What does your brand sound like?
TRANSCRIPT
MARK: From Rogers, to McDonald’s, to a musical I.D. from Intel, corporations have been branding with music for years. In fact, it was 1950 when the famous NBC chimes became the first sound ever to be trademarked.
With B-to-B now entrenched in the digital world, brands are rediscovering the power of associating music with a brand, deriving from what the classical composers called a ‘leitmotif.’
Generations after Richard Wagner pioneered the craft, John Williams used leitmotif in the Star Wars series. Darth Vader had his own theme. So did Princess Leia. And more recently Rey and Finn. Leitmotif does more than sort out the characters; it helps the audience understand them, without speaking a word.
The original ‘main theme’ was, at first, assigned to Luke Skywalker. Pliable enough to serve as an over-the-top march, or be softened to convey boyhood innocence, then caffeinated to convey fast-paced action.
For today’s B2B digital marketer, here’s the good news. Those same audience members trained to associate music with characters and places and moods are also your customers.
Even better, digital is evolving fast with new, and in a way, old cinematic capabilities.
Now it’s up to us as B2B marketers to learn the language. And many of those lessons can be found in the great movies and TV shows, past and present.
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Join Mark Heine for part two of “What does your brand sound like?” He’ll talk about how musical shortcuts convey brand and what you can learn about boosting your brand musically… from the warm and loveable Frank Underwood.
This is Fresh Ideas.