You Heard it Here: The Sonic Branding Imperative

Audrey Abreeny, two-time Emmy Award-winner, and executive producer, and founder of Audiobrain, knows a thing or two about the power of sound and sonic branding. Her list of clients includes Toshiba, Whirlpool Corporation, Electronic Arts, KIA Motors Corp, Google, Vanguard, McDonald's, Microsoft Xbox 360, NBC Olympics Broadcasts, New York Giants, The Last Gold (USA Swimming documentary film), Holland America Line, Microsoft, Major League Soccer, GlaxoSmithKline, and IBM. That speaks for itself - Abreeny is top talent.

She joined us yesterday at this year's VOICE 2021 in Arlington, Va. for a talk entitled You Heard it Here: The Sonic Branding Imperative. 

Abreeny looks at the current state of voice and its incredible potential while making the case that voice actually works in tandem with other audio assets (music, sound, and vibration) to create rich and engaging experiences. Together with voice, this forms a more substantial sonic landscape that elicits an emotional response that engages and interacts with customers.

Don't put all your eggs in just one basket

This more holistic approach to sound is quickly becoming the new standard, as more and more organizations and individuals understand the value of a multifaceted approach to sound in general and sonic branding in particular. 

As she says, "Voice coexists with product sounds, with music in exhibitions and much more. With today's technological capabilities, you can align uniquely crafted sound assets that make the sound instantly recognizable, which supports the experiences at all sonic touch-points and creates a valuable and inclusive sonic brand - with a great return on investment as well."

Four critical questions

Abreey's talk will answer four seminal questions at the heart of sonic branding.

The first question is, What is sonic branding? While the answer can seem evident on the surface, her answer is actually more subtle than that. It's because sonic branding is more than simply syncing up a sound with the display of a logo in an advert. It's storytelling. Branding is storytelling - and sonic branding is sonic storytelling.

The next question is, How do you create a sonic identity? Your sonic identity is like your audio business card. But beyond simply identifying you, it says something about you and your organization. Tying into the above point, Abreeny further states that your sonic identity needs to generate an emotional reaction; it needs to tell a story. Your brand, be it visual or sonic, should stand for something, and that something should be its implicit narrative.

She then moves on to explain why it's critical to bring consistency to all of your sonic assets. Your identity, your brand, needs consistency to be credible. You don't want it to trigger contradictory emotions. You want that journey to be streamlined, and you want it to reinforce your implicit narrative. You already know your products need consistency, as do your services. Why would your sonic brand be different? Drawing upon her extensive experience, Abreeny shows you how to achieve excellent marketing success by making sure all of your sonic assets line up with a shared set of standards.

As she says, "It's more than your logo. It's more than your jingle. It's your call center. It's your voice."

To conclude her talk, Abreeny discusses some of the reasons why sonic branding is considered one of the hottest fields of 2022. She will provide an overview of the state of sonic branding today, share some of her insights into the industry, and supply the reasons she believes sonic branding will gather even more attention in 2022.

There's more…

It's sure to be an enlightening and engaging talk that you won't want to miss. But there's yet another incentive. 

After her talk, to support those who came to the session, one person was chosen to receive a complimentary sonic branding overview of their offering, as well as complimentary sonic branding written by Audiobrain specifically for them (a sonic logo and one other asset!) Pretty cool.

Hear Audrey Abreeny talk about sonic branding as only she can at VOICE 2021. View the schedule and join VOICE 2021 - the only conversation poised to shape the future of conversational AI, taking place both in-person in Arlington, Va. and virtually, Dec. 7-8.