Sonic Advertising: The 100% Love Match Between Music & Ads

Sonic advertising is a trend that ensures we pay attention to how our brand sounds are reaching consumers. It has been identified as a major driver of consumer attention. And attention is the buzzword in my advertising bubble in 2020, fueled by a great book Dr. Karen Nelson-Field published this year, it is now trendy to talk about the Attention Economy.

Every marketer agrees we have ignored attention too much in recent years, but no one knows how to operationalize it yet. Attention helps understand people’s behaviors; it is personal and potentially significantly transformative for the media industry.

But how can you grab Attention? By using sonic advertising.

Out of the many ways you can harvest Attention, mastering the use of music, sounds, or sonic branding is one proven way of grabbing much-needed Attention.

Music and advertising go back a long way; Coke used “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing,” Cadbury used “In The Air Tonight” from Phil Collins, and our very own Sheba took “Fever“ by Peggy Lee to a new level. In the era of TV advertising, music was complementing long forms of advertising, adding entertainment value to advertising.

In today’s cluttered advertising world (with secondary screen usage increasing and Attention to advertising fading), audio signaling is an important lever a marketer can pull to regain lost attention.

Research from TVision in the US found that changes in tonality, jingles, and famous songs make people “watch the TV screen again” during ad breaks. Sonic advertising helps here.

On mobile, depending on the advertising platform activated, sound can be less important (Facebook), rarely required (Twitter), or at the center of your execution (Tik Tok or YouTube).

Audio is now a significant part of your communication strategy

We also hear lots of buzz about the growth of Voice technologies (aka Alexa) with potential future Audio-only social media platforms, we live in the era of Podcasting expansion, and even Radio has a fresh revival.

It’s time to start thinking about building distinctive audio assets for your sonic advertising brand.

Go beyond a famous song that generates short-term buzz and reach, be consistent, and aim to replicate what more successful pioneers did: Intel, Nokia, Schmackos, Pedigree, or Mastercard.

Sound will always be present in advertising in one shape or form; ensure you find your unique brand voice with sound.