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.
This is the TV Spot for the new worldwide Coca-Cola campaign (Agency: Wieden+Kennedy, Amsterdam). The song for the TV commercial “Can you feel it” is performed by One Night Only, a new upcoming british band from Yorkshire. As stated by Coca-Cola the song is supposed to be the next Coca-Cola anthem!! Very interesting from a Sound Branding perspective: Coca-Cola’s Brand Theme (Motif) is… Continue reading
Some days ago I have been interviewed by Christian Schmitt from Vogel Business Media (one of the leading German business publishing groups) about Sound Branding. A special topic is the relevance of Sound Branding for B-to-B brands.
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: sound logo, brand song, sound icons, brand score, brand hookline and brand voice. These elements should mirror the brand values and brand personality in their acoustic dimensions and should acoustically distinguish a brand from its competition as well as from other existing sound elements in the field of communication.
Next to differentiation and communication of brand values additional benefits for brand communication are: …. Continue reading
Brands have used music to leverage their brand communication for years now. Nothing new. New is to integrate Sound Branding elements into a song. But let’s start from the beginning…
Coca Cola has been developing its international FIFA World Cup Celebration campaign around “Wavin’ Flag”, a track by Somalian-born Canadian-based hip hop artist K’naan. “Wavin’ Flag” was first released in March of 2009, but it was only once the Celebration Mix was released that it climbed up the international charts. The Celebration Mix, renamed “Waving Flag”, was rewritten and recorded several times in the build up to the FIFA World Cup, with bilingual versions featuring artists singing in Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, French, Greek, Naija, Chinese and Indonesian. The track has gone to number one on the charts in fifteen countries (according to Billboard.com).
The arabic version:
What makes it special from a branding perspective is… Continue reading
Posted in Sound Branding Case
Tagged Audio Branding, Brand Communication, Brand Hookline, Brand song, Brands and Music, Coca-Cola Brand Song, Coca-Cola Sound Branding, Coca-Cola Sound Logo, Coca-Cola soundmark, international brand management, Multisensual Branding, Sound Branding, Sound Logo, World Cup 2010 Sound Branding
Brand Song is a track which was either exclusively written for the brand (e.g. Langnese: “Like ice in the sunshine”) or was licensed exclusively for the band from existing repertoire (e.g. Microsoft: “Start me up”).
The brand song is then consequently used in brand communication (e.g. Becks: “Sail away”). From a Sound Branding perspective the brand song should incorporate all relevant Sound Branding elements, i.e. the sound logo, the brand hookline, the brand voice and overall reflect the identified Acoustic Identity of the brand.
When developing a brand song… Continue reading
Brand Score can be explained as the adequate acoustic setting (reflection of the brand values) as part of the brand communication. Compared to the brand song the brand score is more of a sound scape. It can be derived from the instrumental version of the brand song. Exemplary field of application: scoring of a radio spot or a corporate movie, background sounds at events, and supersonic sounding at the point of sale. The brand score reintegrates the sound logo and the brand hookline, if these elements exist.
Do you agree or disagree with this definition? Is anything missing in the definition we use? Please post your ideas in the comments section.
Brand hookline can be explained as a chorus with recognition value as part of the brand song. Usually this hookline is an extended version of the sound logo. It can appear in different styles and is an additional acoustic recognition feature and an element in sound branding.
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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