****Please forgive any and all transcription errors as this was transcribed by Otter.ai.****

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Kenneth Kinney 0:16

Hello and welcome back to A Shark's Perspective.

Kenneth Kinney 0:18

Audio in all flavors is pretty hot right now, especially with how technology and Amazon and Google have pushed voice commerce forward. But what is your brand sound like? What is your sonic identity that helps consumers know and remember you? What are they hearing? After all, this is not anything that's new. But today, does your brand even have a style guide that covers audio to this goes way beyond just what you hear.

Kenneth Kinney 0:39

Audrey Arbeeny is the CEO and founder of audio brain, a sound consultancy, specializing in Sonic branding and interactive audio and on this episode, we'll discuss Sonic branding, audio assets, jingles, psycho acoustics, call centers Chainsmokers Disney the Olympics blue coconut slushies with tater tots, Kevin Durant, and a lot lot more.

Kenneth Kinney 0:58

So let's tune into an OG Sonic Brander with an OG shark on this episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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Kenneth Kinney 1:11

Audrey, thank you so much for joining me today on a shark's perspective. Would you please as an OG audio Sonic brain person, would you please tell us a little bit about your your background in your career to date.

Audrey Arbeeny 1:23

So thanks for having me shark or Dreier? b&e. I'm the founder, CEO of audio brain, audio brain specializes in Sonic branding. We're based in New York, we are 100% woman owned business, and I've had audio brain for 17 years now. And I've been doing Sonic branding for over 25. So this is not new territory for me. But it's very exciting that it's extremely new territory for so many different people, which I find extremely interesting.

Kenneth Kinney 1:56

So let's jump into that specific question. Why do you think this focus now today is getting such a spotlight on it? I mean, I've dabbled in this for a few years. I mean, you have some strong credentials. You you work with some amazing brands, but why do you think the focus is getting such a spotlight on it today?

Audrey Arbeeny 2:16

Well, there's several different reasons. And I think the most critical one is all of the emerging technologies. So you have, you know, smart devices, you have a voice in cars, you have voice and sound and medical devices. So the technologies have really driven the, the imperative to have sandwiches before it was a liquid like to have my neighbor next door can do GarageBand. And we were a luxury item, and not something that you must have. It's so many environments, and some of them are sound only or voice only, there's no getting around the fact that we really seriously need to have Sonic branding have a major seat at the table. Now, that's point one. And for me, point two is that the customer is in the driver's seat. Now, there is no more push to the audience, you need to attract them, you need to emotionally invest them, you need to connect with them. And sound and voice are great ways to do that. They are emotional, communicators. And sound transcends language. So if the audience is not really feel connected to in an emotional way, they're gonna move on. And they can feel many, many of your touch points through technology. And when it sounds all, like cacophony and disconnected. And what you say and your advertising is different, what you say in your videos, or what you say, when you're speaking at a conference. There's a clash of authenticity, and authenticity. And transparency is very important right now. That's the other driving force. And I think the last one is very personal. People are a little bit emotionally disconnected right now. We communicate we text, we, we don't meet face to face as much as we would like to. So they, you know, they desire this feeling of a brand. That's why kids today buy vinyl and why they want to hold a book. You know, they want this kind of other connection. And music and sound are fantastic at doing that. So that's why I think it's exploding.

Kenneth Kinney 4:41

Yet. They sit together at the holidays and look at their phones, but don't talk to each other. So that's another that's another story. But you know, it's very interesting. I'm presenting at different conferences about different forms of audio. I know you're a major speaker at voice summit and CES and I just I think it's really interesting today, so at least for Sonic branding, and I know this goes by a couple of different names. It's sounds like a concept, complex concept, and fairly unexplored, but define, if you will, what is Sonic branding? And what is it not?

Audrey Arbeeny 5:15

Okay? First of all, Sonic branding is nothing new, exactly not new. It has been around forever, from rousing choirs to crowd chants and stadiums, music and sound connect on such an emotional level. And Sonic branding, like I said, has been around forever from movie scores to Disney to, it's, I'll give you our definition of it. And I'll give you the many names it's called. But Sonic branding, it's an art. And it's a science that surrounds the strategic development deployment of a consistent, authentic sound experience of a brand. And everything is a brand, in my opinion. And a sound identity is the strategic and creative alignment of this experience. And you creating a narrative that delivers a unified, memorable and differentiating communication. So we're not just talking about voice Sonic branding is music, voice and sound design and vibration. If you look at the Samsung Galaxy S 10 Stew, fingerprint sensor. So that's the world of Sonic branding. And really, I say this, and people tell me, you know, you kind of, say it like, it's so basic. And I always say to people, you're using sound and all these points anyway, why shouldn't it be authentic? Why shouldn't it be developed from some research and some strategy and creating an audio DNA and finding out what makes you you, and what makes you different than anyone else, and putting that together the same way you would with a visual identity or branding system, and apply that discipline to all your sound touch points. It's not rocket science. It's extremely logical. It's just been so overlooked. Except for some brands that I mean, we've done this for a really long time. There are many brands out there that have gotten it for a very long time. And we call them hero brands, because they they get it and they've done it. And they've been incredibly successful with it.

Kenneth Kinney 7:26

Well, what are some of those hero brands? What are some of the clients that you've worked with over the years that have really been able to understand the value of this?

Audrey Arbeeny 7:35

Okay, one brand that comes to mind. I mean, there's so many of them, I would say, Hero brands, to me are brands like HBO, brands like Audi. These are brands, brands like Disney. These are brands that understand that at every point that they're communicating their brand, they are consistent. And brands that we've worked with the one of my favorite ones to have worked with was IBM, because I think it must have been 20 years ago or something near to that. I was on IBM's sense layering team, where they had voice sounds represented and smell, and taste. And they had the Merlin center. And it implied included all five senses. This was a long time ago. That brand got it. And all of the work we've done with IBM from voice branding to our first executive walk on was done because IBM needed it for a conference after one of their executives. I'm talking to a couple Dec code Cades ago, one of the executives walked to the stage and the AV guy played Yellow Submarine. And there's nothing wrong with that song. But it was inappropriate for the environment for the subject matter and for the brand and the speaker. And when he was done, he said to me, the work you're doing with IBM, could you create a branded IBM walk on so that we have something that feels like our brand, when people walk up to speak? And now every brand we work with? Has speaker walk ons? So the brands that we've worked with I mean, we do all of Sonic branding for Holland America Lines, we've worked with Google, we've worked with Merck, we've worked with NBC Olympics, we've been the music supervisors for nine Olympics with NBC. I mean, goes on and on and on. We've worked with large global brands, we've worked with Microsoft, we created the sonic branding for the Xbox 360. This list goes on and on. But the thing is, is that no matter what the industry, whether it's a surgical robot or it's a corporate identity for or Vanguard, the process and the discipline and the methodology is the same. We apply it to any industry. We can sonically brand, we've branded authors, we've branded universities, we've branded products, we work with Logitech. But it's always about finding an authentic voice, finding what makes that brand special and stand out. If you're a bank, you know, being secure. That's table stakes to us. You shouldn't be in the industry, if that's, if that's one of your core attributes. That's table stakes. We're looking for that unique, unique positioning, that we could then evolve the story of the brand and tell it with music and sound and voice.

Kenneth Kinney 10:53

I've heard you talk about this before and it's just like this with room warming soundtracks. I mean, you talked about speaker intros, I know that I spoke at a conference and ask the guys if because they did music walk ins for everybody and asked them if I was able to use a particular sound. And they they looked at me like I was crazy, which I thought was very funny. But it's really important for, you know, any kind of, especially kind of intro to have that kind of walk in music, if you will. And the MMA fighters use it all the time with their specific I mean, there's things that get people jazzed up, if you will, when they hear that kind of sound, but it really Prime's the audience as well to understand what it is they're about to hear talk about room warming soundtracks, I know that's one of your favorites.

Audrey Arbeeny 11:39

It is absolutely one of my favorites. The first really big room warming soundtrack that we did was when we did the Xbox 360. And it was revealed it was it was the reveal if people were seeing it for the first time as a major global event at EA three. And we did room warming and we started at a certain level of when for 40 minutes and it was in surround sound. So when all around the Shrine Auditorium. So what we were doing was we were setting the table was nobody had heard what the new Xbox 360 sounded like. And the audience was just I was there and I was just watching them. And it was really getting them like right in the zone. And once that once the reveal came out, we had them in that emotional place we wanted them. Our clients tell us that the room warming soundtracks are one of their favorite assets that they would have never thought of, think of walking into a party and having no music on, or walking into a meeting, how cold it is, when you get there. We do remotely soundtracks that feel like everything else we're doing for the brand. And we're not talking about doing the same thing over and over and over and over again, like Intel Inside we're talking about we create a foundation of sound for the brand. It's like their own personal Crayola Crayons box. There's different textures and colors and tones. And the room warming's unless it's a rousing event, that usually just really gives the vibe and the feel of what this brand feels like. And it makes the world of difference. I had someone recently say to me that she went to an event, and the AV people could not play her room warming soundtrack. And she felt that something was missing, that something was wrong, because she was so used to having it set her up and get her psyched up. We work on the Olympics, I can tell you, those athletes are listening to their music before they go on. Exactly. And I and I often ask them what they listening to. Because then if we're working on their profiles, I love for it to be in the tone and feel and nobody would really know that so much. But it's just a little special thing that athlete knows it when they see that you know, we help them tell stories with music and sound on the Olympics were a compass for all the producers. So when you see so many people that are so connected to getting in that emotional place and how they use music for it, room AMI soundcheck changes everything

Kenneth Kinney 14:18

agreed. And it's I mean, it's really the difference between somebody that understands the value of customer experience and user experience versus a doorbell. So it's something is limited as that but it can mean so much more. So help define, if you will the difference between audio assets in Sonic branding. I have a friend who a few years ago who I worked with at a brand who wanted to, you know, start using a jingle or create a jingle and I laughed at the time because he was using a lot of supporting evidence that really contributed to what Sonic branding was not just a jingle, but I think people have a hard time in helping explain if you will, what that difference is between assets and Sonic branding Sure.

Audrey Arbeeny 15:01

Okay, so here's where I'm gonna just gonna touch on something a little bit. But the industry is really exploding. There used to be, I'd say for many, many years, I'd say probably, oh seven or eight companies that I think were bonafide hardcore, scientific, strategic, formal methodology, Sonic branding, expert firms. And now I would say there's probably about 400. But to me, they are creating audio assets. And it will catch up at some point. And same thing with voice. Everything is like the wild west right now. It was it's starting to settle down. And, you know, I think that's kind of why I'm getting so much kind of like requests to talk about this, because there really aren't that many people that do it at kind of the level we do it at. So with Sonic branding, here's the difference. So you create audio assets, you might have an ad agency call up and say, Can you score my Can you score this ad, or this series of this campaign, and we want it to be like this. And this, and this is what the visual story is about. And, and that's where you go, we will work with the brand, we gather all of the brand materials, we do historical look at the brand. Why are they doing this at this time? What does the brand stand for will talk to their, their shareholders not meaning, it could mean you know, I'm not talking about financial, emotional, internal stakeholders. And but people like you to the people that work, they're the people that use the brand, customer experience, we'll gather up all of their brand documents, their strategic mission statements, they brand arrows, we will interview different sectors of the brand to see, you know, what's their perspective. And we'll do a tremendous amount of research. I'll call it competitive research. But it's really not. We'll look at people that are direct competitors of theirs, or, you know, in the same industry, I'd like to find a better word. And we're gonna look for points where we could differentiate their brand, and we're gonna look for things that people are doing really well. We'll show them some of the hero brands and how they're connecting. And we'll also look at mindshare competitors, which is a very big deal. Now, these are brands that may have nothing to do with your brand. But they have the same audience. They have the same desired audience, demographic, psychographic logistics, you know, wherever they're located, because you want to look at what that brands doing. Because it doesn't matter that you, you, you create a and they create B, that really doesn't matter. People only have so many hours in the day to connect and invest with their brands. And if they have the eyes and ears of the your desired consumer, you may want to look at what they're doing right and why they have that regardless of the industry. So the difference is, is that we will do research, we will do strategy, we are very, very well versed in science, psycho acoustics, by musicology. That's that's the heavy lifting that we do. We make it very easy for our customers, we've built the tools to make this very simple for them. We ask them for their time at the beginning to kind of get on the right page that they feel comfortable that this is what their brand stands for. And these are the type of sounds that they're resonating. And then once we're there, we will then use our custom proprietary tools to get them to give us feedback on what they're gravitating towards. And that's the difference at that point. Once we've set the foundation, think of it last, putting a foundation under a house to make sure it's strong and make sure it's sturdy. And then you can build upon that. Once we set out that Sonic blueprint, those Sonic guidelines. And and we understand the brand and the places it's at now and the places that It aspires to go to we can then build out any of the audio assets because the central narrative has been established. So that's really the main difference.

Kenneth Kinney 19:41

Yeah. How rare is it to walk into a brand who has a style guide that includes audio and not one that's just you know, defined by the communication smart we like with the voice of the customer but actual audio sounds and Sonic brands? I mean, that's got to be very rare. Now that you walk into one and that to your point, you know, with all the agencies that claimed to be able to do this. So there are a lot of agencies, every agency can claim to fix every problem, but what you're doing is a different level of creating a solution rather than fixing a problem.

Audrey Arbeeny 20:20

It's incredibly rare for us to walk in. And we get guidelines, we get style guides, we get brand guidelines. It has everything from, right, yeah, they're all visual. And then they'll have something called a voice tone of voice. But it's more for writing, writing style. And we're really looking for anything indicating sound. And it just doesn't really exist. And the some of them will have sound assets, but then they don't use them consistently. So they might use this do a sound logo, but they don't make it. You know, any guide of that, like, you must use this in these places, you must and then when we are when we do our Sonic branding guidelines, our style guide, we talk about the use of voice, and the tone and feel of the voice, which aligns with the brand. When we do our voice casting, we use the same filter we use to create the sound. We talk about the voice before copy during copy after copy and advertising. We talk about localization, we talk about the dare the different components, and the sound logo. What am I composers, right, and my proposals are in house, which makes a world of difference that branding composers because to, to go through our process and understand it to just farm it out and bid it out to my composers are involved from day one. They're calling those call centers, they're recording them, they're going to the products. So that's why we're able to get the results that we get. Because we have an entire vested team that really has to get it from the beginning when the composer's right there writing, I'm articulating liberation of this pain relief, or whatever I was with the water rush, because it washes away the pain. That's what we heard in the consumer testing. And so that's where we're representing this in the in the Sonic identity. So they have to tie back and validate the sounds that they're writing, that how they're lining with all of this upfront work that we did. It's not random. X Xbox 360 is a living entertainment system powered by human energy and the shifting demographic, from hardcore gamer boy to a broader audience. And then it's gonna not just be a gaming console, does the average player really know that. But it's a living entertainment system. It has that X Box breath that is now iconic. That's all built into the sound. And it doesn't matter to us that the average customer, it's even better, that they don't know everything that went into creating that Sonic branding. We want them to feel the brand that the brand is alive and that the sound is aligned with the experience they're having. So that's, that's what we do. Our guidelines will give sound examples, or guidelines will give placement examples. Outside light, or guidelines will give the various core elements and how you can kind of sweeten the advertising. You can have a video open, you can have a video close, you can have your room warming soundtrack that you could then distill Music on Hold sound on hold voice casting, what does that sound like? localization? What do you do in other countries? We've had clients to say, can we take what you did for the UK? And can you change out that lead instrument to an ood so that we can use this in Dubai? lets you know how much money that saved? Yeah. Oh, yeah. People think this is phenomenally expensive, but it's really to do it right. You know, you you do it right. Once you get that foundation in correctly, all of your other audio X. All of your other audio assets will be less expensive. Because we already have the blueprint. We already have the colors. We already have the tools and we also can modify we know the brand. year later they have a new offering. We're right back in there we find out what's new and fam. We have the plan. We know the brand. That's why we have 100% client return rate.

Kenneth Kinney 25:02

So how do agencies typically approach this and not only just the agency that maybe pulls you into this, but most large sized clients that do this, they're working with a lot of different agencies. And there are very often we find that brands work with a siloed echo echo system with a lot of different agencies. And I think that not enough people understand, this is not just a channel, but one of the most underutilized of the senses of the five senses, this can become a very siloed effort, if it's not used across all the different agencies.

Audrey Arbeeny 25:38

Well, we're extremely, extremely fortunate. Because I would say 90% of the work that audio brain gets, comes in directly from the brand. So when we're hired by Microsoft, we were hired by Microsoft, where we're seated at the table,

Kenneth Kinney 26:03

you know what I mean? Yeah, and we're hired by them from the top.

Audrey Arbeeny 26:08

But we also do get hired by branding agencies, you know, agencies like Macmillan, we get, we've collaborated on many projects with, because branding agencies have a shared like minded two mindedness to us, and we can complement each other. But when we start Sonic branding, we we are usually brought in by the brand itself, which kind of in the old days, in the original days, I should say, was a little bit. I won't say contentious, but it wasn't exactly the favorite way for an advertising agency to work on sound. Because they were kind of being told they needed to work with us. And it was not, they were used to calling up a music production company and getting it to suit their advertising. Whereas what we do is far more long term, and far more sonically strategic. So we're going to say, well, we're going to do a sonic discovery. And they'd say, we have that already. We could, you know, and they would send us commercials from all around the world. It that's changed quite a bit. There are some agencies that call us for Sonic branding, and they put the ball in our court. And they bring us in as their expert in this area. Because that's how kind of important it's gotten. But we come in usually, you know, Holland America Line, read an article that was in Fast Company, about us and the Beijing Olympics and the work that we were doing there. And they read that article, and they contacted us contacted us directly. So Logitech contacted us directly. So so we're fortunate in that respect, because we come in very early on, and we do collaborate with the other teams. Sure. I do think some of the brands want a sound logo and a brand theme. And then they don't leverage it to the extent that they should, yeah, and some brands, let's face it, are not big brands. They're smaller brands, and they don't have those kinds of budgets. So we have to work with them where they're at. We don't just work with, you know, fortune 500, we work with tons of brands around the world and tons of the world's biggest brands. But we've worked with some small brands as well. And we teach them, you know, we are a little bit more nimble, we'll do advertising score that could go across a variety of, of ads, or video scores that may represent 10 different emotions that they could use on to tons of content. And that's, that's kind of you know, every year they'll come back and build more assets, but their mindset is in the right place. So I think anybody that does, regardless of what, where you're at and what your budget is, I can probably guarantee you that you might not be thinking of doing a sonic fingerprint or what your podcast sounds like, you got a captive audience in that car for an hour or two. So what are you doing there? What are you doing there? You've got flash briefings now brief casts, people will turn on and they'll they'll say play my briefcase, play my my flash briefings, and it's like the news headlines of the day. Are you in there? Are you doing that? If you don't even have a sound logo yet. You know, you're probably not doing your podcasts. Your video opens and closes with your tons of video content, or the voice on your videos. Sounds like it was recorded on an iPhone. You have so many opportunities now, you have so many ways to connect. And so many of them are not that difficult. When we when we have the foundation set we just did for somebody we did. We did there is speaker walk ons, his room warming soundtrack is video opens and closes interstitials little sounds that transition when you're doing a presentation, they look so seamless to do, because we kind of know where the brand is going.

Kenneth Kinney 30:32

So what goals should brands have when they look at doing this, you know, you give some examples on your website with clients like Whirlpool and KitchenAid with some of the sounds they have with their devices. But then there are others like with sounds behind the words on LifeLock ads and IBM ads, if I'm considering doing this, how should I start to picture the size of this and where I should place it.

Audrey Arbeeny 30:56

I think the most important thing to do for any brand at any level is to I'm not saying this to just advocate for my company. But you need to think of this as if you're doing your visual identity, your brand identity, let's get that Sonic filter, let's find your audio DNA, we need your background materials, we need your brand attributes, we need to meet with your team, we need to hear from different team members. And we need to start creating that, that foundation of what makes you you. And then from there, depending on the scale of the brand. If it's a particular, you know, LifeLock did that. And we did that with an agency LifeLock did not come in directly from LifeLock. And that agency I was on the phone with last week, because we want to get together again. So you know, the most important thing is to just let us kind of set up set a framework and then start with where you can start, where's the most important place? You're touching your customer right now? Is it a product? So for Logitech Jaipur, we did we did Logitech we did the the Jaipur product, but then we did the Customer Service Center, the voice there, because their product is launching out. But then they have other touch points. So I'd say the first thing to do is to really just even if it's to say, You know what, we don't really know what that is. And we'll come in and do you know, a sonic snapshot, we'll do a discovery and say, Hey, guys, this is what we're seeing. This is what we're hearing. This is where you think you we think you can really kind of go with this. And then have your next conversation.

Kenneth Kinney 32:59

Sure. Well, how long should it take for a company to form an audio identity? I mean, we see people roll out visual identities, especially when they ever they change creative agencies. But for the most part, the logo itself is consistent, you know, for most, most brands will tweak that over over time. But how long have you typically seen it take to develop an audio identity?

Audrey Arbeeny 33:22

I would say, you know, it's funny because it starts out at one place, and it ends up at another because it's kind of iterative. So I would say in general, we can do a discovery phase in a couple of weeks, a week or two. And that's assessing whether Brenda's heard everything else. So as as long as it takes us to get that part down. From there, it really am we're going to assume that we're getting the feedback in a timely manner. Okay. That's what's important. So if everything is going according to plan, it can range from, you know, a month and a half to seven months, eight months, depending on if it's something that has a brand a product, and they do in like the whole, you know, a whole immersive initiative that they want to launch with their product sounds a brand theme, their executive walk ons, their advertising global campaign scored, and they want to do that kind of level. I've seen those go seven months. But what's interesting is, we find that it kind of doesn't stop because when we do our proposals, we'll show them what they're hiring us to do, which is quite often discovery strategy, a product sonification a sound logo, what have you, but will also play At the seeds for next phase in the next phase, to show them that, hey, audio brain is incredibly unique in this space, which I really want to mention, because what differentiates us is that we have equal capabilities in composition, branding, science, and implementation truly are phenomenally technical. So we could take them from an idea to creating an entire infrastructure and building a music server, and, and doing their global guidelines and implementing on any device that they have. So we don't just, you know, give them the taste of what it could be like, we can take them through any touch point, virtual reality, you know, augmented reality, we just did a surgical robot. That was pretty intense. So that's important. That's, so how long it takes depends on what they're doing. We've done initiatives in in a month. We've done fast track initiatives in in two, three weeks, but we have gone back to those and then evolve them even further, somebody who might have had an instance where they had to get something out, at least they weren't wasting their money.

Kenneth Kinney 36:16

Well, when you look, especially at the Olympics, as an example, I think the stickiness of a good Sonic brand, a good audio logo. And, and those kind of things, if you just look at the Olympics is as an example. It's really been sort of a tried and true sound for decades with them. And it is something that I know that we realized we could change the sound of a logo quickly, just like they can a visual identity. But there's a really a powerful sticky appeal to keeping that consistent, like the Olympics is done. And I think that's one of the things that obviously makes people tune in is just hearing those sounds that draw people in all the time. So when you think of customer experience, and how important that is, it obviously makes sense to help people pull in that way emotionally. But how are you seeing brands use audio and audio logos and Sonic branding to create triggers that increase leads and sales? Are you seeing that?

Audrey Arbeeny 37:17

I think the brands that are doing it, well absolutely will pull customers in, because there was a study that was done. And brands that use music that's aligned with their brand identity are 96% more likely to be remembered by the consumer, versus brands that use unfit music or no music at all. That's a pretty hardcore statistic. And I have hundreds of them. And, and how, you know, we are emotionally wired to respond to things that are really make us feel good. That's the mission statement of my company. My background is in psycho acoustics and by Musicology, and I studied music from when I was three and a half years old. And I worked with kids that were deaf and blind and did music therapy with them through vibration. So please don't forget that. It's not just about the sound itself. But the power of sound and how it's processed in the brain. And how people are psychologically and physiologically wired for that are really important. And getting back to I'll get to, you know, a brand like Eddie's people say to me, Audrey, why do you always say that Disney is such a great sounding brand? Because Disney is about imagination. And Disney knows that at every touchpoint I'm not kidding. When you call the customer service. I think I could fly when I get off of that. That customer service call. Yeah. And, and when you have a brand, and you have a fantastic ad on the Superbowl, and the next day, I call you a call center and it says hello, how can I help you? Exactly. And it sounds like a chain smoker. But you just really made a really bad, bad brand experience. But when I call Lego, and I have a kid on the phone with me so I could get the realistic feel of it. And that person is using his name every other time. Andrew I'm sorry you had a problem with with your Lego and you know what? We are so excited Andrew, your Lego fan and we are going to send you something so special. And he's talking in that voice that's so appealing. So on brand. Those brands are not legacy brands and not around that long for no reason. You really have to think about that. It is phenomenally connecting. And we learned through doing the Olympics. NBC Olympics is the master of storytelling and creating an emotional feel we've been honored nine times to be their music supervisors, we do not did not write of obviously, you know, the buglers dream and the Olympic team, we don't do the opening ceremonies, we don't do the closing ceremonies. But those stories in between, yeah, we help we help those producers find the right music and sound for those. And in talking with them and how they work. It wasn't about victory, defeat drama. Determination, is, you know, what they want to want to hear. It's not necessarily rock, pop jazz. And we learned from them that defeat sounds different from a solo athlete. It's an isolating experience, this so much emotion that goes on behind that, and we try to be the best resource that we could be for them. And that's why they are like the gold standard of storytelling, in my opinion, and continue to be

Kenneth Kinney 40:57

well, and I've done consulting in this space, I know just consistency of using that sound, across all the touch points has been key I've consulted with with brands and had abuse, just the logo on their IVR, their audio logo and the IVR. And using little things like you know, the music or the sound, before they call into the you know, for they actually reached the call center, that branded music helps remind people just like, you know, people forget a lot of times how quickly people can forget, when they click on a landing page when they see inconsistent imagery, for example, on the landing page, as opposed to what they clicked on initially, from whatever the ad was held, that can push people away, the same thing can be used with audio, and how it pulls people in, especially on their IVR is and I don't understand why more brands are doing that today, in a lot of it's because they don't have even anything is basically outlined is their audio assets outline to understand where to use them. So what are you seeing at least from an ROI with clients? Because I know you've got a ridiculously high is in 100% return rate. But what are you seeing from from clients here? You're gonna be really upset when that first one over over a career, you know, does it come back? But what are you seeing from an ROI standpoint, where clients are able to justify this spend, because again, it's not the most expensive endeavor they're going to have with an agency. But as it is an added expense. And so much of what we're having to do today is looking at ROI. So what have you seen or heard from brands as far as sales lift and everything else that they use to justify ROI today?

Audrey Arbeeny 42:43

Well, I think that I said this in a in an article, I think it was in the Atlanta called The Times UK. And I said we don't make noise. You know what I mean? We don't make disposable assets. Everything that we create is purposeful for the brand. And therefore is repurpose double. So once we create our foundation, and once the clients go through our process, and I'm talking big brands that that, you know, didn't really have an eye and they wanted to sound logo, but they see the process. We've already done the heavy lifting, the foundation is in place. Once they experienced that process, and we line up for them. Okay, here's your podcast, here's your app, here's your voices, here's your products, here's your social media. Here's what you're doing globally. Here's what your executives are walking on to here's transactional, here's what you're doing a point of purchase. Here's what your video score sound like, here's your call center. You know, here's your tutorials, here's all your digital environment, your IVR. Here's what they they hear when they go to your events. They they sit there and they listen to it. And they're like, really? Yeah, we educate them. We're a compass, we're not a know it all. We're compass. We just happen to have tremendous expertise in this area. So we guide them without insulting them, but guide them. And once we get them through the first one, they are, they are like super fans educated. They'll call us up and they'll use our terminology. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, agree. They'll say they'll say so we want to do a series of video book ends. But these are our main themes. So we've got three we've got like, it was some some of like Schneider Electric, right, and they've got, you know, whimsical themes, and they're doing a thing on Fenway Park, or they've got critical because they're and they're in energy, and they've got some critical stories. They want you know, they do hundreds of these this content, but they want a sonic toolbox of reusable assets. You'd have any idea what a return on investments that's doing because we're repurposing foundation is in place So we go back, we remix, we add some things. We're never starting from scratch, think of building a house without a foundation. You know, that's just a bunch of sticks. You know, you can't really build on top of that. So I think for us, you know, we have one client, I am not kidding you. He, he was our client at originally at Microsoft, is very high up, he has taken us to four global brand well, he made a video testimonial about us, and why he does this, I couldn't explain what we do better than he did, and why it's an art and a science, and why it's so important. And he comes in now. He's been at the company, he's with Picard. Now. But, you know, every like three or four years he was he was moving on and, and to major brands and major position. And by the second one, he came in doing, like 15 different touchpoints from the get go. And the return on investment. i They I've been tracking this. It's turning around in like the first year or two of implementation, which that's pretty good.

Kenneth Kinney 46:19

That sounds saying, what does the science say about audio? And I'm gonna use audio broadly, what does the science say with how people remember what they hear as opposed to maybe what they see. And you see so many studies today, that audio is helping people remember at a much greater clip than other forms. And that to some degree, there's, I'm sure there's some debate, but audio does have a very powerful impact, and it tends to be the most not necessarily underutilized, ignored, sense that we do in marketing and advertising today.

Audrey Arbeeny 46:56

Okay. Well, I don't think that there's anything more important to me, based on my background, and my own history, with health and wellness. So our mission statement is, we embrace and advocate for the power of music and sound to promote well being. We have done tremendous work in music therapy, in science. In research, we have donated Sonic branding initiatives, across various organizations that are working in health and science. And research shows that, you know, music and sound, and if you listen to some things that we have, on our website, music and sound is housed really deeply in the brain. And that's why you can recall, you know, you can recall a song you haven't sang in 25 years. And you'll remember every word, you know, it is, you know, more powerful than the most people seem to, to understand. It can heal. Aligning the right music and sound can cause health and wellness. There are people right now that I was watching something this morning, and they were showing I forget what hospital it was, but they was showing musicians playing in the rooms with with the kids. You know, there are people creating so many wonderful things in the field of science right now, this has proven, this is not something that that most people debate about anymore. It's proven that it promotes well being and that it and it heals. I 17 years ago wanted to do a scientific study with a major facility in New York and the head surgeon who was opening the facility. He said to me, he sent me a letter. And he said, You know, I'm building this new pavilion. I have everything the wood is beautiful, it doesn't feel it's warm and inviting was awkward. But I'm getting a push back on on budgeting for audio. He says in you know what, my patients when they're laying waiting to go in for this procedure, you know, a minute seems like an hour. And I find when I when I find when I give them music. They tell me it goes by faster. And I noted that they take less sedation, when I've given them something to listen to. That letter was written 17 years ago, and we never got it off the ground. The red tape was was unbelievable to just get the study through that I wanted to. And now this is something that everybody is understanding. There's so much Many people, that's what was so one of the thrills of the show was speaking at the voice of healthcare summit up at Harvard Medical School. It's just all the people doing amazing work in this field. When you have sound coupled with a visual, it's not one plus one equals two, it's eight times as effective. I've done music therapy with patients that were on vents. And they remember the sounds that were played when they come off of that.

Kenneth Kinney 50:27

Exactly. Amazing. Well, Audrey, you're more in the valley of giants and jets, as opposed to sharks, but you're on A Shark's Perspective. So I have to ask, what is your favorite kind of shark and why?

Audrey Arbeeny 50:39

Okay, well, it should kind of be obvious as a woman in this industry doing this for this long, at times, I was the only woman in the company where I used to work. So the great white shark, because to me, it's like, Go big or go home. If you're going to do something, if you're going to do something, do it right. Do it to the best of your ability. Do it at a level that, you know, is like I said it as simply as I could go big or go home. Don't take any touchpoint no matter how small for granted. Because that could end up being your great white shark. That could be that tiny sound that you create that becomes something that everyone latches on to. That's my that's my shark shark.

Kenneth Kinney 51:29

That works. I don't know what the you know what the sonic brand of a Great White would be other than Ouch. But it is one of my favorites. And it's a badass shark. So

Audrey Arbeeny 51:40

it's better shark but doesn't it kind of pick and choose when it's going to?

Kenneth Kinney 51:44

Oh, all of it is no they're not mindless. Dummies, they don't bite. Bite for fun. Exactly. That's what I'm trying to help educate people on. But Adrienne says special time in the show. Are you ready for the five most interesting and important questions you're going to be asked today?

Audrey Arbeeny 52:00

Oh, my goodness. I hope so.

Kenneth Kinney 52:02

All right. Here we go. Number one, we talked about the tech earlier, so I've got to ask Amazon Echo or Google Home.

Audrey Arbeeny 52:11

Oh Ha. That's a tough one. That's a tough one. I'll go with Amazon Alexa.

Kenneth Kinney 52:23

There you go. Number two. So really important Sonic question for you. But different kinds of Sonic Sonics cheeseburger with onion rings are in your favorite kind of slushy drink. I highly recommend blue coconut or a sonic chili cheese. Coney with tater tots. And again your favorite slushy drink.

Audrey Arbeeny 52:45

I've never went to Sonic. I don't drink slushy drinks. So I'm gonna have to abstain from that question.

Kenneth Kinney 52:53

Fair enough. It is not. I don't know if you'd live in.

Audrey Arbeeny 52:58

I live in Manhattan. But slushy drinks unless I'm like on a beach in the Caribbean. Then I could go for a slushy drink.

Kenneth Kinney 53:05

Exactly. So that's why mine is blue coconut, of course. So number three then audiobooks or podcasts.

Audrey Arbeeny 53:14

Oh my, that's so easy for me. podcasts. I think this is so bizarre because I grew up a voracious reader. I always had a book in my hand. I read constantly. And I have this aversion to someone reading a book to me and my sister on the other hand drives a lot everyone I know every single person but me loves audiobooks. Yeah, no, I need I need to hold a book. And imagine that's how I was brought up. Podcasts to me are conversational and I kind of liked them. And I learned a lot from them but I'm don't want to be them bashing audiobooks. It's just me.

Kenneth Kinney 53:59

Good enough. Number four, Kevin Durant or LeBron James.

Audrey Arbeeny 54:06

LeBron James is the king.

Kenneth Kinney 54:09

Well, the correct answer is Kevin Durant because he was drafted by the Seattle SuperSonics, commonly known as the Sonics in 2007. Before they moved to OKC, Thunder SWAT pulled in the Sonic branding, if you will. Oh, see,

Audrey Arbeeny 54:26

I didn't catch the sonic connection there then I would have went with him.

Kenneth Kinney 54:29

Exactly. Number I knew that.

Audrey Arbeeny 54:32

I work a lot in sports. I knew that. Well number

Kenneth Kinney 54:35

five and the most important question you're gonna be asked today is biscuits or cornbread.

Audrey Arbeeny 54:47

Biscuits.

Kenneth Kinney 54:49

Fair enough. I see like you've put a lot of thought into that. So Audrey, where can people find out more about you about audio brain? Follow your thoughts here you speak and more.

Audrey Arbeeny 55:00

Okay, so we have like a really big year lined up already. So you can hit me up on LinkedIn, under my Audrey or beanie or audio brain. We're all on Twitter, audio brain underscore M Y. Same with Instagram or Facebook or audio brain.com. Do you have any questions info at audio brain.com And in February, we'll have a really gigantic announcement from audio brain.

Kenneth Kinney 55:29

Awesome. Audrey, thank you so much for being with us today on A Shark's Perspective.

Audrey Arbeeny 55:34

Thank you so much Shark. This has been a blast.

[music]

Kenneth Kinney 55:43

So that was my conversation with Audrey Arbeeny, the CEO and founder of audio brain, a sound consultancy, specializing in Sonic branding and interactive audio. Let's take a look at three key takeaways from my conversation with her.

Kenneth Kinney 55:54

First, sonic branding is nothing new. But there's a renewed focus. And a lot of that's been driven by technology. But what is Sonic branding? I like her definition. Sonic branding is the art and science that surrounds the strategic development and deployment of a consistent authentic sound experience of a brand. She goes on to say, and I quote, a sound identity is the strategic and creative alignment of this experience. And you're creating a narrative that delivers a unified, memorable and differentiating communication. Great point. And look, if your goal is to create an emotional field with stories, which it should be, then the sound or rather, the sonic identity matters. She went on to cite a study that she had seen that says that brands that use music that's aligned with their brand identity are 96% more likely to be remembered by the consumer versus brands that use unfit music or no music at all. You know, that's one study. And I don't want everybody to cite that same percentage. But I can tell you that aligning your strategies, including with audio can make a major impact overall on your conversions, which is so important to me, and who are the heroes in the space doing this? Well, she brought up several examples that are urge you to look at, or rather listen to more closely. But more importantly, she made a great point when she said at every point, they're communicating their brand, and they're consistent. So important. And true. Audio is one component of a bigger puzzle. But that puzzle piece gets ignored very often, people are a little bit emotionally disconnected right now. And they want the feel of a brand and the sound of your brand can help bridge part of that gap. Don't ignore one of the senses, especially when you can use it when applied correctly as a brand strategy and also as a growth advantage.

Kenneth Kinney 57:30

Second, you need to think of this not just as your visual identity, and make sure you look for an expert in the field. And not just the agency who has a kid with a keyboard who can score a jingle and give you an audio asset that they use in siloed campaigns. Tackling Sonic brandy goes much further than that to the core of your identity. Get your agency to work more closely with someone who knows this stuff. Well, that's not meant to be an endorsement of her company. What it's meant to do is to trigger you to make certain that you don't take a generic agency that may be really good at many things, but not necessarily the sniper, you need to pinpoint this target. This is important also because you want to know where to strategically use those assets. It should not be viewed as simply as an opportunity to put audio everywhere. This should not be a chance to spam there's not a lot more that's annoying than getting on a website and a large commercial pop up with sound appears but use it in the right ways. I gave the example of some brands I know who use it as part of their IVR for incoming calls, going to sales. Look at this as an additional component of the sales enablement process and we're marketing hands off the ball to sales. It's just one example. Keep that audio experience going where appropriate just like you should, with imagery from an ad to a landing page.

Kenneth Kinney 58:44

Third, we talked about room warming soundtracks. I love this example where there's a need to create a foundational sound for a brand as you walk into the room if you will. I brought up example of MMA fighters. Many of you know that I'm a martial artist and an MMA nut. I fought in a few fights and I love the intro music. Imagine if you will a fighter walking into the arena and the music that they have that plays loudly. Most often. It's always the same song for each fighter, it's part of their identity. Now imagine how a customer walks into your store hears a commercial listens to your podcast, or even calls into your call center. Shouldn't that consumer be aligned with your messaging and identity all the way through? Shouldn't that particular sound be part of an experience more than say just a ring of a doorbell? After all, it's even part of my own shows music? The intro is jazz inspired, thematic music that just sounds like me.

Kenneth Kinney 59:34

Got a question? Send me an email to Kenneth at a shark's perspective.com.

Kenneth Kinney 59:38

Thank you again for the privilege of your time.

Kenneth Kinney 59:40

Now go out there and listen to every episode so that you can get a better idea of what the shark sounds like. And join us on the next episode of A Shark's Perspective.

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