Why Sonic Identity is Becoming So Important

There is so much of everything out there in medialand — so much video, so much web, so much audio. The challenge for content creators and advertisers is standing out amidst the supersized garden hose of content and choice.

In this moment when audio is seemingly exploding everywhere, how a brand sounds is on the radar in a way it never has been. In fact “sonic identity” — how a brand translates its essence into audio — is a relatively new question for many brands that until recently had written off audio and focused on video.

Sonic identity may be on trend, but it is not new. The famous NBC chimes date back to 1927 and was the first trademarked sound, as we wrote about here.

How brands create effective audio campaigns of course varies. Production style, copy, attractiveness of the product itself and the heft behind the marketing are all factors.

I sat down with Scott Simonelli, Founder and CEO of Veritonic, an audio intelligence platform that measures the effectiveness of different kinds of sound. Most of their clients are advertisers looking to maximize the impact of an audio campaign, which includes ads, logos, jingles and identifiers. That’s no small task as brands look to develop more impactful relationships with customers.

For the fourth year they have published an Audio Logo Index ranking the most effective sonic brand ID’s. This year was bit different as part of the survey occurred during the early days of the pandemic.