Have your say about Sound...

Hear us on The Engaging Brand Podcast

By Ronna Porter

I'm often told that our areas of interest at Sound Strategies would make a great podcast.  We agree, and are planning to develop one - along with lots of other exciting projects - in 2008.

In the meantime, Anna Farmery of the popular Engaging Brand podcast interviewed Michael and I last week.  In this half-hour interview we discuss how to align your audio to your brand values, the evolution of sound within our lives and also how to improve employee engagement with audio.  You can listen to in now direct from The Engaging Brand blog, or can subscribe to listen to it later via the Blubrry Community, or on to on iTunes (Anna Farmery/The Engaging Brand, Show #129).

We'd love to hear your thoughts on any of the points raised.

Intercontinental and the ‘Girl from Ipanema’

By Michael Spencer.

“Why do we play ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ when no one in the bar is over 40?”

Why indeed?  It was this comment from InterContinental Hotels Group CEO, Andrew Cosslett in a wide-ranging Time Magazine interview (see Time Magazine, The Times, Chief Executive) that first caught our attention.

So my Sound Strategies colleague, ex-Burson Marsteller CEO (London) Reginald Watts, put a call in.

Since then Sound Strategies has been working with the Group’s lead brand, InterContinental Hotels & Resorts, to develop a comprehensive Acoustic Program that will affect all the sound and music touch points in the brand’s 148 hotels around the world and across all communications channels. Intercontinental will launch its Acoustic Program in early 2008.

According to David Anderson, vice president, global brand innovation for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts:

“Over the last year, we’ve been conducting in-depth consumer research around the world and one area of focus was the application of sound and music in our hotels. Music and sound have a profound and distinct affect on people’s physiological states and their moods. And of course, music and sound contribute significantly to the essence of our Brand. Therefore, we chose to take a comprehensive and scientific approach to our acoustic program.”

Thousands of sounds for millions of cars

By Bernard Carey.  Those UK residents who watched television in the 60s (1960s that is) will recognise this title as borrowed from a Unipart commercial (“Thousands of parts, for millions of cars, U-ni-part!”). Since I remember the words and the tune it was either a very good precursor of audio branding or I watched too much television as a youth.  It was a great example of creating a sound for a brand.

Is the written word being marginalised by image and sound?

By Ronna Porter

The arguments for the prosecution:

· Consumer behaviour, attitudes and expectations of brands are radically changing. Successful companies and individuals will be those well-prepared for the change. The jury is still out on which online social networking, social media, gaming, and internet marketing strategies and tools will become the most effective. However the great majority of these will require audio-visual content, of a fit-for-purpose quality, and optimized for delivery via channels as different as an incoming SMS message, an investor conference, and a music video on interactive television.

The brand of music

Sponsorship, branding and music....do people get the mix right?  Bernard Carey (Chairman, Sound Strategies) adds to the Brand Republic viewpoint

What sticks in your memory?

Marketers and communications agencies alike espouse the importance of music and sound in the promotion of identity and brand.  What sounds have stayed with you?  What assumptions are being made out there?