Audio Identities
Every brand has a graphic identity.
At the centerpiece of its graphic identity… a graphic logo.
If it’s any good, it looks just like the brand. It’s the embodiment of everything the brand aspires to— pasted on every letterhead, every PowerPoint, every multi-media presentation, every web application, every t-shirt, every commercial…
A company’s graphic identity also includes derivative graphic logos in various shapes and sizes, maybe animated logos, a definitive palette of the brand’s colors to use, and the fonts to tell the company story.
The graphic identity.
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Get ready. There’s a new kid in town.
The audio identity.
As companies are using new media to showcase and promote their brand, brand logos are being augmented with one of the strongest memory-triggers…
Sound.
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Multi-media brands have been taking advantage of this for years. Think of the marriage of 20th Century Fox’s graphic and audio logo. Or THX’s stunning audio logo that you hear before your movie begins in the theatre. How about NBC’s three-note audio logo that accompanies its peacock colors? Or the audio logos that open ABC’s “Today Show,” or NBC’s “Nightly News,” or “ESPN” or “The Olympic Games?”
Are they important? Do good ones evoke emotion? You tell me. A young athlete wins an Olympic Gold medal. What’s the prize? You get to stand on a soapbox, and you listen to your country’s audio identity play out of a speaker as your country’s flag rises in the air. Everyone in the world starts bawling.
Audio identities. They make you feel the brand.
This new wave is catching on fast. Yahoo declared a distinctive brand voice in its clever audio logo of a quartet of young guys belting out “Yahooooo” in a bluegrass harmony. Every time you turn on your PC, Windows plays an elegant, happy audio logo to let you know it’s there for you. United Airlines tries to counter its mediocre service with an elegant, sophisticated, orchestral audio identity of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue.”
In the 90’s, the Internet was a visual medium. Not any more. YouTube, iTunes and gaming have blown the doors wide open for multi-media experiences as the order-of-the-day on the web.
Before we blink, it will be antiquated to go to a Gap.com and not hear its 7-second audio logo. Johnson and Johnson. Kelloggs. Hollisters. The US Post Office. Harley Davidson. They’ll all have audio identities and audio logos.
That’s where Inspire comes in. We know more know about this space of where brands and music collide than anyone else. Period.
We’ve raised the bar in creating audio identities for leading retailers, universities, corporations, utilities companies, churches, sports federations… you name it.
Our world-class team includes the best, most credentialed, high-end composers, songwriters and artists in Hollywood.
Inspire.
Creating the soundtrack of your brand.