The Sonic Branding Boom – Can you hear it?

Many of the world’s most iconic brands are releasing sonic identities for the first time – and on some scale too, with premieres even being unveiled at the Grammys. 

But why now? and why all at once?

The meteoric rise of voice and audio-led tech has put sound on the map like never before. 

Global companies are increasingly focussed on finding their identities in this new-found world of sound and they are willing to spend to get it; £1.3bn last year in a market estimated to be worth £25bn by 2025.  

On this rapidly evolving global stage, we are proud to announce dlmdd. The world’s first specialist sonic branding agency to launch since this very boom; on a mission to help brands find their identity in a world now dominated by sound.

By day we are a team of experts from across the music, branding, psychology and advertising industries. But dig a little deeper and you’ll find a collection of people that have toured the world in bands, conducted orchestras, had singles in the charts and even performed for the Royal Family… 

Each and every one of us has lived music’s societal benefits first-hand and we have a rich history in bringing this power to brands on an international scale. 

Whilst there is no doubting that sonic branding is hot property and very much in vogue, sound has played an intrinsic role in life on planet earth since day dot. 

It is how we communicate and create communities. Researchers have found 43,000-year-old flutes made of mammoth tusk and we know that song is even older with pitched languages predating modern speech. 

Today Music and sound continue to unite communities across the globe; we sing to support our sports teams, to celebrate birthdays and to feel a sense of national identity

Audio identities are already embedded within our lives and cultures – they have been since the dawn of time. For this reason, we have founded the agency safe in the knowledge that sound will continue to be a more powerful universal language than the written word. We are here to help brands harness this ageless power. 

Everyone has pieces of music that trigger powerful memories and feelings – that can instantly take us back in time or across continents. So powerful in fact that the memory of music and sound has been seen to be spared when other memories fade.  

In a world of media overwhelm and consumer bombardment of some five-thousand advertising messages every-day, music and sound effortlessly lodge themselves deep in our minds and subconscious; creating a lasting affinity to a time, place and emotion. 

But as an agency we are also fascinated by the behavioural effects of our tools too. Music can fuel the adrenaline of athletes, make us become better or indeed worse drivers, help us concentrate harder and even send us off to sleep. These applications, amongst others, begin to explore the broader possibilities of music’s uses that go far beyond the traditions of an audio signature. 

Of course, with behaviour comes psychology – an area which has been relatively underexplored in the marketplace to date. Our agency ethos brings together leading talent across the music business and underpins vibrant creative work with commercial science. The subjectivity of music and sound has long presented endless challenges for those working across our industries. To change this, we are working alongside eminent scientists and psychologists to employ ground-breaking research; allowing clients to quantitively measure consumer recall, recognition and memorability of audio throughout the creative selection process. By measuring the impact of the work we make, clients can make decisions with the assurance of market appetite and commercial success. 

And so to the future and the twent five billion dollar question – Is all of this just a fad? Or is sound truly changing the way we are experiencing the world around us?

Over 100 million Alexas have flown off the shelves, the connected home market is set to be worth an estimated $40bn next year and there will be 72 million connected cars on the road by 2023. Consumer technologies and touchpoints are ‘sound ready’ and the playing field is wide open for brands to weave their identities across these new frontiers. 

Music and sound bring us together; they connect and inspire us. They are a universal language that transcend people, cultures and geographies across planet earth. 

And surely that is the dream for any brand – to be heard, known and universally recognised.

The Founders of DLMDD 
Max De Lucia, Greg Moore, Sascha Darroch-Davies and Jeremy Paterson