citizensound in the Burj Al Arab
You go half way around the world to one of the most exclusive hotels in Dubai to find your corporate colours in the carpet…
citizensound in Dubai for the OMD Creative Masterclass
Well, we had fun in Dubai. The city is a fantastic example of the Adidas phrase “Impossible is Nothing”. I have not been to Dubai for some years now and the transformation is incredible. Really enjoyed the visit. I was kindly invited to speak to over 300 people at the OMD Creative Masterclass, organised by...
Imagine the power of music 2
Alan Yentob’s excellent documentary on the work of Oliver Sacks, reminded me to share one of the insights that I picked up at a WARC conference I attended a few weeks ago on Sponsorship Marketing. The event chaired by a good friend of citizensound, Mark Palmer, brought together some excellent speakers including Sally Cowdry, Marketing...
Thunk, vroom, vroom…
The current ad campaign for VW Golf used the sound of the car to develop the sync track for the brands latest ad campaign. However, car manufaturers, unlike many other brands, have always understood the sonic importance of their products. Car companies, especially at the high end of the market, have always traded on the...
Starbucks: smell the coffee and think small…
So have Starbucks given up on music or are they just refocusing their attention? When it was announced this week that they were to pull out of their record label Hear Music and hand over this business to their partners the Concord Music Group, an obvious reaction was ‘So what went wrong?’ This news was...
DIY music: It was easy, it was cheap: part 2
After digging out my Desperate Bicycles records I decided to hunt out my copy of the first single by Scritti Politti. If that name seem familiar it may be from the hits they had in the mid 80s with singles such as Wood Beez (Pray Like Aretha Franklin) or The Word Girl, or you may...
Brave Brands: / Discover Music: / Sonic Branding: / Sonic Retail: / Sound & Vision: / The kind of stuff citizensound does:
Sonic Retail Rant 4: The Sound of Silence
In the citizensound sonicRetail survey, we found a few stores decided on a policy of a music-free zone in–store. Shops such as Church’s shoes had the sound of people talking and shoes being squeezed on to feet, nothing more. And this worked for the environment and the clientele. A sense of calm away from...
Brave Brands: / Sonic Branding: / Sonic Retail: / Sound & Vision: / The kind of stuff citizensound does:
Sonic Retail Rant 3: Is Mango the Westlife of Fashion Stores?
Mango stores are the sonic version of vanilla ice cream. After a while you are yearning for mint choc chip, raspberry, peach or mango even…anything but vanilla…I have to ask the question – what is the point of having music in store if the music is so bland? It got me thinking… If Mango...
Sonic Retail Rant 2 – GAP vs HSBC
In our first post on the sound of the brand at retail, citizensound mentioned the lack of investment that seems to go into sound within the retail space. This comes in part from a marketing focus on the visual when it comes to financial commitment. The sense of sight dominates marketing decisions – the logo;...
Jazzie B at In The City – An example of a Music Brand or the epitome of community music?
Saint Jazzie of B was a highlight at In The City. He was interviewed by Lloyd Bradley (more in him later!) and talked about how Soul2Soul started out. Two things struck me whilst he was talking. Firstly, that Soul2Soul was very much music of the community – created, produced, refined and promoted by the community....
In The City 2007: citizensound helping out
The title of the In The City conference this year was Brand New Dance…but I don't know it's name. Beautifully reflects the confusion and opportunity that is the music industry right now. citizensound was asked by In The City earlier this year to help them assess what the key concerns were in the music industry....
Something In The Air…Tonight
Hopefully you've have seen the fantastic new ad for Cadbury's Dairy Milk by now, but if you haven't I won't spoil it for you (check it out here). However, the soundtrack to the advert, a 26 year old track by Phil Collins, has been catapulted back into the charts, currently standing at number 53 in...