July 25, 2023 • 14 mins
Sound is how we communicate, relate, and feel. It is one-fifth of what makes us human. Why wouldn’t we incorporate sound more strategically into our brand marketing?
Check out the original article here.
Thank you to Pixabay and Artlist for some great SFX fillers. I also created and slipped in a few of my own. Please note, there are no Stan’s Fans or The Pillow Factory. I made them up for demonstrational purposes.
---
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For further inquiries, email Jeanna at mailto:jeanna@dreamrproductions.com
The Sound In Marketing Podcast is produced by Dreamr Productions and hosted, written, and edited by Jeanna Isham. It is available on all the major podcast channels here https://pod.link/1467112373.
Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more on brand.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeannaisham/
https://twitter.com/Jeanna_Isham
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner
and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound in Marketing learning.
I create, consult and educate individuals
and brandson the power of sound in marketing.
The Sound In Marketing Podcast existsas a resource for those wanting to up
their marketing gain exponentially by simply thinking a little differently.
(00:28):
My real heart is focusing on my fellowsmall to medium sized businesses
and the potential sound strategyhas for their brand marketing.
Sound can give that extra boostneeded to effectively compete
with bigger business competitors,
especially within the newnessof sensorial marketing.
Everyone will figure this out eventually.
(00:50):
Hopefully this podcast helpsyou get ahead of the crowd.
If the content in these episodesinspire ideas
for your company,don't hesitate to give me a call.
Dreamr productionshelps brands make sound on purpose.
We'd love to help you too.
Now onto the show.
In this episode,we'll be talking about sound.
What is it? Why is it so powerful?
(01:12):
And why are big brands turning to it?
To create a powerhouse of branding genius.
What is sound
and why is it so important to a brand?
It's what I am constantly thinking aboutresearching and educating clients about.
Ultimately, we are sound.
Sound is caused by vibrations
(01:35):
which are caused by motion.
Everyone and everything is in motion.
So ultimately, we are sound.
If all things make sound in one wayor another, then so do our brands
and products.
It is our responsibilityto represent our brands
sound sincerely and honestly.
(01:57):
You wouldn't let your logo designbe determined by how a paint splatters
on a piece of paper
would you? Or would you tell Midjourneyto create something with pretty colors
and take it as is, without any kindof manipulation and personal creativity?
I sure hope not.
We design our visual branding so thatit tells the message we want it to tell.
(02:18):
Same goes with sound.
You don't just leavesound to its own devices,
especially if the sound happensto be creating
the wrong experienceor breaking brand messaging.
We at the Pillow Factory carehow well you sleep at night.
We know that a good and peacefulexperience is just the ticket
to a healthier life,
and we are committed to bringing youthe most premium experience possible.
(02:42):
Sound has this incredible powerto make up your mind about one thing
or another in seconds, seconds,
to a positive experience, or potentially.
We know that a good and peacefulexperience is just the ticket
to a healthier life,and we are committed.. a negative one
and we all know that a negative opinionis near impossible to reverse.
(03:04):
So save yourselfthe trouble and make sound on purpose.
Here are eight ways that sound influencesthe consumer right now and why
sound strategy must be consideredalongside traditional visual branding.
Sound is
responsive.
Sound requires action.
This may be as big as a physical movementor as small as thought.
(03:27):
Interpreting what is being heard.
By implementing sound into your marketing,you're actively engaging your audience.
They can't just close their eyesor look away their ears actively.
Are hearing your messaging.
Using sound and smarttechnology is even more reactionary.
Or at least it can be.
Audioadvertising will have a call to action
(03:49):
and ask you to take initiative at a latertime.
But responsive voiceads require a response
in the moment and more importantly,when you are most interested.
For example, voiceresponsive ads require immediate action.
Want to hear more about Stan’s Fans?
Say, Alexa, tell me more.
To hear our latest discounts.
(04:10):
Sound can cause an immediate responsethat could mean an immediate sale.
Sound is
persuasive.
Audiocan actually change our buying habits.
In the 80s, Ronald E Milliman conducteda study that found that playing
slower music in grocery storesincreased sales by 38%.
(04:31):
This theory was laterproven by scientists in 2011.
The slower pace of the musicsubconsciously slows people down
and helps them to create more mindfuldecisions in purchases.
Millman was quoted as saying,it is possible
to influence behavior with music,but this influence can either contribute
(04:52):
to the process of achieving businessobjectives or interfere with it.
Fast forwarding to today,these findings still apply.
According to a report from Septemberto October 2020 by Veritonic,
voice ads had 27% higher purchaseintent than the audio ad benchmarks.
For those who engaged the ad. Soundcan make or break an experience.
(05:17):
Sound is more than just music.
A lot of people go to the
default of songs and musicwhen thinking about Sonic branding.
But Sonic branding is so much more.
Sonic means sound, and sound covers
a whole lot more consumer touchpointsthan music does or could.
Welcome.
(05:37):
You've got mail.
(Functional Sounds playing)
Goodbye.
Those audio touchpoints are differentdepending on industry,
platform and market.
These outlets are growingexponentially with every new innovation
(05:58):
that comes along.
Identifying sonic branding as soundrather than just
music gives us an incredibly largepalette to paint on.
This is a good thing.
Sound is global.
Not a single person on this earthcan't relate to sound.
Even the deaf can understand vibration,which again is also sound.
(06:19):
Sound is diverseand multicultural by nature
as everyone on this planetexperiences and lives sound.
Not always true of music, but soundis most definitely relatable everywhere.
According to a study doneby the proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences,two thirds of the world's languages
were found to use or avoid the samesounds for common objects and ideas.
(06:42):
Researchersfound that a considerable amount of 100
basic vocabulary items
associate strongly with specifickinds of human speech sounds.
These are from unrelated languagesand from largely diverse
geographical locations.
Although we may not understand allthe specific words in any given language,
we can understand context through sound,inflection, timbre, and rhythm.
(07:07):
Sound is nostalgic.
Sounds can take us back. Again,
not talking about music necessarily,
but that is generally the easiest wayto think about it.
I love this quote from Social Media Weekback in 2015.
More messages,more alerts, more photos, more videos,
and more advertisementsare thrown in our faces than ever before.
(07:30):
And when we see or hear somethingthat connects with our past lives,
we just seem to freeze, take it in
and transcend back to that moment in time.
It's not quitelike an ordinary advertisement
or piece of content that we can easilyignore and watch it fly by.
Nostalgic content is completely different.
It's emotional.
(07:51):
The fact that sound can make us stopand think and listen,
when we've never been busier and bombardedby more and more information hit at us
constantlyand all at once is absolutely amazing.
Sound is efficient.
According to a research study
published in Saudi Journal of SportsMedicine in 2014.
(08:13):
Auditory stimuli takes 8 to 10,miliseconds to reach the brain.
Visual stimuli take 20 to 40 milliseconds
through the act of repetition, rhythmsand patterns.
Sound can train our brainto remember its message in the short term,
and in the long term.
Sound plays into both
short term and long term memory models.
(08:36):
In 2019,Pandora analyzed the best placement
of a brand mentioned in a 32nd AD spot.
They found that listeners were 7%more likely to remember a brand's name
if it was presentedin the first three seconds of the ad.
Think back on the last TV commercialyou listened to.
Did they mention the brand's nameright away, or at the very end?
(08:58):
Was the mentionburied in the middle somewhere,
or was it even mentioned at all?
Do you even remember the last TVcommercial you watched?
Sound is a breath of fresh air.
Through the pandemic,we all learned to use zoom in the same
vernacular as Google,but most of us are over it now.
Video conferencing,although super helpful in that season,
(09:20):
is tiring on our bodies and eyes.
What if we could stay connectedwithout engaging
anything other than our earsand perhaps our voice?
Although clubhouse isn't quite as popularas it was in 2021,
I don't think it's a coincidencethat it became a hit.
And I know it won't be the last
audio only platform.With the importance of sound on TikTok,
(09:42):
the next audio only appwill hit a lot more nails on the head.
Because of Clubhouse'strailblazing influence and accolades.
I interviewed a few people from mindsharea few years back.
Mindshare is a global mediaand marketing services company.
In 2018, they had a short video seriesthat they put together called
The Media Dystopia.
(10:03):
Their episode Soundas the Savior was specifically noteworthy.
Their example that they presentedwas of a world where people got
so addicted to their machinesthat they had to untether.
Sound familiar?
They pitched the idea of soundbeing a savior,
that it called to usin a very primitive way,
as storytelling of the mind has existedfar beyond video and even books.
(10:29):
According to neuroscientists,it has been proven that when you listen
to audio content, your brain triggerssomething called self visualization.
A personal experiencein your own imagination.
Further studies found
that audio has the ability to evokeeven more emotion than video content.
There's that word again emotion.
(10:49):
Sound
is evolving in real time.
Voicefirst and voice only is here to stay.
And as we watch itdevelop and evolve in real time.
New audiotouchpoints are popping up constantly.
With these amazing creatorsand products comes innovation,
and with innovation,we must respond in kind.
We have to be creativeand be aware of what's going on.
(11:11):
We can't just respond tohow people are using audio currently.
We need to try and think ahead and see
the potential of what soundcould be in the future.
Voice tech is moving fast,and those that don't run with it now
are going to have a hard time catching up.
Here's just a few statistics to leave you
with on the emergenceof the sound revolution.
(11:32):
According to Think with Google in 2017,
72% of people who own a voiceactivated speaker
say that their devices are often usedas part of their daily routine.
In 2018,headphones outsold smartphones. In the US.
More people subscribeto podcasts than to Netflix.
Also in 2018, Pandora bought Sirius
(11:54):
XM for $3.5 billion.
In 2019, Spotify bought Anchor
and Gimlet for $340 million.
In 2020, SiriusXM bought Stitcher for $325 million.
Also in 2020, Spotify bought megaphone,
a podcast producing and marketing company,for $235 million.
(12:16):
Spotify also bought The Joe RoganPodcast in 2020 for $100 million.
Compare that to Howard Stern,who signed his 2025 year deal
with Sirius XM for that much per year,and that's pretty impressive.
As of December 2020, more than 55% of U.S.
adults have either a smart home deviceor a smart speaker.
(12:37):
Sound matters.
Sound matters because it is a part of us.
It is how we functionand process information.
It helps us to relate to one anotherand our environment.
It makes us feel thingsand it creates action.
It is how we make decisions on what to buy
and what not to buy.
(12:59):
Sound is influentialto our brand and bottom line,
whether you like it or not,your brand will sound one way or another.
Are you in control of that sound?
Are you using it to your best advantage?
What does your brand sound like?
Thank you
to Pixabay and Art listfor some great sound effects fillers.
(13:22):
I also createdand slipped in a few of my own.
Please note there are no Stan’s Fansor the Pillow Factory.
I made them up for demonstrationpurposes.
Did you like what you heard? Great!
Leave a review,tell a friend and spread the word.
More people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that now.
Want to explore your sound strategyfurther?
(13:42):
I'd love to help.
Send me an email at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.comand we can continue
this off platform. For further resources,learning and content,
check out Sound in MarketingLearning for your one stop sound shop.
All linkswill be provided in the show notes.
Let's make this world of
sound more intriguing,more unique, and more and more on brand.
Welcometo the Sound In Marketing Podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner
and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound in Marketing learning.
I create, consult and educate individuals
and brandson the power of sound in marketing.
The Sound In Marketing Podcast existsas a resource for those wanting to up
their marketing gain exponentially by simply thinking a little differently.
(00:28):
My real heart is focusing on my fellowsmall to medium sized businesses
and the potential sound strategyhas for their brand marketing.
Sound can give that extra boostneeded to effectively compete
with bigger business competitors,
especially within the newnessof sensorial marketing.
Everyone will figure this out eventually.
(00:50):
Hopefully this podcast helpsyou get ahead of the crowd.
If the content in these episodesinspire ideas
for your company,don't hesitate to give me a call.
Dreamr productionshelps brands make sound on purpose.
We'd love to help you too.
Now onto the show.
In this episode,we'll be talking about sound.
What is it? Why is it so powerful?
(01:12):
And why are big brands turning to it?
To create a powerhouse of branding genius.
What is sound
and why is it so important to a brand?
It's what I am constantly thinking aboutresearching and educating clients about.
Ultimately, we are sound.
Sound is caused by vibrations
(01:35):
which are caused by motion.
Everyone and everything is in motion.
So ultimately, we are sound.
If all things make sound in one wayor another, then so do our brands
and products.
It is our responsibilityto represent our brands
sound sincerely and honestly.
(01:57):
You wouldn't let your logo designbe determined by how a paint splatters
on a piece of paper
would you? Or would you tell Midjourneyto create something with pretty colors
and take it as is, without any kindof manipulation and personal creativity?
I sure hope not.
We design our visual branding so thatit tells the message we want it to tell.
(02:18):
Same goes with sound.
You don't just leavesound to its own devices,
especially if the sound happensto be creating
the wrong experienceor breaking brand messaging.
We at the Pillow Factory carehow well you sleep at night.
We know that a good and peacefulexperience is just the ticket
to a healthier life,
and we are committed to bringing youthe most premium experience possible.
(02:42):
Sound has this incredible powerto make up your mind about one thing
or another in seconds, seconds,
to a positive experience, or potentially.
We know that a good and peacefulexperience is just the ticket
to a healthier life,and we are committed.. a negative one
and we all know that a negative opinionis near impossible to reverse.
(03:04):
So save yourselfthe trouble and make sound on purpose.
Here are eight ways that sound influencesthe consumer right now and why
sound strategy must be consideredalongside traditional visual branding.
Sound is
responsive.
Sound requires action.
This may be as big as a physical movementor as small as thought.
(03:27):
Interpreting what is being heard.
By implementing sound into your marketing,you're actively engaging your audience.
They can't just close their eyesor look away their ears actively.
Are hearing your messaging.
Using sound and smarttechnology is even more reactionary.
Or at least it can be.
Audioadvertising will have a call to action
(03:49):
and ask you to take initiative at a latertime.
But responsive voiceads require a response
in the moment and more importantly,when you are most interested.
For example, voiceresponsive ads require immediate action.
Want to hear more about Stan’s Fans?
Say, Alexa, tell me more.
To hear our latest discounts.
(04:10):
Sound can cause an immediate responsethat could mean an immediate sale.
Sound is
persuasive.
Audiocan actually change our buying habits.
In the 80s, Ronald E Milliman conducteda study that found that playing
slower music in grocery storesincreased sales by 38%.
(04:31):
This theory was laterproven by scientists in 2011.
The slower pace of the musicsubconsciously slows people down
and helps them to create more mindfuldecisions in purchases.
Millman was quoted as saying,it is possible
to influence behavior with music,but this influence can either contribute
(04:52):
to the process of achieving businessobjectives or interfere with it.
Fast forwarding to today,these findings still apply.
According to a report from Septemberto October 2020 by Veritonic,
voice ads had 27% higher purchaseintent than the audio ad benchmarks.
For those who engaged the ad. Soundcan make or break an experience.
(05:17):
Sound is more than just music.
A lot of people go to the
default of songs and musicwhen thinking about Sonic branding.
But Sonic branding is so much more.
Sonic means sound, and sound covers
a whole lot more consumer touchpointsthan music does or could.
Welcome.
(05:37):
You've got mail.
(Functional Sounds playing)
Goodbye.
Those audio touchpoints are differentdepending on industry,
platform and market.
These outlets are growingexponentially with every new innovation
(05:58):
that comes along.
Identifying sonic branding as soundrather than just
music gives us an incredibly largepalette to paint on.
This is a good thing.
Sound is global.
Not a single person on this earthcan't relate to sound.
Even the deaf can understand vibration,which again is also sound.
(06:19):
Sound is diverseand multicultural by nature
as everyone on this planetexperiences and lives sound.
Not always true of music, but soundis most definitely relatable everywhere.
According to a study doneby the proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences,two thirds of the world's languages
were found to use or avoid the samesounds for common objects and ideas.
(06:42):
Researchersfound that a considerable amount of 100
basic vocabulary items
associate strongly with specifickinds of human speech sounds.
These are from unrelated languagesand from largely diverse
geographical locations.
Although we may not understand allthe specific words in any given language,
we can understand context through sound,inflection, timbre, and rhythm.
(07:07):
Sound is nostalgic.
Sounds can take us back. Again,
not talking about music necessarily,
but that is generally the easiest wayto think about it.
I love this quote from Social Media Weekback in 2015.
More messages,more alerts, more photos, more videos,
and more advertisementsare thrown in our faces than ever before.
(07:30):
And when we see or hear somethingthat connects with our past lives,
we just seem to freeze, take it in
and transcend back to that moment in time.
It's not quitelike an ordinary advertisement
or piece of content that we can easilyignore and watch it fly by.
Nostalgic content is completely different.
It's emotional.
(07:51):
The fact that sound can make us stopand think and listen,
when we've never been busier and bombardedby more and more information hit at us
constantlyand all at once is absolutely amazing.
Sound is efficient.
According to a research study
published in Saudi Journal of SportsMedicine in 2014.
(08:13):
Auditory stimuli takes 8 to 10,miliseconds to reach the brain.
Visual stimuli take 20 to 40 milliseconds
through the act of repetition, rhythmsand patterns.
Sound can train our brainto remember its message in the short term,
and in the long term.
Sound plays into both
short term and long term memory models.
(08:36):
In 2019,Pandora analyzed the best placement
of a brand mentioned in a 32nd AD spot.
They found that listeners were 7%more likely to remember a brand's name
if it was presentedin the first three seconds of the ad.
Think back on the last TV commercialyou listened to.
Did they mention the brand's nameright away, or at the very end?
(08:58):
Was the mentionburied in the middle somewhere,
or was it even mentioned at all?
Do you even remember the last TVcommercial you watched?
Sound is a breath of fresh air.
Through the pandemic,we all learned to use zoom in the same
vernacular as Google,but most of us are over it now.
Video conferencing,although super helpful in that season,
(09:20):
is tiring on our bodies and eyes.
What if we could stay connectedwithout engaging
anything other than our earsand perhaps our voice?
Although clubhouse isn't quite as popularas it was in 2021,
I don't think it's a coincidencethat it became a hit.
And I know it won't be the last
audio only platform.With the importance of sound on TikTok,
(09:42):
the next audio only appwill hit a lot more nails on the head.
Because of Clubhouse'strailblazing influence and accolades.
I interviewed a few people from mindsharea few years back.
Mindshare is a global mediaand marketing services company.
In 2018, they had a short video seriesthat they put together called
The Media Dystopia.
(10:03):
Their episode Soundas the Savior was specifically noteworthy.
Their example that they presentedwas of a world where people got
so addicted to their machinesthat they had to untether.
Sound familiar?
They pitched the idea of soundbeing a savior,
that it called to usin a very primitive way,
as storytelling of the mind has existedfar beyond video and even books.
(10:29):
According to neuroscientists,it has been proven that when you listen
to audio content, your brain triggerssomething called self visualization.
A personal experiencein your own imagination.
Further studies found
that audio has the ability to evokeeven more emotion than video content.
There's that word again emotion.
(10:49):
Sound
is evolving in real time.
Voicefirst and voice only is here to stay.
And as we watch itdevelop and evolve in real time.
New audiotouchpoints are popping up constantly.
With these amazing creatorsand products comes innovation,
and with innovation,we must respond in kind.
We have to be creativeand be aware of what's going on.
(11:11):
We can't just respond tohow people are using audio currently.
We need to try and think ahead and see
the potential of what soundcould be in the future.
Voice tech is moving fast,and those that don't run with it now
are going to have a hard time catching up.
Here's just a few statistics to leave you
with on the emergenceof the sound revolution.
(11:32):
According to Think with Google in 2017,
72% of people who own a voiceactivated speaker
say that their devices are often usedas part of their daily routine.
In 2018,headphones outsold smartphones. In the US.
More people subscribeto podcasts than to Netflix.
Also in 2018, Pandora bought Sirius
(11:54):
XM for $3.5 billion.
In 2019, Spotify bought Anchor
and Gimlet for $340 million.
In 2020, SiriusXM bought Stitcher for $325 million.
Also in 2020, Spotify bought megaphone,
a podcast producing and marketing company,for $235 million.
(12:16):
Spotify also bought The Joe RoganPodcast in 2020 for $100 million.
Compare that to Howard Stern,who signed his 2025 year deal
with Sirius XM for that much per year,and that's pretty impressive.
As of December 2020, more than 55% of U.S.
adults have either a smart home deviceor a smart speaker.
(12:37):
Sound matters.
Sound matters because it is a part of us.
It is how we functionand process information.
It helps us to relate to one anotherand our environment.
It makes us feel thingsand it creates action.
It is how we make decisions on what to buy
and what not to buy.
(12:59):
Sound is influentialto our brand and bottom line,
whether you like it or not,your brand will sound one way or another.
Are you in control of that sound?
Are you using it to your best advantage?
What does your brand sound like?
Thank you
to Pixabay and Art listfor some great sound effects fillers.
(13:22):
I also createdand slipped in a few of my own.
Please note there are no Stan’s Fansor the Pillow Factory.
I made them up for demonstrationpurposes.
Did you like what you heard? Great!
Leave a review,tell a friend and spread the word.
More people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that now.
Want to explore your sound strategyfurther?
(13:42):
I'd love to help.
Send me an email at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.comand we can continue
this off platform. For further resources,learning and content,
check out Sound in MarketingLearning for your one stop sound shop.
All linkswill be provided in the show notes.
Let's make this world of
sound more intriguing,more unique, and more and more on brand.
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