NBC, McDonald’s, Netflix, and State Farm all have a sound. Did you just sing it? Host Jeanna Isham of Dreamr Productions and Sound In Marketing Learning explores how far brands are willing to go to make their companies and products memorable and profitable through sound strategy. Let’s talk about it. Subscribe to the Sound In Marketing monthly newsletter today. http://eepurl.com/gDxl6b Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.
Episodes
Wednesday Aug 14, 2019
Wednesday Aug 14, 2019
Today’s episode is about advertising in the sound universe. Although there are a bunch of platforms that advertise through sound and music, I decided to do a focus on the two that were most noteworthy to me in present day; Pandora and Spotify.
Pandora not only has a super interesting podcast on sound marketing but they also launched their Pandora For Brands department. This is where they actually are working with brands to develop ads to target your exactly specific audience. Pandora will develop an ad with you that will speak to your correct audience and ideally increase your click rate by using their 10 years of data and analytics on their consumers to your advantage. And if that weren’t enough, Pandora even has 10+ third party data providers that can hone in even further with data like shopping behaviors, media consumption, purchase habits, what media they go crazy for, etc.
I’m not sure what the cost is for Pandora. They don’t list it I assume because they want to curate your experience. They mention and are aware of the small business so it may be based on annual revenue or marketing budget.
With Spotify, they have an Ad Studio where it looks very similar to creating a FaceBook or a LinkedIn ad. You target your audience, write your script, choose your background song, and send it over to them to record V/O and begin the campaign. They have their own V/O team which I could see as a good thing (30 seconds goes by fast...sometimes faster than an average person naturally talks). Studies have shown that 61% of audience responds better to an announcer read ad as opposed to a host read ad. So it makes sense to keep this outsourced.
Their minimum ad spend is $250 and you don’t get charged over your campaign budget spend. However, I’m not sure if there would be foreign fees or not because I believe Spotify is a Swedish company.
The main objective I believe for both parties is that they don’t want to kill the listening vibe. They want to create relevant ad experiences. And they now have the data and know-how on how to do that.
Moving back to sound advertising, I found a company called AdSonica. I reached out to the founder and he provided me with some great information.
AdSonica creates static ads with sound that you can attach to your marketing arsenal. They combine both the audio and the image into one jpeg file so that the two can stay cohesive as well as keep the quality of both functions clear without deterioration. You’re also able to include things like coupons and multiple soundtracks within the whole thing. There limitations are that they ad size maxes out at 150k so with combined image and sound, you have about 12 seconds of real estate.
Yet another reason why a sonic logo comes in handy. With limited time comes limitations. Create a recognizable sound and you can cut right to your point that much more effectively.
They’re cost is a small percentage of your ad spend. That’s it. For more information on AdSonica and to see if it’s right for you, I’ve included a link in the show notes. Just tell them Jeanna Isham says hi.
Veritonic is an unbiased 3rd party company that gathers data from all sorts of companies to see how their sounds and sound marketing fairs with the global consumer market. They just released a new case study on the effectiveness of Earcons, another word for Functional Sound, in the market today. I’ll attach the link to the eBook if you’re interested in downloading, in the show notes. So so much amazingly awesome geeky information in there so I’ll just rein it back to stay on point.
Premium vs. generic earcons is basically what the case study was about so they started it off with the premise that functional sound IS effective regardless. There were a whole bunch of numbers that I won’t get into but to sum it up 60% of listeners preferred a premium sound to a generic sound. The study also found that, “Premium sounds that are designed as part of a unified experience are more effective than sounds designed in isolation.”
What all of this means, is that premium sounds (sounds customized to a specific brand), and unified experience sounds (such as keeping on/off or connected/disconnected sounds reciprocal) have the highest recall rates.
Don’t forget to subscribe, follow, add to your library, and share with a friend. Have you read an interesting article lately, do you have any questions, do you have a really off ball event that you heard about that you want to send my way? Please share! You can find me at www.dreamrproductions.com, Linkedin, FaceBook or you can email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com. I want this podcast to be a collaborative event. I want it to be of benefit to us all so stop by and say hello.
Let’s make this world of Sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.
https://www.adsonica.com/ company disbanded
https://www.adsonica.com/blog.html company disbanded
How to tune in
This podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and Podbean. Coming soon to iHeart Radio.
Wednesday Jul 31, 2019
Wednesday Jul 31, 2019
Jingles are fun but if they are not relevant to your brand then they won’t serve their original intent; recall. Without your consumer being able to recall who put that funny or emotional jingle together, then you’ve spent your money on nothing.
With sonic branding, you have the power to create something catchy but also relevant and on brand. If done right, the consumer will have no problem remembering what brand put that sound together and easily go back to access more information.
I believe that a hybrid of jingles is forming between the jingle of yesteryear and what is now deemed a sonic identity. It will take the insanely effective jingles of the past, and rework them into more than just a one-off commercial and become the foundation of the brand.
CHALLENGE: What does your brand sound like? Imagine it’s not sound but video. What does your brand look like? What do those visuals sound like? I encourage you to grab a recorder, here’s a link to a good one, https://amzn.to/2Ks1keB and start recording your world; your brands world. Is it the rustling of the wind through the trees, is it children laughing, is it the noise of a busy street?
BOOK SUGGESTION: Seth Godin’s book https://amzn.to/324Tdu7 Purple Cow: Transform Your Business By Being Remarkable is a must read. It seems simple, but so many of us just ride the coattails of something that’s already been done. That won’t get us noticed. That just brings more attention and notoriety to the one who did it first.
This podcast is for you so please let me know if there is anything in particular you’ve been curious about. Don’t be afraid to be vague or even of talking in incomplete sentences; I get it. It’s new and ever changing. That’s why I’m here. To help bridge that gap between traditional marketing and this whole new way of thinking.
For more information on me and what I do or what I can do for you, you can find me at www.Dreamrproductions.com, Linkedin, and Facebook. All of the links will be listed in the show notes. I’d love to help you on your sonic branding journey in any way I can so leave a comment, write a review, send me an email and let’s chat more! Let’s make this world of Sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.
Site Sources
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jingle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdccNAOvPHg
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/08/what-killed-the-jingle/497291/
https://money.howstuffworks.com/commercial-jingle3.htm
This podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher and Podbean. Coming soon to iHeart Radio.
Wednesday Jul 24, 2019
Wednesday Jul 24, 2019
Today’s episode is about how sound can be used as a universal language and can drive marketing effectively and efficiently.
This podcast is here to educate on the power of sound, the possibilities of sound and the accessibility of sound in marketing to all brands both big and small. Sound marketing is a great way to break through the noise that visual marketing creates. This podcast breaks down what has happened, is happening, and insights on what’s happening in the future. But the biggest take away is that you can be a company of 1 or a company of 1,000, sound marketing is accessible and affordable for us all.
My name is Jeanna and I’m Head of Audio at Dreamr Productions and Stage Ham Entertainment. I create sound identities for companies, brands, individuals, and events. I have a passion for sound and what it’s capable of and I want to share how massively effective a curated sound can be for a brand identity. So stop and listen for a bit as I create a sound picture of what sonic branding is all about, what it’s doing and what it means to the future of marketing a business.
Humans tend to use the same sounds or avoid certain sounds in languages all over the world. There are sound symbolism patterns. In the articles that I wrote about this episode, word lists were analyzed over nearly two thirds of the world’s languages. Researchers found that a considerable amount of 100 basic vocabulary items associate strongly with specific kinds of human speech sounds. These are from unrelated languages that often use or avoid the same sounds.
According to Morten H. Christiansen, professor of psychology and director of Cornell’s Cognitive Neuroscience lab, “These sound symbolic patterns show up again and again across the world, independent of the geographical dispersal of humans and independent of language lineage.” This goes to show that sound is beyond language.
Without speech and apparently without connection, the world is similar in its communication foundations.
So what about music?
In a huge experiment, scientists asked hundreds of English speakers all over the world to listen to different genres of music from non-Western cultures. The results were that those listeners quickly distinguished lullabies and dance songs. Granted this is a survey from English speakers only but the article states that they will be conducting the experiment next with non-english speaking participants. There was also another online test done that included both US and Indian participants.
A theory put forward is that the origin of “Lullabies, for example, may have evolved from parent-offspring interactions.” This makes sense that before language skills are built, offspring can communicate with the world in the form of song. This just goes to prove that music and sound is inherently encased in us. It’s one of the first things we are cognitive of at the beginning of our existence; before we are even born. In utero, we hear and feel our mothers’ heartbeat and voice. We come out knowing who she is. That is powerful!
This is all subjective and even this study said that they couldn’t prove music as a “universal language” per se but what I believe is that it proves that you can more than get your gist across. It’s like sitting at a table with a French speaking person and being able to recall your 2 years of high school french. You won’t be able to delve into a huge conversation on the meaning of life, the universe and everything (42), but you’ll at least be able to say “hello” and “my name is”. “Bonjour” and “je m’appelle”.
Mindshare released a report recently on statistics of streaming through platforms such as Spotify. A lot of fascinating information but something in particular I wanted to share for this episode.
“55% (of listeners) listen to music streaming services weekly” (According to Mindreader Wave 9, 2019. This data was taken over 47 markets globally). “55% agree that streaming music is helping them expand their musical knowledge and explore other genres” (According to Mindshare, Music Listening Attitudes and Consumption Formats (Mexico, India, US, China and UK), 2019). “In the music streaming segment, the number of users is expected to reach 978.1 million by 2023” (According to Statista, November 018, Digital Market Outlook).
“In 2018, the streaming revenue accounted for almost half (47%) of global revenue, driven by a 32.9% increase in paid subscription streaming. Last year represented the fourth consecutive year of growth” (According to the Global Music Report 2019).
Streaming is how people discover new music. It is how they curate their tastes and preferences.
19.1 billion dollar global music market spends a majority of their time on streaming platforms and they want someone else to curate their content. You’re probably still wondering why I bring this up in regards to marketing.
Cari Kesten, Global Agency Associate Director says it perfectly, “We all remember the first time we discovered our favorite band, and the excitement we felt sharing it with others. How can your brand tap into discovery to build that level of connection with your consumer?”
We are in an age of a fully immersive audio experience and we’re enjoying it.
So let’s say you’re intrigued and you want to figure out how to advertise on some of these streaming platforms. There are 2 links to check out and if nothing else, email them and ask for more information.
The first is for Spotify’s Beta Ad Studio. I checked it out and for a minimum ad spend of $250, they’ll work with you on coming up with a creative ad that, ideally, reaches your target audience.
Also, here is a link for Pandora’s ad platform. I couldn’t find pricing for this one but they have a contact form that you can email them questions. I would imagine they do custom pricing depending on budget and business size.
Pandora also has a podcast about the power of sound and as far as I can tell Pandora, Veritonic , and me are the only ones honing in on this….I find that a bit strange but there you have it.
I’m highly curious about both Spotify and Pandora so if you go that route, let me know your experiences. I’d love to share the results on here too to help others bridge that gap. It’s such a new landscape out there. We need to help each other out. I also go into a little more detail about both in a later Episode (Episode 8).
My goal for this podcast is to peak your interest, or possibly even blow your mind. Let’s think outside the box at what is hovering all around us; sound. It’s powerful, it’s engaging, it’s us. I’d love to hear your thoughts so, connect with me on LinkedIn, follow on Facebook, or email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com . Let’s travel this road together. If you need help in developing what your Sound In Marketing landscape may look like, don’t hesitate to reach out and let’s brainstorm together.
Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.
This podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, and Podbean. Coming soon to iHeart Radio.
Site Sources
https://www.languagemagazine.com/2016/09/13/study-suggests-universal-sounds/ https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/09/06/1605782113.abstract
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/your-brain-knows-what-songs-are-no-matter-where-they-came-180967946/ https://www.lashortsfest.com/film-program https://www.mindshareworld.com/sites/default/files/Culture%20Vulture%20-%20Issue%2013%20-%20The%20Power%20of%20Music.pdf
https://www.pandoraforbrands.com/ad-solutions
Tuesday Jul 09, 2019
Tuesday Jul 09, 2019
In this day and age no one wants to be sold to. They want to make up their own mind without being pressured. I was listening to a podcast the other day called Brand Builder where Dave Gerhardt VP of Marketing at Drift shares some huge knowledge bombs. He said that according to Harvard Business Review 75% of B2B gather all of their information before even going to your website. That’s pretty phenomenal if you think about it.
Information is free. It’s everywhere. Case in point with this podcast. The power lies in the consumer not the company. The consumer makes up their mind who they want to do business with, buy from, partner with. They do all this on their own thanks to the information superhighway. They don’t even have to ask a person necessarily a question. We’ve got bots for that now.
The world of marketing is changing.
We have to think differently at how we market to our audience. We can’t just sell at them anymore; we have to draw them in, in a new way; a more subtle way. This is how we stack the deck to get people paying attention to us.
My challenge for you this episode is to record your brand. What emotions or actions does your brand evoke? For example, say you are a motivational speaker? Try recording motivational music that speaks to you, sounds of footsteps going up to the podium, clapping, room noise. Listen to this over and over again until actual explainer words come to mind like “leadership”, “optimistic”, “passionate”...things like that. From there, start a mood board. Find actual images that represent those sounds as well as words. I believe that after taking an actual moment to sit in this, you’ll have a clearer idea of what your sound should be. Even if it’s not melodic, because sonic branding is not just melodic (remember the Aflac duck?), you’ll at least be able to rule out what does not sound like your brand. That in itself is a huge step.
Here’s a link to a palm-size voice recorder I found on Amazon https://amzn.to/2Ks1keB. It’s easy to carry around and easy to upload audio to another source when you’re ready to fit all the pieces together. I haven’t used this yet but it was an Amazon Choice product and a pretty good deal. It’s also something that I’ve been shopping for a potential client so if you do get it, I’d love to hear what you think.
Then when you’re ready, come to me. I’d love to help! And anyone like me, if you come to them with all this forethought, creating your sound will be that much smoother of a process and potentially a lot faster. And the best part, this will truly be of your brand. Remember, us sonic branders can only go as far as you let us in. If you have done no due diligence on what you truly want before we start designing, then the sound will be more our creation than yours. Sometimes that’s what someone wants, but I’d rather it come from your heart not mine.
I want this podcast to give you the information you need to create a successful sonic brand identity. As you join me on this journey, I hope that you’ll reach out and tell me what you find interesting, things you’d love for me to expand upon, things that flat out confuse you or you have no idea how to even begin comprehending. This voice accessible world is new to a lot of us and it’s outlets are growing each and every day. It’s new and ever changing. That’s why I’m here. To help bridge that gap between traditional marketing and this whole new way of thinking.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Don’t forget to subscribe, follow, add to your library, and share with a friend. Have you read an interesting article lately, do you have any questions, do you have a really off ball event that you heard about that you want to send my way? Please share! You can find me at www.dreamrproductions.com, Linkedin, FaceBook or you can email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com. I want this podcast to be a collaborative event. I want it to be of benefit to us all so stop by and say hello. Let’s make this world of Sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.
Site Sources
https://ignitevisibility.com/7-examples-effective-subliminal-advertising/
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ads-with-subliminal-messages
https://open.spotify.com/episode/63hSawC3t6StMMo8WtmbV9?si=JJ-__ibHRg-AfTuVsO4jIw
https://www.goodbeerhunting.com/sightlines/2019/2/7/whisper-campaign-michelob-ultra-pure-gold-is-trying-to-make-you-tingle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXmlN9BAddg
This podcast is available on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, and Podbean. Coming soon to iHeart Radio.
Thursday Jun 27, 2019
Thursday Jun 27, 2019
Sound is something that has been ever present in our lives. All of our lives. It is all around us telling us what to do. An alarm goes off; sound tells us to wake up. A car horn honks, sound tells us the light might have just changed without us noticing or we may have just cut someone off. The chip reader beeps; sound tells us we’ve just made a successful purchase. And in enters the subtlety of sound marketing. Sound tells us what to do or gives us assurance that we’ve just completed something...like a transaction. And this is what this podcast is all about. How can we utilize this very powerful tool of sound marketing within our brand and company?
My name is Jeanna and I’m Head of Audio at Dreamr Productions and Stage Ham Entertainment. I create sound identities for companies, brands, individuals, and events.
Whenever you re-brand or initially brand, you have to consider your audience. You should have some semblance of your ideal consumer in your strategy and your branding should always reflect that person. With that being said, you should also always be considering what they are listening to. In this day and age, you, me, everyone is listening to a lot. And it’s not just music. From the moment we wake up to the moment we fall asleep; sound surrounds us.
Chemical Brothers and Formula 1 have created a great partnership. The band (already F1 fans) were tasked in creating a sonic identity for F1 2019 Season. They took a track off of their forthcoming album and sped it up 15,000 bpm. They modeled the 15,000 rpm’s possible out of a Formula 1 race car. Formula 1 will also use the Chemical Brothers upcoming album as their sound style guide for their entire season. Win, win for both parties!
According to a recent Nielsen survey, 75% of Americans choose music as their top form of entertainment. That’s above TV by 2%. This is where we should be focusing our marketing dollars; the music of the people. With that much influence, why not focus some attention on popular music.
One great reason for developing a sound for your brand is cross promotion between the visual marketplace and the ever increasing voice marketplace. What I’m talking primarily about here is voice commerce. Voice commerce is primarily thought of in the realm of Amazon marketplace but I believe it’s so much more than that.
What’s happening right now is Alexa is learning products but I think it’s learning much much more. So with that being said, everyone who has a business, of any kind, needs to be in on this. I need to be in on this.
I’me re-including this link for the Echo Dot https://amzn.to/2JKPJXP. It’s $50 (cheaper than Alexa) and, in my opinion, a great transition into voice tech for your research and development. Investment into new marketing tech shouldn’t break the bank, but it’s still a must have. I encourage you, especially if you have an online product, to teach this tech what you sell and even what you do.
For more information on me and what I do or what I can do for you, you can find me at www.Dreamrproductions.com, Linkedin, and Facebook. I've also included the links to my sources from this episode below.
I’d love to help you on your sonic branding journey in any way I can so leave a comment, write a review, send me an email and let’s chat more! I’m excited about all the exciting possibilities of Sound in Marketing.
jeanna@dreamrproductions.com
www.linkedin.com/in/jeannaisham/
www.facebook.com/dreamrproductions
Sources for this episode:
https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/141935/chemical-brothers-make-threesecond-f1-track
https://www.clickz.com/voice-commerce-2019/224213/
https://hudsonvalleyone.com/2019/06/13/woodstock-50-still-looking-for-a-home/
Tuesday Jun 18, 2019
Tuesday Jun 18, 2019
Music and sound influences healing. Which impacts emotion. If sound can heal, then sound can influence marketing decisions in an incredibly powerful way.
In this episode, we discuss the healing influence of sound and music https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-17515/what-you-need-to-know-about-sound-healing.html. How manipulating a frequency or a tone or even a way something is spoken, can change the entire message. We can harness this power with our brand voice. We are able to craft our sound to be entirely our own; telling a more “sincere” brand story.
Everyone has something to say now-a-days. Some of its relevant and some is not. If you have something to say, then say it. But find a unique way and a unique angle in order to present it. Because there are a lot of people out there potentially trying to say the same thing as you. There are no rules in this new frontier of sound marketing; experiment, experiment, experiment.
My book suggestion for you is Brand Sense: Sensory Secrets Behind the Stuff We Buy https://amzn.to/2XNwTCA. Martin Lindstrom paints a very clear picture of the huge canvas of possibility that we have in marketing through the senses that is widely untapped. It's a great book to flip through and get to the meat of what intrigues you. I especially loved the story about Singapore Airlines and their ability to create a distinct "smell".
Check out this excellent new podcast I wrote intro music for called Fueling Her Further https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fueling-her-further/id1458061709. Talia helps women break down their barriers to be the strongest that version of themselves that they can be. Great message, wonderful person.
If you're interested in playing with some sound concepts for your brand or for a campaign but not ready to take a full plunge, you can find some pre-made "out of the box" logos that I wrote here https://www.pond5.com/collections/2796592. I’ve categorized these as “uplifting” as generally that’s what people are looking for. However, if you want more edge or another feel let me know. Because I have those too.
My goal for this podcast is to peak your interest, or possibly even blow your mind. Let’s think outside the box at what is hovering all around us; sound. It’s powerful, it’s engaging, it’s us. I’d love to hear your thoughts so please drop me a line at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com, connect with me on LinkedIn linkedin.com/in/jeannaisham, and follow me on Facebook facebook.com/dreamrproductions. If you need help in developing what your Sound In Marketing landscape may look like, don’t hesitate to reach out and let’s brainstorm together.
Have a great week and we’ll talk again soon.
Friday Jun 07, 2019
Friday Jun 07, 2019
Pandora has been doing some incredibly interesting re-invention lately with new programming in "Pandora stories" https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/08/pandora-expands-its-music-and-podcasts-product-pandora-stories-with-help-from-siriusxms-guests/ as well as their new sound logo https://adage.com/creativity/work/pandora-sonic-logo/1729321. They're not afraid of being brave and trying something that may just be a bold move in the right direction.
Speaking of bold, let's talk podcasters. Some consider them artists but a vast majority do not. However, they have a message and a product and they are making a place for themselves within the platform and getting their voice heard. And with the statistics of 61% of podcast listeners purchasing something from a podcast ad, they could really be highly benefited from taking this chance and being "uncomfortable" http://www.whypodcasts.org/audience/ .
They are brave and, in my opinion, it will pay off for them in one way or another.
My name is Jeanna and I'm here to help you learn more about the possibilities of sound in your marketing and how it can be accessible with a small and a big budget alike. For questions, inquiries, and future content suggestions, please email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
Visual marketing is only 1 of the 5 senses.
In this episode, I discuss how so much opportunity is sitting at the table with developing a sonic marketing strategy. AI, AR, voice activated technology, and podcasts are king and the voice frontier is only going to get louder. Break through the noise with your own sonic marketing strategy.
ARTICLE: We talked about Coca Cola and their new evocative campaign http://bit.ly/2XpLYuf "Try Not To Hear This".
BOOK SUGGESTION: Austin Kleon's Show Your Work. Can not recommend it more highly. https://amzn.to/2QyYi8z It really helped me to explore what it means to share my product rather than sell it.
CHALLENGE: I challenged the audience to buy an Echo Dot https://amzn.to/2JKPJXP, take it home and start saying their product into it and see what happens. We should always be testing and learning new technology to more effectively apply it to our product and/or services.
For content suggestions or further inquiries, email jeanna@dreamrproductions.com
Friday Apr 26, 2019
Friday Apr 26, 2019
Jeanna Isham has been in audio for 15+ years witnessing first hand the shifting landscape of music and marketing industries alike. As both music composer and marketing nerd, she paints a picture of where advertising and marketing is headed and why it's crucial for every brand to have a sonic identity.
For inquiries on producing and developing your own podcast or for inquiries on sonic branding and sonic branding consultation availabilities, you can find me at Dreamr Productions www.dreamrproductions.com, Linkedin and Facebook. You can also email me at jeanna@dreamrproductions.com.
Let’s make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.