The Sound of Fonts
When we describe the business value of Sonic Branding to clients, inevitably conversation gets round to comparing our approach to creating the sonic identity of a brand to the work involved in creating the VISUAL identity of a brand. There is nothing more visual in the visual identity of a brand than the font. And...
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Sensory Marketing: A musician’s approach
Be it Dubai or Mumbai, London or Lisbon, citizensound is excited to find that more and more brands are investing in the power of the senses as part of the consumer experience. The old one dimensional approach to sensory marketing is moving out of the mainstream into the background, being replaced by strategies that consider...
Dear Microsoft, if creating music is the point of your product, is this the best way to promote it?
OK, I have just picked this up from videogum, holy moly, and a bunch of other places. I struggle with this for so many reasons. Firstly, unless we have all been duped, this ad (one of three) is legitimate. I found them here Second, it is Friday. I struggle with lots of things on a...
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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...
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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;...
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The Use of Sound in Advertising. The Right Way
Too often the sound is a last minute scramble in the advertising process, as advertising agencies all too often pitch ideas visually rather than sonically. So it is no surprise that the mood set by the sound of the ad is poorly thought through in most advertising. When is is right, it is immensely powerful....
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Diesel at Venice: Brand in music for the long term…
Lucy from Diesel (on the right) joined Kate Williams of Columbus Media at the citizensound session at Venice. In response to the panel urging brands to commit to more than just the short term when getting involved in music marketing, Lucy shared with the attendees the experience of Diesel. The Diesel U-Music activity has been...
Thanks to Gary McClarnan
Here is Gary McClarnan, of Sparklestreet, on the left and my co-citizen Nick Watt enjoying a quiet drink in Venice. Gary took time out to join citizensound and Pete Jenner at the Venice Festival of Media. His entrepreneurial flair, deep understanding of artist psyche and finding a balance between Brands and Bands was a huge...
Koji Kondo – Sonic Master of the Video Game
Turn on the video game. Select Super Mario Brothers. Escape into the wonderful world of plumbing. Have fun. Yet without those catchy tunes, this game will be somewhat lessened. Koji Kondo is the man behind the music. He clearly knows how to create the sonic complement to the visual, a lesson that many brands could...
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The Return of the Boombox…?
Kids at the back of the bus. One plays a beat that he made the night before to his friends. They decide whether it lives or dies before the bus comes to a stop… There is the obvious outcome of high irritation levels of fellow passengers. Plus the future of the music industry could look...
Sound and Vision
So I have been chatting with my online friends about great album covers. We were thinking of the ones where the visual impact of the album cover fused closely with the sound inside the album. Integrated Communication if you wish… Here are one example: Bim Sherman – Miracle. A legendary reggae singer. This album fused...