brand’s DNA. The process usually starts with a sonic branding workshop that helps to develop a proper briefing. The client is then presented with 3-5 options of logos and can make their selection or finetune some of the options to their liking. When the decision is made Het Geluidshuis then proceeds to production, mixing and assembly. The strategic use of sound, ranging from two recognisable notes to a fully-fledged brand score, is a necessity for completing any brand story.