The voice of McDonald’s – largest global singing competition of its kind

Posted on March 29, 2012 | 1 comment
McDonalds' sign in Harlem.

McDonald's' sign in Harlem. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The voice of McDonald’s is a worldwide contest to discover, recognize and reward the most talented singers among the more than 1.7 million employees working in McDonald’s restaurants. From a branding perspective it’s a nice combination of employer branding, employee motivation and public relation. The competition was kicked off in 2005 and in 2011 more than 20,000 employees entered Voice of McDonald’s IV.

 

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2011 in review

Posted on March 5, 2012 | Leave a comment

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 11,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

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Term 9: Sound Icons

Posted on January 31, 2012 | 10 comments

Sound Icons are sound branding elements in their shortest design. Common examples are signal sounds at the computer. A computer by Apple sounds different than a Microsoft PC. Another example are sounds in GPS devices. The objective is to trigger acoustic recognition: the development of a unique sound with character and emotional profile.

Do you agree or disagree with this definition? Is anything missing in the definition we use? Please post your ideas in the comments section.

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Posted in Sound Branding Glossary

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Audi Sound Branding – Eminem vs. Audi: lawsuit in Germany!

Posted on July 21, 2011 | 6 comments

Eight Mile Style, the company that is responsible for licensing Eminem’s songs, has filed a lawsuit against Audi in the Hamburg regional court in Germany, claiming that the Audi A6 commercial uses a version of Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” without permission. (Source: Spiegel News magazine)


The Eminem song was used in this year’s Chrysler’s Super Bowl spot. Moreover, the Audi spot … Continue reading →

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Posted in Sound Branding, Sound Branding Case

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How does money sound?

Posted on April 29, 2011 | 4 comments

Have you ever seen a business graph and thought how does it sound? National Public Radio (USA) translated this idea into a project. They took the Case-Shiller home price index as a basis for a composition – a kind of sonification – and converted the graph into musical notes.

Case-Shiller

Source: Case-Shiller Home Price Index, via Standard & Poors. Credit: Alyson Hurt.

Then they gave the sheet music to a bariton from Julliard School of Music, New York City. And that’s how it sounds “a decade of U.S. home prices”:

And here is a “decade of Miami home prices”:

I would not call it Sound Branding but it shows how graphs and data streams can be converted to sound and music. In a next step it could be woven into Sound Branding Elements…. Just some food for thought.

Have a great weekend :)

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Sound Branding, Soundscapes and Music in the Hotel and Hospitality Environment

Posted on April 12, 2011 | 2 comments

Some time ago I was interviewed by Fabrice Burtin who is the publisher of a very interesting blog on “branding in the hospitality industry, travel and others”. 

The interview was originally published on his blog. The questions were asked by Fabrice Burtin.

“We are all familiar with the main dimensions of branding, however Sound Branding and Accoustic Identity are often forgotten though they have an obvious emotional impact on the perception of a brand and a dimension that is largely under utilised in the hotel industry. Karlheinz kindly agreed to answer my questions. Very insightful and fascinating.

Can you explain briefly the concept of “Sound Branding”?

Sound Branding (Audio Branding, Acoustic Branding, Sonic Branding) is the process of development, implementation and management of Sound Branding Elements. It includes all sound elements that are exclusively composed and produced for a brand. The key elements are: Continue reading →

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Posted in Instore Music

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Sound Branding Blog is noted as a top 50 up and coming branding blog

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 3 comments

I just received this Email.

“Hello Karlheinz,

I’m writing this because I thought that both you and your readers might want to know that Sound Branding Blog has been included in our article, “Top 50 Up and Coming Branding Blogs.” Please don’t hesitate to let me know if you have any feedback, I’d love to share it with the team –

Best,

Alba Collazo

Co-founder, Advertising Blog

A note about our methodology: When finding blogs our authors use popular search tools (Google/Bing), observe blog rolls, and peruse social media sites. The most relevant, and interesting blogs are then included in our article, which doesn’t rank blogs, but rather lists and categorizes them.”

Thanks a lot for this feedback! I like it :) and it shows the power SoundBranding has! Karlheinz Illner

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