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Man Made Music created many other assets for AT&T, such as a four-note sonic logo, 26 different ringtones, a brand navigation sound called "the sound of possibility," and a five- minute score to accompany AT&T's holiday spectacular, which is a three-story light show played outside their flagship stores during the holiday season. They also created assets for use during corporate events, such as walk-on music for senior level executives, the sound of "begin" when a conference begins, and the sound of "complete" when a section of the conference is finished. "It's a pretty expansive project and those are just some examples of the things we've done for AT&T. We are doing a lot of repur- posing because the idea is not to create too many new sounds. We want to create as little as possible because we want to be able to have those sounds be used as sort of a learn- ing tool for people, and have them connect with the brand in a way that is very emotion- ally satisfying and really humanizes the brand. For AT&T, it's not about the music and sound so much. It's about the experience that people have. We are trying to highlight people's expe- riences in the brand utilizing music and sound." AT&T uses sonic branding to connect with their customers in an emotional way. Instead of just using advertising to alert cus- tomers to sales and discounts, they wanted to create a brand experience. "One advan- tage a company gains from sonic branding is attribution. People know you are there. They can have a sense of your identity, which becomes an asset the company owns over time. It's more emotional; you're connecting people on an emotional level." BOOM SONIC BRANDING Electrolux and Frigidaire are two separate brands from the same parent company, and that fact was the key to creating their sonic identities. While both sonic identities needed to convey quality, Electrolux had to convey the idea of "premium" as well. Bill Nygren, president/creative director at Boom Sonic Branding (www.boomsonicbranding.com) in Toronto, along with sound designer Kevin Swartz, developed the sonic logos for Elec- trolux and Frigidaire for the Canadian market via Scratch Marketing. "You want to support the strengths of both brands, but there has to be a clear difference," says Nygren. "Those logos are talking to different income points. In the case of Electrolux, it's a more premium product, that's why there is a little more style and flourish." Nygren and Swartz started work on both logos concurrently. Their first step was to define each brand and understand where the two brands stood in terms of pricing and perception. For Electrolux, they wanted the sound to convey elegance in technology. Since it is a more premium brand, with a higher price point, they needed to create a sound that would appeal to customers in a higher income bracket. The Frigidaire sonic logo has a more ener- getic and confident tone. It conveys a sense of quality in a more workman-like way. Both logos are a combination of music and sound design elements. "We are always looking for a balance of music and sound design. For Electrolux, we leaned a little more on music than we did for Frigidaire. It's more melodic and that was an intentional thing," explains Nygren. Each sonic logo was created to support the brand's graphic identity. Nygren and Swartz discussed the characteristics of the visuals to determine the instrumentation, sound design, length, and how it should end. They also talked about brand characteristics, such as: How does the client want consum- ers to experience the brand? What should the audience be thinking about when they hear the audio logo? What are the consum- ers like? How do they behave? These ques- tions help them to narrow down their sound palette to create the most appropriate, and relevant sound. "We tend to get to a solution very quickly, and it all flows out of the discussion that Kevin and I have, " he says. "We create a sound that the consumer is going to feel ok about, that the brand is going to be happy to have repre- senting it, and that we feel transfers some kind of positive feeling onto the listener. " Creating the sonic logos only took the team about a week. After Nygren learned what he needed to know about the brand, he and Swartz spent a day creating several ideas, and then spent another few days refin- ing those ideas and narrowing them down. For each brand, they presented the client with a dozen options. For their clients, time was of the essence. "We didn't get precious about it, and frankly, I think the work holds up," says Nygren. "There is no mad science to it. A lot of people in sonic branding are now into Dan Levitin and This Is Your Brain on Music, and they're focus-grouping this, that and the other thing, and putting a lot of science and purpose and study into designing these sonic brands. And it's great they're doing that, but frankly, I think they're spending an awful lot of the clients money for Music Zero Fee MEANS For Details CALL or CLICK www.ZeroFeeMusic.com 800-468-6874 www.postmagazine.com Post • June 2012 37 NO Cost to YOU nothing. This is not science, it is an art." Nygren's approach to sonic branding is based on his knowledge of music and an understanding of marketing and brands. He feels that knowing how to ask the right ques- tions about a brand, and being skilled as an artist, are the keys to creating successful sonic logos. "There's an awful lot of overkill in the industry, and now, since so many more people are using sonic logos, there's an awful lot of underkill," explains Nygren. "People who really don't understand sonic logos are just throwing any sequence of notes into the first sound voice they find, and saying, 'Here's your logo!' I'm surprised at how many medi- um-sized brands have some really mediocre sonic logo work happening." No matter what a sonic brand sounds like, it can't be effective if the audience doesn't recognize it as relating to a particu- lar brand. "An important factor is the client needs to buy enough media, so the con- sumers hear the logo often enough, and so they go, 'Oh that's your sound,"' he says. "Sounds trigger memory and emotions in ways that graphics, or things you see, don't necessarily always do. So, a sonic logo is a device that allows you to dig a hole into someone's subconscious. It's ear candy that doubles as an ear worm." PostAd-2a_Post Ad 3/7/12 2:40 PM Page 1 In one of Boom Sonic Branding's studios: Kevin Swartz and Bill Nygren. for Your TV Show or Feature Film Music NO Master Use, Sync or DVD fees