Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/34797
s Fuel TV created the graphic look and sound for at the same time. H ow important is creating a sonic identity? Very. Think about the marketing messages running around your head at this very moment — the NBC chimes, the robot-like, “Droid,” AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail,” the ultra-obnoxious but still memorable Aflac duck. Good or bad, your mind immediately takes you to the product.That is sonic branding done right. Companies spend a lot of time and money creating a distinctive look for their brands, with sound often an afterthought. But they are overlooking an important way to get their message across.These pros hammer home what creating a sonic identity means to a brand. INTENTIONAL AUDIO Audiobrain is a New York-based studio specializing in sonic branding and interactive audio. Partner/execu- tive producer Audrey Arbeeny says the difference be- tween a sonic branding consultancy like Audiobrain (www.audiobrain.com) and a music production house is they “are far more strategic in the development of intentional audio. “We begin with a significant amount of methodol- ogy, from discovery to strategy to creative, so we par- allel a visual identity or brand identity system.” The most important reason to create a sonic iden- tity in addition to a graphic one, she says, is that it brings a valuable asset to a brand.“Companies will go to great lengths creating a graphic identity but often don’t go through the same deliberate process when it comes to audio.” Arbeeny, who teaches a sonic branding course at Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, believes creating a consistent sonic ID is more important now than ever thanks the variety of platforms brands now have to be on with their message.“We give them an evolving story and build sustainable assets that could migrate to their Website or their ringtones and beyond.” The customer is now even more of a driving force in a com- pany’s marketing plans, she says, because if they connect with a product, they are blogging about it, they are Tweeting, they are dri- ving sales. “It’s really transparent now, and the brands that don’t sound consistent or the brands that launch without something iden- tifying them are getting lost in the shuffle.” Audiobrain begins by getting to know a company and what their goals are: is it a new company, are they rebranding, shifting demo- graphics, getting into a new market, or do they need a higher visibil- ity? “We work on many levels that influence the ultimate sound palette we create for that brand, and then we leverage it for the other touch points and figure out what the authentic sound of a brand is,” says Arbeeny. Audiobrain’s clients include NBC Olympics,Virgin Mobile USA, Holland America Cruise Lines and McDonald’s, to name a few. Audiobrain was involved in creating a high-profile sonic brand for the Xbox 360 launch back in 2005 and again in 2008 when there was an upgrade to the software. “It’s so iconic — that logo and that breath — every sound that’s in that product was carefully crafted,” explains Arbeeny. When it came time to upgrade Xbox 360, with additional fea- tures like Netflix, because Audiobrain had that sonic branding strat- egy in place, they only needed one meeting with Microsoft.“We worked to ensure that the sounds were created within the same sonic framework, yet evolved to best accompany the newer visual aesthetic to the interface and capabilities.” Arbeeny says sonic branding can bring great value to any brand, not just the large, global organizations.A more recent project from Audiobrain was for 1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, a credit Audiobrain’s writing studio. A recent job was for 1st Advantage. Audiobrain’s client was Jim Craig,VP of marketing at 1st Advan- tage. He believes whole-heartedly in the process. “Sonic branding proved to be a powerful branding exercise for 1st Advantage.We had invested a lot of money and time to present a consistent ser- vice experience and visual image throughout the organization, but until we worked with Audiobrain we had not developed the same discipline when it came to how we sounded.We are now clearly defined in the minds of our members and employees by how we look, act and sound.” THE SOUND OF EXCITEMENT Fuel TV is an action-sports-based television network that covers the type of adrenaline-inducing play intended to keep viewers on the edge of their seats, such as snowboarding, BMX, mixed martial arts, rally car and beyond. Its viewers are young males, a demographic that is very much connected with the world of music, and that fact isn’t lost on Fuel TV’s senior director of music, John Katovsich. “It’s extremely impor- tant for us as a music department to tap into that and connect on a music level as much as possible by featuring artists they are familiar with, or licensing general styles of music that appeal to those kids.” Katovsich says the main goal of Fuel TV’s music department is music supervision,“which is licensing music for use in our media as well as having music and audio created to fit the productions we create.” That happens for a number of Fuel TV (www.fuel.tv) shows, such as The Daily Habit, which features music in a variety of ways, includ- ing for the show’s graphic package, made up of opens, bumpers, transitions, end credits and billboard pages. When the graphics package was laid out, the audio was planned as well.“Anything that we would potentially need, we created, in- cluding music and sound design that would correspond with what- ever animated activity was going on,” explains Katovsich. www.postmagazine.com June 2011 • Post 23 union with 12 branches in Virginia and a small budget.“They were challenged to stand out as a credit union, a faceless industry,” explains Arbeeny.“And they wanted to create a better customer experience.” After doing some research, Audiobrain discovered how friendly they were to customers and how far they go for their credit union members.They took that information and created three sonic logos — the employees were then asked to pick their favorite. “This year we created a longer-form articulation of their brand and it’s designed for them to use across all of their advertising,” describes Arbeeny. “It’s crafted in such a way it could live below all their different visuals. Everything they’ve done continues to build their portfolio.” The Daily Habit