Sonic Branding can be a strategic & enduring brand asset: Rajeev Raja

Brands have been innovating to try and stay relevant with their audiences, who have very little attention span in today’s time. In such a scenario, the power of audio recognition has played a very important role in staying ahead of the curve.

Some years back, Louis Banks had created a four-note jingle for Britannia and ‘Ting ting ti-ting’ became an inimitable part of the food major’s brand identity. The power of music really helps brands to be noticed in a cluttered television world where brands fight for their mind space. Most brands today collaborate with music to bring in the right connection to engage with their audience. Today, Sonic Branding is the new buzz word that is sweeping the hallways of the world’s most enlightened brand and marketing corporations.

As per industry and many marketeers, 2022 will be a game-changer for Sonic Branding and brands have already started focusing on creating audio assets to create a long-lasting emotional connection among consumers. Sonic Branding is the strategic development of a brand’s unique audio assets, leveraged consistently across diverse online and offline media. Simply put, Sonic Branding is the audio equivalent of Visual Branding. While visual branding is consistent across ‘touchpoints’, sonic branding is consistent across ‘ear points'. A sonic identity is arrived at after a thorough understanding of a brand’s ethos, values, purpose, persona, competition and the culture that it operates in. Finally, a good sonic identity must evoke an emotional response that is in sync with a brand’s emotional essence.

Founded by Rajeev Raja, former NCD of DDB Mudra, with Ajit Varma, ex-MD, JWT Indonesia, as co-founder, BrandMusiq is a global sonic branding agency that has been responsible for pioneering the concept of Sonic Branding in the country. BrandMusiq has created the sonic identities for companies like Mastercard (Global), SBI Life, Zomato, HDFC Bank, Standard Chartered (Global), Lenovo, Rupeek, VIM, Vistara, Tata Salt, Tata Capital, Royal Challenge, McDowell’s No. 1, Raymond, ABC Soy, Reliance Petroleum, Nexus Malls, IndusInd Bank, Myntra, CNN News 18, MG Motors, Lactogrow, S26 for Nestle and Blue Band Margarine in SE Asia, among others.

In an interaction with Adgully, Rajeev Raja, Founder & Soundsmith, BrandMusiq, provides a broader insight on Sonic Branding and its success over the years and how BrandMusiq has helped several renowned companies both global and nationally in creating consumer stickiness and stay ahead of their competition.

Sonic branding seems to be an interesting concept for brands. Tell us more about how the entire sonic branding process works? Why is it important for brands to have strong sonic branding?

The digital age has accelerated the content we consume on a daily basis. While the brain has adjusted to increased consumption its attention span has decreased. This has caused an interesting challenge for marketers. And the need to explore newer ways to engage with their audience.

Sound and music are one of the most powerful forces known to man. They have the ability to connect at a deeper, emotional level. Marketers are realising that it can add a new dimension to their brand world, going way beyond the conventional 30-second jingle.

Enter Sonic Branding, which can become a strategic and enduring brand asset. A well-crafted sonic identity not only conveys the essence of your brand, but also creates long-lasting positive emotional associations. Every time a customer hears the sonic identity, they’ll remember what the brand stands for and more importantly, how it makes them feel.

The digital era is forcing brands to realise that sonic identity is not just “nice to have”, but “must have”.

The sign-off line as music or a short jingle always existed with brands. How is Sonic Branding different? What kind of value is it adding to make the brand to more memorable?

Jingles have always been a crucial component of advertising, and it helps tell the customer about the product. Despite this, it’s not enough in a world where we are bombarded with content. Using the right sound, specially designed to capture the brand’s essence, throughout all ‘earpoints’ (audio touchpoints) is very different from simply putting a jingle in a TV commercial. A sonic identity can be used at the various points where a jingle would not fit. For example, hold music on a customer service line, sounds incorporated in-app and online, and music that plays in retail spaces are just a few applications of a sonic identity. It serves as a sonic counterpart to a brand’s visual identity and creates an emotional bond with the listener.

Do you follow any science or research before you arrive at the right music or sonic interpretation before the sonic branding is created and produced?

We have developed a systematic 3-step process to create a brand’s sonic identity, called MuSE (Musical Strategy Exercise):

Brand Discovery: We first understand the brand’s identity as if it were a human being. We figure out its unique personality and the key emotions that should be conveyed to the audience. We use the ancient Indian ‘Rasa Theory’ of evoking specific emotions through art, and apply that to the music we compose.
Sonic Moodboards Workshop: The leap from paper to music can be challenging at the evaluative stage. That’s why, after we identify the brand’s personality, we have an intermediate step where we share sketches of sound, or moodboards, to help clients identify the zone of their brand’s sound.
Mogoscape Presentation: Based on the client’s feedback, we create a Mogoscape, a sonic palette, which can be adapted and used across various platforms and ‘earpoints’. Embedded within is a Mogo, or musical logo. The Mogoscape and Mogo make up the sonic identity of the brand.

When does BrandMusiq’s work commence while creating the sonic branding? What kind of brief do you expect from the client to capture the right essence of the brand for sonic branding which will truly express the brand?

As sonic branding plays a major role for the brand, our work starts when we get the account. We need a thorough and detailed brief. That’s where our 3-step process comes in. We take the client through a Brand Discovery workshop to learn all the details necessary to understand and capture the nuance that makes a brand unique and translate that into a sonic identity.

How do you manage your pricing strategy as clients may not be willing to have two different parties create music for their film or TVC? Does this scenario happen?

We are not in competition with a jingle. The sonic identity system is a holistic and long term exercise that comes first. So, it requires a budgetary allocation that needs to come from a brand and marketing budget separate from the advertising budget. Once the sonic identity is created, we may re-create a jingle to suit the specific TV spot with elements from the master sonic identity.

You have worked on several reputed brands. What are some of the favourite works you have developed and are still running in the marketplace?

We have worked with many marquee clients across industries. We've developed sonic identities for MasterCard Global, Zomato, MG Motor India, Rupeek, SBI Life, VIM, HDFC Bank, Vistara, Royal Challengers Bangalore, and Blue Band Margarine, to name a few.

The Mogo or ‘musical logo’ we created for Mastercard has become iconic in just a couple of years. It is being used across the globe and on every piece of communication created by Mastercard. Mastercard has been named ‘Audio Brand of the Year’ globally twice in a row in 2020 and 2021. A standing testimony to the power of a sonic identity.

At BrandMusiq, we don’t just create sonic identities; We’ve been exploring different avenues and have branched out into newer spaces during the past couple of years.One such project has been BrandMusiq XP, a division that creates bespoke sonic experiences for brands. Another new initiative is the soon to be launched platform ‘BrandMusiq Labs’, where we explore the fundamental nature of sound and its impact on customer behaviour.

For example, we created a property called ‘Music Balm’ for Lenovo. During the second wave of the pandemic in India, feelings of fear and anxiety were prevalent. Lenovo wished to create empathetic communication for their consumers. So we composed a series of soundscapes designed to have a therapeutic effect by countering these negative emotions using restorative and positive emotions. These tracks appeared on social media platforms and India’s most popular music streaming service, Gaana, and encouraged viewers to ‘stop scrolling, take a minute, and breathe in positivity’.

What does the future for Sonic branding look like? How do you see this industry grow and would you see more players entering to offer their services?

The world is in the midst of an audio revolution. Though it may seem like we spend our entire day glued to our phones or laptops, many are now trying to decrease screen time as much as possible due to screen fatigue. More and more people are turning to audio-only services such as Spotify and Clubhouse for entertainment. Traditionally visual social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, have also launched audio-only platforms. Sound is a powerful way to reach users, including those that use smart speakers. Music is a powerful way to project the ‘unseen’ brand and add an experiential ‘non-conscious’ layer to a brand’s identity.

Sound does not require your eyes to grab your attention, and it’s a quicker, more effective way of communicating. It takes a human being less than half a second to react to sound.

Thanks to modern technology, we’re always multitasking. For example, listening to a podcast while driving, talking to Alexa while cooking, watching TV while scrolling through Instagram. All the platforms we use daily provide a myriad of opportunities for sonic branding.

We welcome the entry of more and more players into the fast growing sonic branding industry. As of now, we’re pioneers in India and Asia. But healthy competition will not only keep us on our toes, but will also grow the market.

The future is sound.