Bjorn Thorleifsson: How to Score the Sound of Trust
Bjorn Thorleifsson combined his passion for music and branding for his career. Images: c/o amp
When Bjorn Thorleifsson was young, he used to “boogie” on his tuba. He moved on to mixing music, but he never wanted to turn his hobby into a job. In college, he studied sound engineering, psychology, and marketing and that led him into the then tiny field of sonic branding–the expression of a brand through sound.
Today, 10 years later, sonic branding is rapidly expanding. Based in Munich, Thorleifsson is now amp’s Head of Strategy & Research and their clients include Mastercard, Mercedes-Benz, Deloitte, PepsiCo, Zurich Insurance, Kraft Heinz, and Avocados From Mexico. If the sound of insurance sounds a little dry, spend a few minutes with Thorleifsson. We admit we were a little skeptical ourselves. Then we took a trip into his mind. Among the things we learned: sonic branding is way more than a jingle, James Bond music might be the best example of sonic branding, how sound can lead to higher user trust, the business case for sonic branding, and how amp uses data to make happy (and sad) sounds.
amp’s Sonic Radar guides brands to the best sounds for them.
What is the business case for sonic branding?
It is cost-effective. A major brand will often spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on licensed tracks each year. I’m not saying that tracks should never be licensed, but they should only be licensed when it is an integral part of the storytelling. Once the license runs out, you have to stop using that song. If you own your Sonic DNA®, you own the copyright. There are no worries about taking it down. In this economy, sonic branding can be a way to cut down on licensing costs while still building brand equity.
Mercedes is the type of company that we associate with a certain sound. How do you come up with sounds for companies, like banks, that have no definitive sound?
We take all of the brand elements that we can find, from brand books to lookbooks, customer personas, and more, and distill the essence of the brand into what we call “sonic principles.” We then take those sonic principles and work with artists around the world to create the sound. For example, if a brand wants a Peruvian sound, we will work with an artist from Peru who knows the scene and sounds. In a way, we are the facilitator who understands both the branding and the music.
Banks are traditionally perceived as conservative, but how are they going to reach new audiences? Also, what are they doing in terms of their apps? Banks give us a visual cue when a transaction goes through, but they should also consider what the UI/UX sounds like in their apps. When I make a transfer to my friend, I want to make sure I put everything correctly. What we have seen with MasterCard’s payments is that adding an audio cue has dramatically increased people's perception of trust because you can hear the transaction go through.
The Sonic Radar technology uses a range of data points to help brands capture the sound they want.
Take us inside a recent client project.
We recently worked with Avocados From Mexico on their Super Bowl campaign this year. They have a jingle that is well-known, but they saw the limitations of only having a jingle so they asked us to make it more flexible and adaptable to their storytelling. We took their jingle and created secondary melodies and riffs to expand their sonic palette. Previously, they would have custom music and only have their jingle at the end. Now they sprinkle the ingredients across the whole commercial and then adapt that to social media where you might only have a 15-second countdown. Making sure this can live beyond a single campaign is important to us.
What’s the sound of guacamole?
They have pretty robust guidelines for their tone of voice. They want to be fun and quirky. We help them with the musical translation of that.
Sound can be subjective since everyone has a different ear. How do you show that your work hits the mark?
We dive deep into data and use our suite of tools to guide us from the beginning conversation with the brand to the end. One component of our Sonic Hub tool ecosystem is Sonic Radar, which gives us a snapshot of the brand. We analyze the brand’s sonic history to see how much custom and licensed music they have used. We then use artificial intelligence to analyze the brand to tell us what genres they use and what emotions are contained in their music selections. Happy music? Aggressive?
That’s a starting point for our conversation. Once we start creating their Sonic DNA, we have another tool we use to understand where the music is emotionally and if it is memorable. Are we hitting the emotions they want to hit and does it fit into the sonic principles we chose?
We take what the AI gives us as an indicator and then get proper humans to validate our previous AI assumptions using various market research methods. It ultimately comes down to the stakeholders and what fits their brands. When they go to their leadership team they have the data and can show how it fits into their sonic principles and brand personality archetype.
What role do you think AI will have in the world of music?
It will transform sonic branding. In the past, lots of brands had a sonic identity while still largely relying on stock music for much of their content due to budget constraints. If your brand has a Sonic DNA it can create new assets, interpret its Sonic DNA into different styles, and genres, and create multiple emotional impacts. AI could potentially eliminate the need for stock music. If bigger brands invest in AI tools to create new material out of their old then it could be a game changer.
Who is a dream client?
LEGO would be a fantastic client because they have the opportunity to be at the forefront of sonic branding and to be part of popular culture. For example, If they had owned the track “Everything Is AWESOME!!!” from The Lego Movie, they could have used that as a jumping-off point for a Sonic DNA. The track could have been interpreted in different genres, and styles, and could have even been used on platforms like YouTube where they create their own content. They could even do something like create their own lullaby for the Duplo brand. LEGO is involved in play and it is part of our lives as children and as grownups. That could only be magnified by sonic branding.
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