Audio Branding

“All news music doesn't have to have trumpets and trombones, and all trains don't have to just ring, you know, or honk. And all appliances shouldn't always sound like ‘beep beep beep,’ you know, chip sounds instead of having a tune that would make people remember them better and maybe like them better.” -- Colleen Fahey

This week’s guest is a creative executive with deep experience in branding and marketing at multiple touchpoints. When she learned of Sixième Son, a sonic branding agency that had created over four hundred brands, she approached them about expanding to North America. She opened a sonic branding agency in Chicago at the end of 2012 and, in 2017, co-authored the book Audio Branding: Using Sound to Build Your Brand. Since those days, her team has led Sixième Son's sonic branding initiatives for Atlanta, Michelin, Huggies, Merrell Footwear, USAA Insurance, Sparkling Ice drinks, a hospital, a news network, an AIDS treatment, and many more. The North American business now operates out of New York, Toronto, and Cleveland, as well as Chicago. Throughout her career, she's been a creative director for leading brands in the US, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Raised in Madrid, she speaks fluent Spanish, conversational French, and a courageous-but-embarrassing Portuguese.

Her name is Colleen Fahey, and if you’ve always wanted to ask questions about audio branding from one of the oldest premier companies in the business, you’ll want to hear this interview. I have no doubt Colleen will blow our minds with her observations about the audio branding landscape.

As always, if you have any questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, just visit www.audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find all sorts of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter (on the www.audiobrandingpodcast.com webpage) will let you know when the new podcasts are available. And if you’d consider it, I’d love to hear what you think of the podcast! You can leave a review (that I’d love to feature on future podcasts!), either in written or in voice format from the podcast’s main page.

An Elegant Idea

The episode begins with Colleen’s earliest memories of sound: she tells us about leaving the U.S. at the age of four to live in Spain, and how the sound of the ocean liner’s horn as they departed literally shook her from head to toe. “It somehow also got into my psyche too,” she tells us, “because it was almost like a book had closed with that sound.” We then talk about a pivotal moment in 2011 when she first learned about sonic branding, as she attended the Audio Branding Congress at Columbia University. “I was struck by how elegant the idea was that these people were so excited about,” Colleen explains, “how elegant the idea of having a sound that repped the brand from every angle.”

The Value of Your Brand

Next Colleen tells us about writing her first book, and the importance of, as she puts it, “an audio brand that fits your brand, that communicates your values, that gets attention and really becomes a brand asset that lasts for years.” We talk about the power of early audio marketing in transforming Hawaii from a little-known territory into a tourist destination, and about avoiding the cliches and sonic codes that commercials have created. “A brand needs to stand out,” she says, “be recognized and differentiate, and the music has to help you differentiate in a way that's appropriate to the value of the brand.”

Using Your Ears

We go on to talk about mood boards, what exactly they are, and how they helped inspire her team at Sixième Son while creating a sonic brand for Atlanta’s tourism board. “The music,” she recalls about one brainstorming session, “instead of coming together, was layered. Everyone sounded good, but they didn't sound like they were all playing the same thing, and that was just a big a-ha moment.” There’s inspiration all around us, she explains, and she tells us about the importance of listening for it and keeping our ears open. “I'm talking about people having to really sit and use their ears,” she says. “Everyone loves doing it, and they're amazed at how exhausted they are at the end.”

Hearing Without Listening

“The thing that an audio brand can do,” Colleen tells us, “is access people at a very immediate level, and almost without their knowing that they're being influenced.” We talk about audio cues and sonic logos that have become an almost invisible part of our lives, and how brands have replaced intrusive advertising with a more subtle and widespread presence. As we close the first half of...

How are you listening to this podcast right now? Maybe you're sitting at your computer or hearing it on a smart speaker, which probably means that you're listening with one app while keeping busy with a few other things. You might also be using a tablet or an MP3 player, which lets you stay on the move while you're hearing the show. But what's really become popular over the past few years is listening on your phone. Just this past month, almost 24 million podcast listeners used their smartphones, compared to 17 million for everything else put together. One thing all these choices have in common is that they let you keep busy while you're listening. And in today's fast-paced world, digital audio, particularly podcasts and audiobooks, is becoming a cornerstone of our daily lives.

Multitasking isn't always a good thing. We might feel like we're being more productive when we multitask, but over the years studies have shown that we really do better when we're focusing on just one task at a time. If you're curious to find out just how well you multitask, here's a link to a short test:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-8JdsNWZiM

At the same time, audio does have some advantages of its own. Our brains are finely tuned to listening to each other, to hearing a speaker's tone and pace, their inflections and the mood they're expressing beneath their words. Reading is still a pretty new trick when it comes to our brains, which means written words might not connect as quickly or deeply as hearing them spoken aloud. And while reading lets us consider the words more carefully and go back over them more easily, digital audio leaves us free to keep working, to go running or driving, to live our lives while we’re listening.

Just recently I had Summurai founder Tal Florentin on the show, and his company is at the forefront of this digital audio revolution. Summurai is a content management service that takes written articles and condenses them into short audio snippets for people on the go. Here's a link to a video with more information:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG8dn9K71mU

Even so, digital audio doesn’t leave much room for distraction. If you’re listening to a podcast on your way to work, that means you’re probably not listening to anything else right at that moment. This can make audio branding and advertising much more effective than other forms of online marketing; nearly 70% of podcast listeners report that podcast ads made them aware of new products and services. And that audience is quickly growing in the US: more than a hundred million Americans now listen to at least one podcast a month.

Audiobooks are also becoming more popular, with one in five Americans having listened to one within the past year. While the first vinyl book recordings were made in 1932, and the first books on tape released in 1975, the industry’s grown in ways that could hardly have been imagined back then. George Saunders’ 2017 novel Lincoln in the Bardo, for instance, has been adapted into an audiobook with a cast of 166 Hollywood actors, and last year an Audible adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman featured its own all-star cast. Audio dramas have also experienced a revival over the past few years, with authors penning exclusive works meant to be heard instead of read.

While the freedom to listen and multitask all at once might be a selling point for audio content, sound can create a more powerful connection than just one of convenience. The act of learning something new triggers the reward center in our brains, much the same way as eating our favorite food or winning a game. And storytelling isn’t just part of our history, it’s how most of us learned to read: we grew up listening to our parents and teachers read to us. Audio content can combine both these things together, teaching us new things in a way that connects with our deepest experiences.

Printed books and traditional radio certainly aren’t going away anytime soon, but digital audio has become the fastest growing sector in the publishing industry. Twenty million people started to listen to podcasts for the first time last year, and that number’s only going to keep growing. And as more and more people find themselves listening on the go, the opportunities to reach out to and engage with that emerging audience will keep growing with it.

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here’s the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with any...

Most of us grew up learning that the human body has five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. Everything we know about the world around us comes to us through these senses. We see colors and we hear music. We taste whether our coffee has sugar in it and, especially now that we’re heading into summer, we smell the flowers and feel the warm air. But the world isn’t really divided up as neatly into those senses as it might seem. Depending on how you look at it, we might have anywhere from just three senses to thirty-three or more; they can mix together and split apart in ways that we don’t usually think about. Sound in particularly is really just vibrations filling the air around us, and that simple fact can lead to some fascinating discoveries if we look and listen closer.

Can you see sound? It might seem like the answer is no, but if it’s loud enough, you may notice a window shaking or even feel the floor trembling under your feet. But the truth is that everything carries sound and vibrates with it, even if we can’t normally see it. A few years ago researchers at MIT developed an algorithm they call a “visual microphone,” that can scan video footage to observe the way sound causes everyday objects to invisibly vibrate and then reproduce those sounds. Check out this video for a video demonstration of how a houseplant vibrates with the song “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” and how that song can be recreated using those silent vibrations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKXOucXB4a8

Everything around us is humming with sound, even if we don’t always notice it. If the frequency’s too low, we might sense the sound without actually hearing it. Such low, deep sounds are called infrasound and even though we can’t hear them, animals use them for everything from traveling in herds to migrating in the winter to sensing earthquakes and eruptions. And although we can’t directly hear infrasound, we can sense when it’s there, as a vague feeling that something’s making us uncomfortable. Researchers think it might be the reason some houses seem to be haunted, and horror movies have started using infrasound to create a more ghostly atmosphere.

I’ve linked to a video here of a 19Hz infrasound clip if you’d like to hear, or feel, it for yourself. You’ll need headphones to play back such a low frequency, and be careful: you might end up feeling nervous, dizzy or even a little sick to your stomach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_O1m_QZll0

Most of us spend every moment of our lives surrounded by sound, so what happens when all of that sound’s taken away? The answer can be found in an anechoic chamber, a soundproof room that’s designed to absorb all sounds, both inside and out. Two such rooms, one at Orfield Labs in Minneapolis and the other at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, hold the record as the quietest places on Earth. They’re so quiet that nobody’s ever stayed inside one for more than an hour. Even walking can be a challenge without any footsteps, and hearing nothing but the sound of your own heart, your stomach, even your bones, ends up being too much.

When you’re ready for some noise, though, there’s one animal that’s not only one of the loudest creatures in the ocean, but also one of the smallest. It’s called the snapping shrimp, and it measures just a few centimeters from head to tail. It uses sound as a weapon, launching superheated bubbles through the water that burst at over 200 decibels, louder than a blue whale. These bubbles are so loud that they can even drown out submarines and sonar equipment.

So, can we see sound? The sound of a snapping shrimp’s claw can be so loud that it literally creates a burst of light, but there’s a safer way to view sound waves for ourselves. It’s known as cymatics, the study of sound visualization, and it uses everything from flowing water to grains of sand to help reveal the invisible patterns that sound creates all around us. Be sure to check the video below for an exciting music video by electronic composer Nigel Stanford called “Cymatics” that shows just how many different forms music can take.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3oItpVa9fs&t

Whether we’re walking along the beach or just stuck in traffic, listening to music or enjoying the peace and quiet, we’re immersed in a flowing sea of sound, a secret symphony of complex patterns and vibrations hidden just below the surface of what we hear.

Would you consider giving this podcast an honest review? You can do that here: https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding. And if you like what you hear (and read!) – please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!

And if you’re interested in crafting an audio brand for your business, why not check out my FREE download – 5 Tips For Implementing An Intentional Audio Strategy at https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/

This week’s guest is the creator and host of the Your Message Received podcast, a groundbreaking platform with more than 125 episodes where he empowers executives, businesses, and individuals through impactful storytelling and strategic communication training. With over twenty-five years of experience in media, spanning broadcast, radio, digital, and streaming, his career has been driven by a passion for culture, content, and inclusion. As a live event announcer, marathoner, and dedicated Philadelphia sports fan, he infuses energy into every endeavor. Family is central to his life, inspired by his 95-year-old mother who began acting at age 74. At DuffinMedia, he champions authenticity, helping clients unlock their communication potential for life-changing results.

His name is John Duffin, and our conversation about having a good conversation turned out to be an essential education. Effective communication is so important, especially these days, so listen in for some tips and ideas to help you communicate more effectively in your own life.

As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.

(0:00:01) - Early Sound Memory and Communication Journey

As our discussion starts, John shares his early memories of how sound moved him, from Jackson Five records to his mother singing while she did housework. “I can just remember the happiness in regards to the way that she sang,” he tells us. “So, yeah, absolutely, and that was, like I said, the first that I can easily recall it made me happy.” He tells us about his sales career in radio, and how questions about his role lead him into voiceover. “’You have a really good voice, are you on the radio?’” he recalls his clients asking. “I would brush that off, for I don’t know decades, just no, no, I’m in sales.... I remember thinking, well, if they were right and if I don’t find out, well then I’ll live to regret that.”

(0:15:00) - The Authentic Art of Communication

John tells us more about his career shift into voiceover and public speaking, and how, at first, he tried to keep his experience in sales separate. “I would only speak about voiceover and voice narration and all that sort of thing,” he says. “And a few years after that I came to the realization, one, that’s dumb. Your history is really important.” We discuss the importance of authenticity and a genuine connection, and how much easier communication is when it’s backed up by both experience and honest interest in your client. “All the training and overthinking and technical expertise,” he adds, “all that stuff, and that’s why I don’t dismiss it. It’s very meaningful. The training enables you to think less.”

Episode Summary

• John’s memories of his musical family, and how they led to his first career in radio.
• The key to connecting with clients and taking a genuine interest in their needs and goals.

Tune in for next week’s episode as John offers his advice for sharing bad news in a professional way, his AI tool recommendations, and tips on overcoming our tendency to assume the worst.

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