What's Your "Sound?"

The Katz press release, released yesterday, is a timely reminder:

Who could mistake the distinctive sound of the "Dum-dum" from Law and Order? Or the famous "Aflac quack" from the duck in the TV ads? New research from Katz Marketing Solutions, the national marketing arm of the Katz Media Group has confirmed that "sonic branding" is definitely a powerful force advertisers should take advantage of. Today Katz released a new study of advertisers' sonic brands and their impact on communicating brand messaging and eliciting emotional responses.

"The results confirm the incredible power of sound," said Bob McCurdy, President of Katz Marketing Solutions. "With this research, we have a better understanding of how sound impacts what we see, how we feel and what we consume. Even a brief one or two seconds of sound can trigger powerful brand messaging and explicit visual images, which means radio can be an extremely influential tool for advertisers."

While previous studies have focused on brand identification, Katz Marketing Solutions commissioned this research to delve beyond awareness metrics. Instead, the study quantified the communication and emotional impact of sonic brands of the top U.S. advertisers including McDonald's, Mazda, Old Spice and Pillsbury, among 20 others. The intended goal was to measure both the ability of these sound bites to communicate a brand message and to generate emotions.

Click around the study's website for lots of sales ammo, but it's more than that as well.

What music are you using behind that commercial?

What message does the sound of your station voice send?

Do you have your own equivalent of NBC's chimes?

Have you tested it with your listeners to be certain it sends the image you intend?

I'll play you ours (click to listen), if you'll play me yours too.

Let's work together to attain mnemonic audio perfection for both ourselves and advertisers who use our air.