They Branded the Wind: How Tiny Sound Marks Are Quietly Winning Big
Let’s talk about the part of branding that never appears in your deck but gets all the airtime: sound. Not jingles, not voiceovers, but something much sneakier. The two-second sonic brushstroke. You know it. You’re eight seconds into a podcast and there it is—a barely-there sound that breezes past the script and punches straight into your memory.
Intel did it with four notes. Netflix did it with a thump. Even Trade Me has a cheeky little chime tucked into its app notifications, just faint enough to avoid irritation. This isn’t just noise; it's strategy compressed into sound. And while the design world argues endlessly about kerning, audio branding is out here, quietly becoming the most resilient piece of your campaign.
I went down a rabbit hole recently on the sonic identity of New Zealand start-ups. There isn’t much yet, but the potential? Massive. Imagine a farm supplier’s app with a sonic logo based on the wind through gum trees. Or an eco-packaging brand with a closing chime that mimics opening a paper box. These flourishes are micro-marketing miracles. They bypass logic, go straight to recognition, and stick. Sound, at its best, doesn’t ask for attention. It just gets remembered.
Point is, if your client has a logo, a palette, and a slogan but no sound signature, they’re leaving brand equity on the table. In a world where every streaming ad has to say it all in five seconds, those two-note cues are becoming the last safe bet in branding. Everyone’s shouting. Might be time to whisper instead.
Intel did it with four notes. Netflix did it with a thump. Even Trade Me has a cheeky little chime tucked into its app notifications, just faint enough to avoid irritation. This isn’t just noise; it's strategy compressed into sound. And while the design world argues endlessly about kerning, audio branding is out here, quietly becoming the most resilient piece of your campaign.
I went down a rabbit hole recently on the sonic identity of New Zealand start-ups. There isn’t much yet, but the potential? Massive. Imagine a farm supplier’s app with a sonic logo based on the wind through gum trees. Or an eco-packaging brand with a closing chime that mimics opening a paper box. These flourishes are micro-marketing miracles. They bypass logic, go straight to recognition, and stick. Sound, at its best, doesn’t ask for attention. It just gets remembered.
Point is, if your client has a logo, a palette, and a slogan but no sound signature, they’re leaving brand equity on the table. In a world where every streaming ad has to say it all in five seconds, those two-note cues are becoming the last safe bet in branding. Everyone’s shouting. Might be time to whisper instead.