Over the past few weeks I’ve noticed a frustrating trend that as a marketer you need to be aware of. First, a little backstory.
There have been a couple of studies released recently discussing the importance of music in advertising. I won’t go into the full details today but you can read them here (Ad Age) and here (Marketing). Furthermore, in our own work with clients we’ve seen clients increase customer leads by 108% with radio alone.
Now that you further understand the power of sound, what should baffle you is that companies will spend millions (billions?) protecting the image and the visuals of their brand but if someone else uses the same music track in another commercial its alright.
Here’s a recent example.
Taco Bell
Chevy
I’m not trying to knock the band in this, (they’re pretty smart for getting airplay in two commercials = double the royalties!) however, this does nothing for either company in improving their brand (although, Taco Bell gets points for making the Spanish version and Chevy gets points for continuing to use the voice of Tim Allen). Part of this problem stems from not taking ownership of a song or music property. Of course there is a cost to this but in most cases the increase in brand awareness and affiliation outweighs investments you have made.
To hammer this one home, I doubt Intel will ever let anything like this happen to its audio logo. This of course is the sort of thinking that needs to be promoted throughout the rest of your brand communications. When you do this you will start to build brand assets in a whole new way that many of your competitors have neglected.
Own it!
