The Evidence

• Sound is processed 20-100x faster than vision (Horowitz). Every millisecond counts when trying to win the first few milliseconds and beat the swipe/skip, so creating something sonically interesting or recognisable is vital.

• The human brain interprets music like a puzzle. Harmonic and melodic patterns create an expected sequence or resolution. Think of an EDM drop or a classical perfect cadence – these moments are incredibly satisfying for our brains. This can be used to draw audiences in and, critically, retain them until your marketing message is delivered.

• Studies show that the existence of complementary music can enhance attention and retention of key information. Beware though, not all music boosts attention, the wrong music can detract from the message.

• When building a brand, repetition is vital to encode long-term memory. The more times an audience hears a sound, the more likely they are to remember and attribute it correctly. However, wearout is also a key consideration. On channels where back to back branded content is consumed, think about how many times a sonic asset will be heard per session.

Some practical tips for perfecting your sonic strategy:

Sonic assets:

Start with what you already have. Consider what you have in your sonic brand toolkit. Even if that has not been formalised in your brand guidelines, there may be distinctive sounds, music, voices or other audio cues that can be used consistently across your content.

Background music:

Create variation in your clips by using a range of music edits. The most efficient way of doing this is to make multiple edits of your original music. This requires some foresight when choosing or creating a track with enough natural variation to support multiple edits. Remixing in different styles is another way to create consistency whilst providing more creative/tonal flex.

Sonic logo:

Do you have a sonic logo that can be placed at the beginning or end of content? Consider how your audience consumes your content (binge-ing back-to-back vs one-off) on each channel to ensure the sonic logo doesn’t generate wearout. As a rule of thumb, if the visual logo appears, the sonic logo should.

Sonic shorthand:

Is there something that could act as a short brand identifier? Perhaps there is a sound effect or product sound that is related to the customer experience: Magnum’s ice-cream crunch, Apple’s iPhone notification sound, UberEats’ ; doorbell, ING’s Lion. Or maybe you have a hummable melody or tappable beat that can become shorthand for your sonic brand: Macca’s Badabababa, Netflix’s Ta-dum, Toyota’s “Oh What A Feeling”.

Voice:

Recognisable voices are a key part of the puzzle. If you have recognisable talent or a memorable name or catchphrase, bringing that forward to the beginning of your clipped content is a great way to capture attention.

In a format where every second counts, sonic branding shouldn’t be something added at the end of the editing process. It should be considered from the start.

The clip may be short. The sonic strategy shouldn’t be.