The magic of audio: Your brand and its sonic identity

McDonald’s and Intel – very different businesses but they have something hugely important in common. What do you hear when you think of these two iconic brands? We bet it didn’t take you very long at all to conjure up the instantly recognisable jingles that these successful businesses have coined! We’ve all been sat in the car on the way to work, or sat watching television on a Saturday morning and found ourselves absent-mindedly singing along to an advert or humming the tune of a catchy jingle. It’s for this reason that at Sumo Marketing Group, we recognise the power of audio and its ability to filter through into audiences you wouldn’t otherwise reach.

The word ‘jingle’ is one that we all know and are familiar with, but in recent years marketeers have been excitedly talking about the rise of ‘sonic identities’. A theme tune not only catches the attention of an audience, but it becomes a huge part of a brand’s identity and possibly one of the most important mediums by which a brand sticks in a consumer’s head.

There is no denying that the appearance and branding of your business is key to your marketing strategy, but to ignore the vast numbers of people who listen to radio and podcasts day in day out, is to miss a huge piece of the marketing puzzle! RAJAR, the UK’s go-to source for radio listening figures, reported that in August 2022 an astounding 49 million people (accounting for 88% of the population) listened to the radio on a weekly basis. An article by Radio Today informs us that the advent of smart speakers has attracted more and more people in the UK to the worlds of radio and podcasting – an audience your business could really be tapping into.

Even in the midst of the pandemic, a time which hit businesses and the world of marketing and advertising hard, in an article by Radio Today, Radiocentre revealed that commercial radio took a record-breaking £718.7 million in ad revenue. If this doesn’t show us that the magic of audio is very much still alive, we don’t know what does!

At Sumo Marketing Group, our team is passionate about bringing your brand to life in the best ways possible. A really effective way to speak to consumers en masse is through audio; something which David, our Director, became acutely aware of in his 3 years working at Global Media (the home of Capital, Heart, Smooth, Radio X, LBC and much more). Now, as an independent marketing agency in the North East of England, David and his team have access to the very best rates across all commercial radio and podcast brands.

What this time working in audio marketing taught David and the team was that you don’t need to be an international brand to create a lasting sonic identity which makes its mark on your audience. With the help of our experts, we can bring your brand to life through sound waves and guide you and your SME through the process of working with radio and podcast giants Global Media, Bauer and Communicorp, to name just a few! We have links with some of the best creatives in the industry and truly enjoy showing you the magic of advertising via radio and podcasting.

If you’ve reached the end of this article and we still haven’t managed to convince you of the value and potential of audio as part of your marketing strategy, we’d thoroughly recommend having a listen to an episode of Steven Bartlett’s ‘The Diary of a CEO’ which features author, TED-talker and listening/speaking expert, Julian Treasure.

Julian works with some of the biggest and most recognisable brands in the world to show them the power yielded by how and what we say. If this podcast inspires you as much as it inspired us, we would love to hear from you and start planning how to bring your brand alive on the airwaves for a truly unbeatable price. Contact us today and start creating your sonic identity with Sumo Marketing Group.