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Audio branding

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Our Head of Audio Experience Oliver Kadel at the DOK Leipzig Exchange XR Conference in Germany doing a keynote presentation on Spatial Audio for Augmented Reality

We’ll cover the general approach to sound design for AR. We’ll look at the case study, the recent Apple Design Awards finalist: covering the authoring for hardware device playback vs binaural audio on headphones, balancing the sense of realism and authenticity with the entertainment factor and mitigating the differences in scale between the visuals and sound, and we’ll touch on how AI machine learning starting to shape the personalised listening experience.

“DOK Exchange is DOK Leipzig’s networking and inspiration programme on interactive and immersive storytelling with a focus on XR works and the community’s sustainable development.”

Please come to say hello if you’re attending and interested in these topics.

For more information visit -> https://www.dok-leipzig.de/en/dok-exchange-xr

1.618 To Join The Panel at The BVE Expo 2019 Excel London

1.618 Digital will be hosting a panel, Merging Realities: Audio for Augmented Reality, at the BVE 2019 Expo Excel London, where Founder and Audio Lead Oliver Kadel will be discussing the latest advancements in audio tech for Augmented Reality. We’d love to see you there!

The panel discussion takes place on the 27th of February at 4 PM. You can get your free ticket here: Ticket Registration

Merging realities: Audio for Augmented Reality BVE Seminar Programme 2019

Check out what else is taking place at BVE 2019.

See you soon!

1.618 Team

Sonic Logo

SONIC LOGO – PART 3

Audio branding is a powerful tool for companies and products to reinforce a brand or corporate identity. Successful companies like Twitter, Nike and McDonald’s are instantly recognisable through their blue bird, swoosh and golden arches icons. Like these icons, sonic logos are crafted to represent a brand, by taking a word or a concept and translating it into a sound.

Audio branding can build a soundscape which represents the identity and values of a brand or company. Music and sound are emotive and transcend language but still convey meaning with great clarity, so when designed successfully, sonic logos create implicit associations with companies and products in our minds. Strategically using sound to differentiate a brand or product can enhance recall and improve sales while creating a subconscious preference. Used in conjunction with visual cues, it is possible to create multi-sensory brand communication and brand design.

Sonic Brading isn’t just for big corporates

Sonic logos and audio branding aren’t just for huge, global brands. They can also be beneficial to small companies, helping them to make an impact on current and potential customers by increasing brand awareness and loyalty.

Like with any logo, when designing a sonic logo it is essential to first establish what the brand stands for. All different mediums used should reflect a consistent picture of the brand values a company wishes to convey in a distinctive manner. Successfully created logos generally consist of a core melody, voice or a unique sound effect or a combination of some sort, are usually only a few notes or beats in length and can be built to scale from stadiums to mobile devices by using various instrumentation.

Though sonic logos became popular through radio, the opportunities to use these have increased in recent years with the rising popularity of podcasts and new media, and devices with built-in audio delivery. When used correctly they can be incredibly effective, like Intel’s instantly recognisable 5 notes composed by Walter Werzowa.

McDonald’s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE1B3N_a7fE

Intel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ihRPi4wcBY

The landscape of future media is changing rapidly

As the IoT (Internet of Things), along with smart home speakers like Google Home, Amazon Echo, Apple HomePod and many others, become more and more prominent in our everyday lives, it is necessary for brands to start future-proofing for a time that is less reliant on screens. When most devices offer visual cues, audio cues can seem superfluous and unnecessary. As virtual assistants like Alexa are becoming more popular there is a need for users to receive information without having to rely on visuals. Music and sounds can be more useful and less intrusive than voice. If the user knows the meaning, a simple note or sound can convey as much information as a full sentence.

Brands that want to remain current will need to create a sound landscape that is pleasant and useful to users and informs without distracting. This also extends to AR or MR (Augmented or Mixed reality), where sonic communication is overlaid on the top of the real world – a properly designed sonic logo and soundscape will trigger brand awareness in a user without visual branding is necessary. Furthermore, there is a significant uptake in immersive branding where global brands are enjoying a whole myriad of new tech enabling them to promote their products and services in VR (Virtual reality) or in 360 Videos. Within this media the sonic logo can be implemented in 3D as spatial audio, adding a whole new level of engagement.

As we enter a new age of emerging tech the opportunities to experiment with new formats of sonic branding will increase significantly and those who embrace this will enjoy a competitive advantage.

To find out more about the world of immersive audio or if you’re interested in designing a sonic asset for your brand please get in touch with us: [email protected]

Example of 1618 Digital’s own sonic logo: https://youtu.be/9Zc2UDy_2TY

For previous articles on sonic branding please visit our blog page.

1618 Digital Team

Double Nomination at Raindance Film Festival

Awards season is upon us and here at 1.618 Digital we’re very excited to announce that two projects we’ve worked on have been nominated at the Raindance Film Festival.

First up, In My Shoes: Intimacy, by Jane Gauntlett and Visualise, has been nominated in the Best Sensual Experience category.

In My Shoes: Intimacy is a 360 experience which explores the power of human connection. Put aside your inhibitions, let these strangers guide you through their impromptu, unconventional & intense moments of intimacy. Intimacy is a first-person documentary designed for two people to experience three encounters from six very different perspectives. To read more about this project please check this case study or see the nomination here.

Next, Laphroaig by Darren Emerson and VR City has been nominated in the Best Branded Content category.

This film takes you on a journey into the heart of the historic Laphroaig whiskey distillery on the beautiful island of Islay. See the nomination here.

Huge congrats to everyone involved and fingers crossed for the awards announcement later today!

Good luck to all industry friends who also have been nominated.

1.618 Digital

Exclusivity & Identity

SONIC BRANDING – PART 2

In this installment of our sonic branding series we will continue to discuss the concept of exclusivity, perceptual self-identity of a consumer in relation to a brand and purchase decision-making based on sonic branding strategy.

It’s hard not to agree with Jacob Lusensky’s statement from his book Sounds Like Branding – “Music makes brands and people feel special”. People express their identity through music, and so too should brands. Not by shouting over their competitors, but rather by targeting the relevant market segment efficiently with a minimum amount of ‘noise’ through a consistent, carefully chosen sonic branding strategy.

In fact, a lot of brands already have some form of sonic identity, though as it often turns out, this takes the form of a largely unintentional, semi-random legacy of music assets – be it a telephone sound chosen by an IT department, who certainly do not understand or care about the brand, or ‘cheesy’ generic library music chosen by a video editor who made an introduction video for the company several years ago, which does not have any substance or meaning in the context of this particular brand or its recent marketing campaigns. And the list goes on…

Driving memorability and brand awareness

Brands pay a great deal of attention and allocate funding to wording, reputation, legalities and visual aspects such as design, logos and trademarks, but rarely is the same degree of attention and care attributed to establishing a sonic identity. Hearing is a critical component of how we perceive the world around us, which sits deeply in our physiology and psychology and simply cannot be ignored. A study by Dr North and Dr Hargreaves  revealed that companies who have defined their sonic identity along with a music branding strategy are likely to be 96% more memorable when compared to businesses that do not have any music or sound associated with them, or those who are in possession of an incongruent legacy of sonic assets randomly accumulated over time.

With this in mind it’s little surprise that music and sound can be an effective way to create brand awareness. An appropriate strategy helps to create attention by engaging audiences in a conversation about music or an artist the brand is associated with. Big brands have huge budgets to make shortcuts by having endorsement deals with global superstars or featuring their well known hits, though the same principle can also apply with much smaller scale activations.

Some brands, for example Red Bull, approach their audio branding strategy differently. By nurturing and representing much smaller unknown talent through their music label and various endorsements across the brand promotion, their audience very much enjoys and appreciates the unified sense of community and identity.

The factor of exclusivity plays an important role here. Customers are unlikely to be thrilled by or feel emotionally connected to musical content that has been recycled. No doubt, existing library back catalogues could often be an efficient and affordable resource to tap into every now and then, but would audiences react in the same way to the John Lewis Christmas ads if they weren’t accompanied by a beautiful melody? When it comes to large scale campaigns music and sound should be as authentic and original as the message or story the brand is telling. The audience will notice and appreciate that this content is available only as part of this activation and for a limited time period – creating a sense of exclusivity and belonging in the eyes of your customers.

Any positive or negative connotations with a brand affect its public profile, and association through sound is no different. Selecting the right sounds, music and artists can help to establish the desired perception in the eyes of the public and reach out for the targeted demographic. This is why McDonald’s are unlikely to feature a Radiohead track in their next campaign, considering Thom York’s public condemnation of animal cruelty. Or on the contrary, Ray Winstone’s gangster persona with a cockney accent is the perfect voice fit for Bet365 betting agency. As G.J Gorn once said in his publication about the effect of music in advertising on choice behaviour:

“What a customer hears may make the difference when they’re choosing and not choosing your brand”

Context is everything

A customer’s overall perception of brand experience concerns aspects such as performance and customer service, both in person and via other channels. Deploying the right sound will advantageously tailor customers’ perception of a brand. For example, it would be highly inappropriate to play heavy metal songs in an expensive wine or jewellery shop, whereas classical music would be just right. The congruent use of music can not only increase perceptional quality of a brand but also influence customers’ perception of themselves. For example, by making them feel more affluent and able to purchase a more expensive product or service. In contrast, how many times have you found yourself in a situation where all you need is a quiet moment with a delicious cup of flat white and peaceful contemplation, but excessively loud and distorted pop music is  pumped through cheap speakers installed in the corner by the bathroom. This turns the moment into a highly unpleasant and stressful experience – quickly forcing us out.

At 1.618 Digital we employ a unique combination of sonic branding strategy and years of experience in sound design to develop a powerful sonic identity for your brand. Contact us today via [email protected] to find out more.

In the next installment of our sonic branding series we will continue by discussing the importance of a sonic logo and how it compliments its visual representation.

1.618 Digital Team

Music – The Language of Emotions

Sonic Branding Part 1

In this series of articles we’ll dive into the essential concepts of sonic branding in today’s rapidly evolving experiential and multisensory media landscape, examining everything from immersive audio, music and sound design within campaign strategies, to the importance of sonic identity assets and enhancing brand look and feel via a multisensory approach.

“As mathematics is the universal language of the mind, music is the language of the heart”

Robert Schumann, Composer (1810 – 1856)

Music is one of the most important aspects of audio branding. We’re hardwired to rhythms and patterns, with science suggesting that hearing is the first of five senses that develops in the mother’s womb, an embryo perceiving its mother’s heartbeat around 18 weeks. Music is so important to us that we constantly and consistently make it part of life – whether through daily routine or during milestone events. From simply driving a car to work to graduation ceremonies, weddings and funerals, music plays a crucial and significant part in how we experience events and the emotions we perceive around them. As perhaps one of the most ubiquitous forms of social interaction after spoken language and gesturing, music is another way of expressing emotion through communication, so it’s perhaps unsurprising that it forms the backbone of many successful audio branding strategies.

As we’re rapidly transitioning from the informational era to the experiential, the classic model of product, price, placement and promotion is no longer a cutting edge approach when placed in the context of today’s tech-savvy and advertising-weary consumers.

Aspects such as authentic emotions, a novel experience, direct engagement and sense of exclusivity play an increasingly pivotal role when it comes to “turning customers into fans”.

“When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the state always change with them”

Aristotle, Greek Philosopher and Scientist (384–322 BC)

In fact, for decades a number of research programmes have shown that when purchasing expensive goods, for example fashion items, a new gadget or a motorbike, we rarely use a pragmatic approach. Dr Gottfried (2014), in her publication The Hormone Cure, states that it is a purely emotion-driven experience that makes our hypothalamus release the hormone oxytocin, giving us a sense of social connection, bonding, trust, generosity and overall happiness. Only after we’ve calmed down do we tend to try to rationalise the decision from a more practical standpoint.

Unlike spoken language which is processed primarily by the left part of the brain, music tends to engage the more creative and emotional right side of the brain, suggesting that music is a language which communicates directly to our feelings rather than our logic.

In this way, communication through music enables us to communicate emotions, thus creating more memorable experiences and encouraging more thoughtful conversation by tapping into our increasing need for authenticity and direct engagement. In doing so, music is capable of assisting brands in building a special position in their customers’ minds.

Music also plays a significant part in sonic branding when it comes to getting customers to buy into the values a brand stands for. When engaging people through authentic emotions, you need to tap into their passions, and music does that for the majority of the global population.

Brands like Pepsi have understood the power of audio branding for many years and have spent extortionate amounts of money featuring stars such as Michael Jackson, whilst producing tailored music and lyrics as part of their marketing campaigns dating back to the 1980s. The result of those campaigns enabled Pepsi to win a large market segment consisting of young Americans from the much established Coca-Cola.

The great news for thousands of brands around the world is that working with superstars is no longer the only option – any young and aspiring brand can accelerate the process of connecting with their audiences by taking advantage of intelligent branding and marketing strategies that fully utilise both sound and vision.

With a rapidly growing global ubiquity of mobile devices and VR headsets, along with an increasing choice of affordable or even free options of music streaming, apps and immersive content platforms, the power of music within branding is only set to increase.

‘Music is the shorthand of emotion”

Leo Tolstoy, Writer (1828-1910)

In the next installment of our sonic branding series we will continue to discuss the concept of exclusivity, the perceptual self-identity of a consumer in relation to a brand, and purchase decision-making based on a sonic branding strategy.

1.618 Digital

Discussing the importance of spatial audio on happyfinish.com

Importance of Spatial Audio In VR Content

Hearing is fundamental to our perception of the surrounding world.  Achieving this effect in virtual reality requires audio that sounds real and authentic.  Implementing spatial audio to create full immersion in 360° video or interactive VR requires capturing audio or a physical acoustic modeling of the space where the scene takes place.  An appropriate soundscape can provide the quickest path to immersion for just about any VR experience, and even removing the visual element, still enables us to sufficiently perceive the surrounding world – giving us a sense of space, time, and presence.  In contrast, the silent experiences, or the ones with incongruent sound would break the sense of presence and immersion, thus immediately removing the suspension of disbelief, and as a result substantially degrading the overall experience.

Spatial sound recording or let’s do it in post?

The use of conventional industry formats such as Mono (single channel) and Stereo (two channels) are a basic requirement, although they are limiting and no longer sufficient to offer full immersion in 360° videos or interactive VR experiences.  The use of spatial audio is the only way to create true three-dimensional audio, which utilises higher number of channels, be it capturing sound on location or through the means of sound design and mixing in post-production.  Depending on the nature of the project both methods are important.  Often to design the full sonic experience in VR, it requires spatial sound recording on set along with sound design and spatialisation of individual elements in post-production such as atmosphere, dialogue, foley, sound effects, and music.

Ambisonic format is the most effective method to capture location sound

There are a number of ways to capture the location sound.  However, the most effective method is to record in an ambisonic format which utilises four channels capturing the sound in all directions, along with discrete sound sources such as dialogue or any required diegetic sounds that are part of the scene.  The latter can then be positioned accordingly within the 3D soundfield by employing specialist spatialisation software within audio editing application or a game engine.  This approach enables VR audio content makers to work with an adequate resolution within the virtual space for positioning sound components across four, 16 or more virtual or physical channels.

Ambisonic sound offers a number of significant benefits that play a crucial role in making experiences as realistic as possible.

-Firstly, sound that was captured in all directions then enables the user to move their head and body while wearing any head-mounted display, and with a use of head-tracking system perceive their own dynamic position within the space in relation to the surrounding environment.

-Second, greater channel count offers more accuracy in positioning individual elements within the 3D space. This avoids everything coming from the same general direction as is common when listening to music, but lacking in realism when comes to creating a metaverse or offering your audience an authentic 360° video experience.

Why is this essential?

The considerations mentioned above are essential due the phenomenon described as a head-related transfer function (HRTF), which is a response that informs how our ears perceive sound from own position in space.  Collectively, head-related functions for both ears give a perception of binaural sound, enabling us to effectively identify a location and a distance of sound sources by constantly receiving sonic information to measure sound intensity and the time difference between sounds arriving to both ears.  We re-create this psychoacoustic process in post-production to then achieve a latency-free, real-time binaural rendering via a close approximation of personal HRTF.  It is essential to take human physiology into consideration when making audience fully immersed and enjoy their experience, be it a story, game or cognitive therapy etc.

The use of audio in marketing campaigns to guide your audience in 360° content

Unlike 2D content where a viewer can see the entire field of view in one direction, the 360° environment presents challenges as well as the opportunities for creative content makers when it comes to constructing the narrative.  Spatial audio can be an effective tool to lead or surprise your audience.  By looking in one direction at any given time, the viewer can easily miss out on what is behind them or sidewards, by implementing sonic cues within the space we can control or suggest a narrative.  By helping our audience to navigate through their point of view, we can ultimately guide them to and encourage them to engage with a specific element within the experience.

What is more important?

When combined effectively, fully integrated visual and sonic perception work in perfect harmony that enables us to see, hear, feel and appreciate the beauty and richness of our world.  Virtual reality already proved its effectiveness in video storytelling, gaming, educational training, social interaction and medical applications.  In order to make any of the above experiences successful, it requires a coherent approach of applying sound and visual content to make it as effective for its purpose as possible – more immersive, more authentic and as the result more engaging, more memorable, more empathetic, more fun and ultimately good enough to have a desire to come back and experience it again and again.

1.618 Team

Welcome to the 1.618 Digital blog

We were going to write our first blog post about the technical aspects of creating spatial audio, but it’s rude not to introduce ourselves first and we’re a very friendly bunch.

1.618 Digital specialise in immersive 3D sound for VR/360 video content and sensory branding. That’s the sound you’d hear if you were to experience spatial audio content in a VR headset and headphones.

When creating virtual worlds or capturing 360 videos, sound plays an important role in ensuring that the audience remains engaged all the time. It’s important to maintain a strong link between your visuals, interaction and audio. We use the latest spatial audio technology to design and implement sounds to achieve a high degree of immersion and sense of presence within the experience. This is what will make your story or campaign stand out a mile and be remembered.

Don’t just take our word for it – Facebook, Google, Sony and Apple are all investing in 3D audio with Microsoft tipping the process as being a crucial element for perfecting the augmented reality experience. It’s all very exciting and fast-paced… which is why we’ve created this blog! We’ll be bringing you the latest industry news, bespoke content and project-based case studies so you can keep up with the world of virtual worlds without having to sift through over-complicated technical jargon. It’s time to get immersed!

1.618 Team