It's time for marketers to make some noise

Would you go for a walk in the countryside wearing noise-cancelling headphones? 

What about facetiming your friends to meet their toddler – on mute? Whether its birdsong, a babbling brook or a giggling baby, sound enriches our lives. When it’s absent, our lives are much poorer for it.

Clients are obsessed with the visual, the copy and the call to action, but sound is an afterthought.

This is why it’s so hard to understand how, with digital making up such a huge portion of our day, marketers put so much thought into what we see and almost none into what we hear. Sound, on whatever platform - be it live events, TV, cinema or radio - is just as important as video, and often more so. All too frequently clients are obsessed with the visual, the copy and the call to action, but sound is an afterthought. 

They’ve got the hang of digital-first as a strategy, but perhaps not experience-first. 

Above: You wouldn't walk in the countryside wearing noise-cancelling headphones; what we hear is as important as what we see.  

Perhaps the shift has been so subtle it’s taken time to wake up to the full, multi-sensory potential of digital. It’s true that most platforms, like Meta for example, have evolved with a ‘sound off’ default. Originally, autoplay was not automatically welcomed, particularly not for the casual browser on the Clapham omnibus whose peaceful transit is shattered by someone’s phone unexpectedly blasting the first bars of “Just sold my car, to We Buy Any Car”, and 30 souls are then left with that earworm for the rest of the day. 

Over the last 18 months there has been a shift in behaviour. It's largely down to TikTok that the default has reset to 'sound on'.

Over the last 18 months, though, there has been a shift in behaviour. It's largely down to TikTok that the default has reset to 'sound on'. The expectation on opening the app is that every creative will come with an audio track (and etiquette would demand that you open the app with a suitable pair of earphones in, in public at least). If you want confirmation of this, check out the behaviour of creators on Meta, where videos often come with ‘audio on’ labels. The message couldn’t be clearer: if you can’t hear this, you’re missing out. 

Above: CUPRA collaborated with Barcelona-based musician Rosalía on its campaign. 

But it's one thing to recognise that sound is now part of the package, and quite another to get it right. Treating sound branding as an afterthought is similar to creating a landing page with nothing but stock photos; it’s bland and inauthentic. Your sound strategy is as critical to your brand experience as your visuals and your copy. And, just like visuals and copy, there are various levels at which you can engage.

It's one thing to recognise that sound is now part of the package, and quite another to get it right.

There are effectively three buckets of sound branding. The most expensive option is licensing, where you work directly with an artist to create your own, bespoke piece of work. Take car brand CUPRA, whose collaboration with Barcelona-based musician, Rosalía, is being promoted in a multimedia campaign. Posters in cities around the world prompt passers-by to chat via WhatsApp and receive snippets of a new version of her track Abcdefg. Shorter cuts of the collaboration are also used on TV and social media.