Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/69535
Sonic Branding platforms, Audiobrain was able to communi- cate the Giants sound to the audience in a natural way. "There is a brand consistency when you are listening to the radio, or to the TV, and slowly people began to notice," she says. "'That's the sound we hear in the sta- dium. That's the Giants sound.' That's what we started to hear." In December 2011, as the Giants were on a path to the Super Bowl, the increase of press coverage by broadcasters meant an increase in the usage of the anthem. Fans began to recognize the Giants anthem, and MAN MADE MUSIC What do millions of consumers, 270,000 employees, corporate investors, and the gov- ernment all have in common? It's AT&T. And how does AT&T create an emotional connec- tion with all of them? That was the challenge that Esther Lee, senior VP of brand marketing and advertising at AT&T, posed to Joel Becker- man, founder/president of Man Made Music. Man Made Music (www.manmademusic.com) is a bi-coastal music production company and sonic brand consultancy. Their sonic brand clients include Reuters, Discovery Studios and tion of the anthem mirror the experience people have with AT&T. As AT&T innovates and creates new technology, the consumer is able to do new things with their phones or with their businesses. "David Lubars, creative director at BBDO, helped us realize that we needed to have something very personal and intimate at the beginning of the anthem. He said the six notes were fantastic and to make it about the six notes. The personal part of the anthem evolves to a more expansive piece of music at the end. People are really personal about their phone, they call their mom with their phone, and then you have the 911 service that covers the entire country. The anthem encompasses the entirety of the brand." When it came to composing the anthem, Beckerman and his team faced an interesting challenge. While they all agreed on what the six notes should be, finding a sound for those six notes involved searching beyond the typi- cal palette of sounds, such as a great sound- ing piano or clean guitar. "Everything sounded too perfect. The whole point was to human- ize the brand. We wanted something that had more imperfection. When you think about the Brooklyn band scene, or some of the cooler music being made in the Malibu music scene, a lot of that is about the imper- fections. Those things are what make it cool." To achieve well-crafted imperfection, For CNN International's World Sport theme, Stephen Arnold Music called on the Dallas and Fort Worth Symphony orchestras. that prompted Audiobrain to create ring- tones available for purchase on iTunes. "It's now a solid asset," says Arbeeny. "The spon- sors are using it. The narrative is seamless and authentic. The response has been terrific. I'm sure it will be going to even more ave- nues, more broadcast, more consumer prod- ucts, and more Giants touch points. It's something that we could build upon every year. It's evolutionary. It will become iconic. It's ownable. It's sustainable. When you have the right intent in creating a sonic branding initiative, that's the kind of results you get." Sonic branding gives the Giants a consis- tent sound that uniquely defines the team and the organization. It provides a context and connecting point for fans. "When you use sonic branding, the sound is created from the personality of the brand, and the aspira- tions of the brand. It's customized. It's like having a custom tailored suit instead of buy- ing a rack suit. Sonic branding creates consis- tency and authenticity." 36 Post • June 2012 HBO Canada. Beckerman's sonic brand solution needed to encompass the entirety of everything that AT&T does, as well as tell the story of the company on a personal level. According to Beckerman, AT&T not only provides mobile phone service, it connects virtually every 911 call in the United States, and they also run the underlying network infrastructure for huge technology brands such as Micro- soft and Sun Microsystems. "The brand is an innovation brand. It's all about outcomes for their customers, how people benefit from the technology, not just the technology itself. So since they're all about innovation, our solution for the anthem is based on six notes that repeat over and over and over again, and every time you hear those six notes, the musical context of those six notes changes." The six notes of the anthem are considered to be the DNA of the brand's sound. The anthem starts off small and personal, with just the six notes, and gradually builds to a full track. Beckerman's approach was to have the evolu- www.postmagazine.com Beckerman rented a "crappy" upright piano, a 1970's Clavinet (which had recently been played by Stevie Wonder), a half-broken glockenspiel and a vintage Rhodes piano. Beckerman also used a Mellotron, a poly- phonic tape-relay keyboard developed in the early '60s and made popular by the Beatles. Adding to the messy sound are bag- pipes and "indie" vocals. "We were looking for that more rough-around-the-edges, imperfect, hand-made feel. We have bag- pipes because they're really imperfect. You just can't control bagpipes. They're messy, and we liked that sound. The Mellotron is also a very messy and noisy sound, but it has a certain kind of soul to it." Even the drums have a messy sound. Instead of playing the drum kit with tradi- tional sticks, they used rute-type drumsticks, which are made from bundles of bamboo canes. All the instruments were recorded using vintage Neumann mics paired with vintage Neve mic pre-amps. Once inside the session, Phoenix plug-ins, by Crane Song, were added to emulate an old tape sound. "It was a mix of really hand-made, analog world components and real-world instru- ments, along with emulations of things that don't exist anymore," says Beckerman. Using the anthem as their foundation,