What’s your Brand Soundtrack?
- BY admin
- March 18th, 2010
Our local gym has a unique room with a computerized system for cycling training. Bring in your own bike, lock it into the flywheel stand, enter your name, choose a course and pedal. The computer adjusts the tension of your flywheel to simulate the ever-changing grade of your path. Most of the courses are modeled after Ironman or Olympic races and are steep, long and – for me, at least – brutal.
Lately, I’ve been fascinated by the group dynamic in this room with its twelve cycling stations. Getting that many cyclists to agree on a single course can be challenging, but the more interesting negotiations revolve around a much larger issue. What music will we play on the sound system? In fact, many riders are so particular that they’ll plug in their ear buds and crank up their own playlist to 11, blocking out all other competing sound. The reason? When you’re struggling to beat your personal best from the last training session, inspirational music can be the difference between pushing through the pain and giving in to the temptation to quit. The right music inspires the right behavior.
During the recent Vancouver Winter Olympics, AT&T launched their “Team USA Soundtrack” campaign where customers could text and download songs recorded exclusively to inspire and support the American athletes. To explain their choice of “The Champion in Me” for the soundtrack, Brad Arnold from 3 Doors Down said, “It’s got energy, it’s a song that I think that if an Olympic athlete were out training and they had their iPod on, it might be a track that they were actually listening to, and when I was writing the lyrics to the song, I tried to keep that in mind.”
AT&T benefitted by associating their brand with musicians like Sheryl Crow, Chris Brown, Goo Goo Dolls, Queen Latifah, Nelly and Taylor Swift, as well as with the Olympic athletes. This campaign was a brilliant example of “sonic branding” that targeted customers’ sense of hearing in a way not done in the silent campaigns of print and (most) online advertising. It appealed to our desire to support “Team USA” as well as to be inspired by the athletes’ competitive drive for the gold. By listening to a common, inspirational soundtrack, customers connected with the musicians, the athletes, and – AT&T hopes – the brand.
QUESTION: How could your customers be influenced by music? What do your customers hear when they are in your physical store and does it inspire or annoy them? How well do you support your “visual” marketing and advertising campaigns with “audio” ingredients? What does your brand sound like?
Intel’s “sonic logo” has become such a large part of their branding that they are now airing TV spots with their employees singing “Bom bom bom bom!” in unison. (If you could read that and hear the music, you should recognize the power of long-term, consistent branding.) Starbucks Entertainment creates and sponsors a wide variety of CDs that reinforce their coffeehouse culture. But who has the better music experience, Pepsi or Coca-Cola?
Want more? Read about the retro bands whose music peppered the recent collection of Super Bowl ads. Check out Richard Jankovich’s analysis of how Crayola’s adventurous use of relatively unknown musicians is supporting their brand of “creative energy.” Or see the “Top Ten 2009 Song Commercials” at splendAd.com.
The bottom line is this: When your customers think of your brand, what do they hear?
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- Category: VIBE BLOG