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August 16, 2022 15 mins

Did you know The Home Depot has a song that hey’ve been using since 2013? Lisa Destefano, former VP of Brand Marketing and Creative at Home Depot, and I talk about sensory marketing and how the song came about.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
Hi, my
name is LisaDeStefano and I am with the Home Depot.
I am the vice presidentof brand Marketing and Creative.
Welcome to the SoundIn Marketing podcast.
I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner
and founder of Dreamr Productionsand Sound in Marketing Learning.
I create, consult and educate
brands and individualson the power of sound in marketing.

(00:27):
Looking to create branded soundor need a sound strategist?
Head on over to www.DreamrProductions.comand let's chat
www.DreamrProductions.com.
For season five, I'm excitedto bring you more from the brands
and companies actually producingand implementing Mindful Sound.
This either means official sonic branding,sound and or music

(00:50):
tied to brand identity,or simply companies
that are taking their use of soundand music more seriously.
For thisepisode, we spoke with Lisa DiStefano,
the VP of brand Marketingand Creative at Home Depot.
Since the recording of this episode onJune 16th, 2022, Lisa has since retired.
I just wanted to take a momentand congratulate her on a job well done.

(01:12):
All the best in your next adventure, Lisa.
Now on to the show.
During her
nine years working for The Home Depot,Lisa was also involved with the creation
and production of The Home Depot song,which we'll be discussing today.
This song was so catchy that it's beingparodied and remixed all over TikTok.
Welcome to the show, Lisa!
Thank you very much.I'm so happy to be here.

(01:34):
My podcast generally has been focused
on the voice manufacturersor the producers and stuff,
and I haven't been able to talk
to the brands that are actually usingsonic branding and sound efficiently
and effectively.
So it's very exciting
to be able to talk to The Home Depot,especially about this project.
It's an exciting thing, and I don't think

(01:56):
people necessarilygive credit enough credit to,
using all the senses possible
in, you know, the marketing practiceand in connecting with your customers.
And I thought one of the things,as I was really thinking in preparing
was that our, our brandand our category is a sensory category.
If you walk into our stores,they have a smell.

(02:19):
But there is a sound of DIY, there'sa sound of doing which we can incorporate.
And when you listen to our equity trackor the orange theme, you get that sound.
And that's part of the magic of it,I think, and why people are attracted to
it is it fits authenticallywith who we are,
what we do.(The Orange Song playing)

(02:53):
It has that DIY sound.
It sounds like you're walkinginto one of those stores.
It really makes me feel
homey, I guess.
And I just, I love the songthat was created.
Can you tell me a little bit moreabout how it came about?
Were you looking for that specificallyor was it just kind of a,

(03:15):
needle in a haystack situation,you know, as a brand?
You know, historically we've always feltthat, you know, having a,
an energetic tone, right and doing right.
We're, you know, we empower doers.
That is, you know, that is what we arein the business of doing.
We were working on a brand new campaign.
We were energizing around falland really trying to think

(03:41):
about how to prepare ourselves for thatand to compare a full campaign.
So in 2013,we had gone through a new transition
with our campaign work,
and we needed a sound and we neededa, you know, to be environmental
track for that.
And so it wasn't intended to be ourforever, recognizable song or experience.
No. But we knew right away

(04:02):
when we heard itthat there was something special about it.
There was a pace, there was a tone.
When we think about our brand, that song,
as well as the idea of doing,
we think about coach, like energetic,incorporating that kind of thing.
When you listen to the voiceover and voiceacting for our spots, we also feel like
that as part of that, that overall soundand those pieces fit together.

(04:24):
So it had to be strong enoughto drive a sense of doing
and then be able to work overallwith, some of the louder noises
that occur within,our environment as well.
What do you say to a spin aroundthe color wheel to paint with primer
already mixed in test samplesinstead of canned commitments?
What do you say we dip into our walletsless and grab

(04:46):
Ahold of the latest tools out thereso we can quit all that messing around
with extra steps and get busyturning our doing dials up a notch.
More saving, more doing.
That's the power of the Home Depot.
It was part of a series of workthat stuck with us.
While campaigns have come and gone,
that sound has stuck with usas part of our brand essence.

(05:08):
So it's, maybe serendipity.
At the time that we found somethingthat was so impactful and Rory
Doggett was the composer of that work,and we're super proud.
And I met him.
It's like there was a little, like,fangirl in me when I got to meet him,
and he was on a shoot with us in LAand, and, he's done iterations.
And other people have riffed on his work.

(05:30):
And of course, as you said earlier,the magic is that
culturally, people are riffing on our workall the time.
And we welcome that.
You know, some of it is parody,and funny, and some of it is
just representing, you know, the thrillof doing, which we love about that.
And we welcome people to it, you know, wegive them access and say, hey, have fun.

(05:51):
That's what it's about.
Rory Doggett. I love that name.
That's an amazing name.
Was he commissioned specificallyto write this, or did he have the song?
And you're like, oh,we have to have this. Nope. He wrote it.
He wrote it for us.
And, as I said, it's continued.
We've gone back at different timesand riffed on it.
And one of the thingsthat, we love about that strong base beat

(06:11):
and the way it pieces togetheris that we also can play within
that because it's recognizable.
Even when you start to do a littlemanipulation or a little, change to it.
And seasonally we adjustedeven in our most more serious work.
We recently did a campaign 545it's in there,
you know, that beat,that methodical kind of approach to it.

(06:35):
What kind of person would come here at
5:45 a.m.?
well, there's Carly,a carpenter, just like her dad.
There's Juan
he's building a house and a better life.
Kenton and Sadie are here because thecouple that grouts together stays together.

(06:56):
Mary, is a drama teacher,and she'll do anything for her students,
even build sets before class.
LaMar needs a torch and clampsfor welding school
Ed’s putting in a pool for a friend.
We all need an Ed.
That's who’s in our parking lot at 5:45 am

(07:18):
real customers made for doing.
At the Home Depot everything we do we do for them
and even in our, you know, our more
branded serious work or other work, itit plays out really well.
So it's been magicalin spring with lighter sounds.
It's been, terrific in holiday with,those

(07:41):
kind of tones and bellsthat you'd think of from that work.
And so it's been a really great baselinefor us to build a lot of things.
And it is so recognizable that we,we feel like it it allows us
to be identifiable and a trigger
for folkseven when they're looking at artwork.
You were able to extractand use a lot of different pieces because,

(08:03):
you know, now that I'm like playing itback in my in my head,
you've got the beat,which can play on its own.
And I think with the beat,
you still get the essence of what HomeDepot is trying to do.
You've got the guitar,
you know,so if you want to get a little bit
more rock heavy,you want to get aggressive.
You know, maybe you've got a big projectwith, like, heavy things.
And then you have the bells.

(08:25):
And I think the bells work for holiday.
The bells can be for, like, maybetrying to attribute, lighter DIYers.
There's so many elementsthat you can use with this.
And it's, it's kind of fun to just seethat this was like, a serendipitous thing,
because I was going to ask you,why didn't you just go with,
a sonic logoor a short mnemonic of sorts?

(08:47):
Because there's a lot of companies
that are focusing on thatand then extracting from it.
Is it just that this workedand you stuck with it?
I think it's it was malleable in a way.
And we recognized that pretty earlyon with, with a mnemonic or a sound logo.
You know, it's a it's a trigger,
but it doesn't allow you
to play necessarily in that same way,that extension,

(09:09):
you have to work a little harderin this case. Right?
We had this moment.
And to your point,we could extract it and move it.
When people use licensed music, right?
It belongs to someone else.
Often people have another reference.
That's why people use it, right?
It gives you a feeling, connectivityto a certain moment, a memory,
whatever the situation is, we created thatand that energy.

(09:30):
And now we get to riff on our own workand own it, and be able to play with it
and manipulate it,you know, engage with it and leverage it.
That ability to riff on our own workversus needing to leverage.
And plus it's
it has longevity, which is amazing,and it's our ability to play with it.
Whereas, you know, taking another piece of work off,
then you're in a series of thingswhere it's one piece of work at one time,

(09:51):
and then you're going to moveinto another piece
of of licensed work at another time.
And in this case, it becomes just that,that, bed, that constant
track that we use it internally.
It motivates us.
And the thing that I really like aboutthis is I started reading about,
an article about your TikTok parodiesand the remixes
and all that stuff, and I'm like, HomeDepot doesn't have a song.

(10:13):
And I was really confused.
And then I like,looked it up and I'm like,
oh my gosh, I totally know that song.
And if I heard it again,I would think Home Depot.
And I think that's the brilliant part, isthat it's not just a song, quote unquote.
It's something elsethat like, it kind of is guttural.
It gets into the actual essenceand personality of your brand,

(10:34):
and I think that that's just lovely.
I think that's lovely.
Yeah.
And it's, it's, funny, we've had peopleput lyrics to it, which is really fun,
you know, and we've hadpeople send us stuff, which is great.
And becoming part of, of the,the cultural zeitgeist that goes on.
And being in that environment,
that's a wonderful connectivitywith customers and doers.

(10:58):
And we have this relationship,we have this shared thing that goes on
that people are playing with itand enjoying it
and, and amplifying it, without having to be asked.
And that is a really special placefor a brand to have a connection,
even if it's sometimes funor silly or even, you know, sometimes,
you know, a parody is not necessarilyalways flattering,

(11:19):
but we're into it because it'speople playing and having an experience,
and it's all about our brandand their connection to it.
And, and,it's something we can always build on.
And the TikTok piece was a surprisefor us.
We were, as I think, amazedonce we started really looking
at the number of people who were.
And we've just,you know, really enjoyed that.
Because it's a good range of stuffthat's going on.

(11:41):
There are wonderful sound logosand, and, and, representations
that trigger you in a certain wayto lead into something else.
And, and so I wouldn't,you know, have outdone them by having
this, this song because those triggersare so critically important.
But it has been, pretty joyful thing for us.
And it's lasted, you know, since 2013.

(12:03):
Yeah.
Coming up on the ten yearanniversary of it,
I guess it's not a competition,in my opinion.
Like, companiestrying to outdo each other
with logosor jingles or songs or whatever.
But what what is really cool iswhen they succeed with what you just said,
where it's this community participationand it's this engagement,

(12:24):
and people are sending you things
and they're telling youabout how they're engaging
with this inanimate object that they nowhave an emotional connection to.
So it's just a wonderful, perspectiveof sensory marketing at its best.
It takes on a life of its own.
And that's, you know, my soapbox.
That's what you want it to do.
You want it to to live.

(12:45):
And that's what it's doing.
Have you ever explored,
sound and music before this?
Like really taking it in and going,you know, how can we how can we use this?
Have you done that in the past?
I don't think we really knew.
I don't think we had capturedthis, moment until we started
to see the longevityand our ability to play with,

(13:07):
this particular sound,this particular song.
I don't think we really thought about itthat way.
I don't think we'd explored itor really appreciated its true value.
Sound was alwayssomething that existed in our work, but
it was maybe least important.
And I think we've learned a great deal.
The customer, our associates have taught us a great deal

(13:28):
about the impact of this soundauthentically within our brand.
And we then did a whole sonic branding
exercise with this at the center.
How do you amplify this?
How do you think about this?
You know,how does this become the orange theme?
We really use this opportunityto keep expanding on this whole philosophy

(13:48):
of the sound of doing,and what that means.
So I would say again,this was the energy,
that has come over timeand has been the base from which we work.
It's not like a burden or a heavy thingthat's like, oh, well, that's, you know,
part of our brand standards.We have to stick with this.
This is living,which is super cool, right?

(14:08):
We were gifted with orange.That is amazing. Right?
An energetic color to begin with,which is an interesting just again,
that's serendipity because, you know,when our founders started, it was
what's the most inexpensive way that wecan go about getting our name out there.
And it was spraypainted with stencil with the,
you know, thewe got discounted orange paint.
Let's like blow it out.

(14:29):
Some things happenin a serendipitous way like that.
But this songwas just the start of something
that's really been ableto, power us forward with that.
And so I think we learned alot through that experience.
I hope you're enjoying the show.
Stay tuned next weekfor the conclusion to our interview.
Don't forget to subscribeon all the major podcast channels, share

(14:51):
with friends, follow and rate.
Spread the word because, well,more people should know about this stuff.
I know you know that. Now.
For any other inquiries, you can find meon LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
Jeanna@DreamrProductions.com
All links will be provided in the shownotes.

(15:11):
Let's make this world of soundmore intriguing, more unique, and more
and more on brand.
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