In the article „Brands Are Coming for Your Ears.”, in Bloomberg, Ben Schott detailed explained to us why audio has become the latest front in branding’s battle for our attention. The author says:
„The latest front in branding’s battle for our attention is audio – as will be familiar to anyone who has measured out their lockdown with Netflix “ta-dums.” By this stage of late-stage capitalism, even the smallest brands have a “look and feel.” Now, faced with a saturated visual field and a consumer stampede to audio, companies are looking to complement their “tone of voice” with a matching “voice of tone.”
In contrast to advertising’s traditional audio tactics of iconic singles and vexatious jingles, “sonic branding” aspires to develop a strategic “soundscape” of “aural assets” – stings, bumpers, earcons and Ohrwurms – by sequencing each brand’s “audio DNA.”
Next, we can figure out:
„Audio offers brands a range of complementary opportunities. Sound allows brands to define and defend ownership of a moment — most effectively when the sound itself derives from a product’s physical properties. Perhaps the most enduring example is the “snap! crackle! pop!” of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies which, since it first appeared on a cereal box in 1932, has encapsulated the moment the milk hits the cereal, and breakfast begins.”
The author illustrated his theses with detail with sound examples of various areas of life, but also from the advertising industry.
Source: Bloomberg, Brands Are Coming for Your Ears by Ben Schott, 16th May 2021