
“The public has an appetite to interact with your brand on a deeper level than you think. It’s … [+]
Among the shortcomings of short-form video service Quibi was a decision at launch by the Jeffrey Katzenberg-led company to wall off its content assets. The move rendered it impossible for viewers to cut and paste clips, create memes, share snippets.
The misstep was quickly corrected. Why? Because if fans can’t interact with content, if they can’t own and share a piece of the experience—you’ve just hamstrung your best brand ambassadors.
Audio branding, on the verge of a colossal evolution, is wisely beginning to tap into the power of the creator-driven economy.
Audio can be the key to recognition and recall, but for the most part brands have been simply repeating, often shouting, the same musical elements at consumers with limited success. Now, a parcel of companies, including startups Vurbl and Blerp, want to help brands embrace user-generated content—a cornerstone of our increasingly platform-based ecosystem.
“I think we need to stop being so precious about it,” Sean Thornton, co-founder and creative director of Audio UX, advises. “The public and your users have an appetite to interact with your brand on a deeper level than you think. It’s insulting to slap them with an inflexible repeated mantra over and over again. This is the opposite end of the spectrum.”
Thornton knows a thing or two about the power of unlocking a brand’s sonic assets and empower consumers to authentically engage with them. His company created the revolutionary open-sourced soundtrack to elevate Pantone’s 2020 color of the year, Classic Blue, and is collaborating with Pantone in