I’ve touched on this subject before, but I think it’s worth exploring in its own dedicated blog. When COVID-19 first hit North America in early 2020, most professionals were scrambling to adapt to a changed world. Being in the audio branding industry, it was very interesting to see these changes from a multi-sensory branding perspective….
‘I Saw it on the Radio’: The Power of Audio Imagery
Sound is incredibly visual. Back in college, one of my profs, the legendary Steve Bolton, had this poster in his office that said “I saw it on the radio”. For years I thought this was just a joke, but I later realized that it may have been more insightful than I initially thought. Before I…
How to Buy a Microphone
When people ask me what microphone they should buy, I feel like I should pull up some chairs and pour some tea. It’s a big question, but let’s see if we can get started with some short answers. Bear in mind that everything here is just one person’s opinion. Other people will have their own…
Product Sounds: Audio Branding’s Secret Weapon
Rice Krispies is a boring, boring cereal, with an equally boring name. Fortunately someone realized it made a sound. They took snap, crackle, and pop and they ran with it, and that has sustained them for close to a hundred years now. If you have a product that makes (or can make) a distinctive sound,…
Assessing Your Brand’s Sonic Footprint (yes, you have one)
One of the first steps in audio branding is asking the following questions about your brand media. ►How much sound are we actually putting out?►How much of it was designed?►How much of it can be designed? But before we can design, we need to answer that first question. We need a clear picture of your…
The Audio Audit: Netflix 2/5
Whenever I host a presentation or webinar about audio branding, I usually play a brief game with the audience. I’ll play an established audio logo, and invite them to tell me who or what it represents. They always recognize McDonald’s, HBO, and Intel. I stopped using Netflix because people rarely got it. This is not…
The Audio Audit: CBS 4/5
Last month CBS launched a whole new rebrand. It’s a visual rebrand with a new audio logo that sets the tone for the animation. These kinds of rebrands are not uncommon, especially for a brand as old as CBS, but in this case, it sounds like they’re doing it for the right reasons. “I wanted…
Why So Many Radio Ads Fail – Part 2
Last time we highlighted some of the differences between active and passive media consumption. Another distinction that needs to be made for audio-only advertising is emotional versus logical persuasion. There’s certainly a lot of value to persuading with facts, figures, and data, but numbers don’t always convey well in audio ads. To a passive listener,…
Why So Many Radio Ads Fail – Part 1
I started my career in radio, and something that continues to frustrate me is how so many writers and producers of radio content will write and produce with this idea that the audience is hanging on their every word. The hard truth is they’re not, and they haven’t been for well over fifty years. Remember…
Netflix Cinematic Logo: Upgrade or Band-Aid?
Netflix recently expanded on its audio logo for cinematic presentation. You’ve heard the original many times before. It’s that signature percussive tone that precedes all their original content. And for this job, they brought in the big guns. They recruited film score veteran Hans Zimmer to bring some buildup and weight to their existing sonic…