When you think about a brand, most people picture the obvious cues: a logo, a splash of colour, a recognisable typeface. That’s the language marketers lean on because it’s safe and familiar. But brands live in a world experienced through five senses, and sound is the one most brands leave on the table.
The right audio cue can make a brand unforgettable long after the screen is off. McDonald’s five notes, Netflix’s ominous “duh dum,” Intel’s chime, the Champions League anthem, the crisp crack of a Magnum. These may only last a few seconds, but they sit in memory for years. They cut through because they’re simple, distinctive and relentlessly repeated.
System1 has shown that advertising which stirs emotion drives both short-term sales and long-term growth. That mirrors what Binet and Field found in The Long and the Short of It: people don’t build lasting brand memories through rational messages, they remember what gets under their skin.
Sound does this in a way visuals struggle to. It slips into kitchens via radio, into cars on podcasts, into homes where the TV is background noise. You don’t have to stop and look at it, it just gets in when repeated consistently over time.
Source: System 1
Sonic branding sounds simple but it’s tricky to get right. The best examples follow a few clear rules:
Keep it short. Three to five notes are ideal.
Repeat it. Distinctive assets grow more valuable the longer you use them.
Better annoying than forgettable. Even irritation is better than indifference.
Fit the brand. Every cue needs to match personality. Domino’s sing-song feels cheeky, Ring’s chime is clean and functional, Netflix’s thump sets a dramatic mood.
None of these assets happened by accident. McDonald’s has stuck with its sonic hook for two decades. Just Eat reimagined “Did somebody say Just Eat?” through different artists, refreshing but never discarding the asset. Apple perfects even the hush of opening its boxes. They all made deliberate choices about how they wanted to sound and why that mattered to their audiences.
So if you want all ears on your brand – turn up the volume with distinctive sonic branding.