Lame excuse for posting porn

Which brands do the best job when it comes to their relationship with their audience's ears?

Two of the biggest and boldest of them all spring to mind - Disney and Coke. Now, neither of these is remotely typical but both have lessons for the aspiring sonic brander. This is clearly not the place to go into depth but how about this for an anecdote, some nostalgia and a good excuse to show some soft porn:

1989. Robin Beck sings the theme tune to a new Coke ad. The song is subsequently released and is a top 10 hit everywhere the ad has played. Hear it here.

2010. I am in the gym, on a running machine. Inexplicably (and were I not such a geek I would never have worked out why) I feel the need to drink a Coke. The reason is because this track is now on hourly rotation in my gym.

Ignore the dodgy videos. The simple truth is that the 17 year old Daniel had 'First Time' by Robin Beck planted in his mind forever...and the subliminal effect is still working 20 or so years later.

Coupled with my fetish for ripping off my shirt every time I hear Eta James, I think Coke owns far too much real estate inside my brain.

Defining Sonic Branding

I've been here before. I started 'defining' sonic branding back in 1998, have contributed to dictionaries, wrote a book and yet...here I am still refining what it is.

This is my current definition. It reflects my 2010 mindset in that:

1. It is short - just like our attention spans

2. It is plain language - I've simply had enough of corporate, middle-management, 3 letter acronym, bullshit-laden marketing speak

3. It is easy to understand - so everyone (you included) can get a grip on this stuff without having to engage too much of your brain. Heaven knows, there is too much information out there - I don't want to pollute your heads.

So here it is:

Sonic branding is: A brand's relationship with its audiences through their ears

If you have a better definition (and you may well have) let me know via Twitter @DanielMJackson

The Father of Sonic Branding

This week's teaser:

Name the owner of this dog?

Now think for a little while about the understanding that this dog's owner brought to the world in general and its implications for sonic branding?

Answers on a Tweet please...@danielmjackson

NOT Sonic branding

Today a client asked me if I thought that the Amy Winehouse/Fred Perry tie-up constitutes good sonic branding? Though the answer to this question is easy (the association may be many things but it is not sonic branding) the fact that the question was posed in the first place is more interesting.

What is the real relationship between an artist, their music and a brand? How can we separate an artist 's individual brand from the music they create and which is of greatest value when aligning with a 'corporate' brand?

Though so many music choices are made according to their popularity, artists are the least important component in the sonic branding mix.

At the top of the hierarchy is the corporate brand - they monetize the whole transaction through their clients, they pay the bills. Understanding the business of the brand - how it makes profits from its customer transactions - is the primary task in sonic branding.

Next in line comes the music. The definition of the notes on the page - and the ownership of them - defines how successful the exercise will be...this is a hits business same as any other in entertainment (a nuance for another day).

Last in line is the artist. They are cheap(ish), largely expendable and (usually) only of short term value - can you name a long term artist/brand association?

Where artists work well in a sonic branding sense are launches and PR - reference Justin Timberlake for McDs or U2 for iTunes - but don't look for long term dividends from artist involvement...they probably won't materialise.

So unless Amy starts writing music for Fred Perry (and why not?), as well as designing clothes, we can all dismiss this as just another celeb / fashion tie up with a short shelf life and nothing whatsoever to do with sonic branding. Sorry for wasting your time.

Free music anyone?

So maybe I shouldn't blog twice in a day - but what can I do? I have just had an interesting thought...

At Cutting Edge, we have been grappling with our client's desires to have 'free' music for their websites. What are the options? How do we keep our clients happy but still honor the fact that we work in a world of licensing, royalties and ownership? We are PRS members, after all.

It is pretty easy to go down the unsigned route. Grab the music of some youngster - ready to be exploited (in the nicest way) but is there another way?

Maybe it is here http://www.publicdomain2ten.com/

There has to be an amazing opportunity right now in music that is going public domain. I haven't done all the homework yet - how long is copyright of masters and publishing? - but I do know that some of the recordings on this site are pretty usable (in terms of audio quality and musicality). And every passing year brings a greater volume of works into public domain.

Food for thought...or is this just a can of worms?

Rage Against The Machine

I spent the last ten years building a sample library, buying more and more powerful computers and selling my clients on the idea that you can make music more easily, more cheaply and more creatively with one man and his machines rather than with live musicians.

Now I think I was wrong.

I have just seen the creative director of Cutting Edge hold a sonic branding session with three musicians in a studio + a client. What came out of the session was an organically created piece of work that everyone contributed to, has a vested interest in and has more soul than anything we have every come up with using the machines.

Having espoused a mechanised approach to music creation I am now firmly flip-flopping into the camp of those who believe the real magic happens when talented people get together in a room and play their instruments, use their ears to judge what they hear and develop iteratively.

I am sure there are some parallels to be drawn from the world of software development; SCRUM methodologies versus Waterfall and all that but I'll leave that for another day (and another book?)

For now, I just wanted to say that musicians are not the enemy of sonic branding - just the opposite. Time for the people to rise up against the machines!