The power of audio branding with Uli Reese, Global CMO at amp

The new world is fast-moving towards screenless ecosystems and brands don’t just need to be seen, they need to be heard.

Our Fast Five video series continues with Uli Reese, Global CMO at amp, an award-winning audio consultancy. As an Emmy Winner, musician, and author of ‘101GreatMinds’ Uli has helped educate brands and agencies on sonic branding and consumer behavior.

Dive in for exclusive advice on how CMOs can pioneer a sonic branding strategy that connects with consumers, locally as well as globally.

Questions

00:16: What power does audio have in the new world?

00:56: How does sound add a new dimension to brand identity?

01:40: What makes a great sonic brand?

02:48: How can brands tap into their customers’ feelings through audio branding?

04:00: What’s your advice to CMOs on audio strategy and multi-channel marketing?

05:34: Five key learnings

Bonus – Uli on his work with Mastercard

We asked Uli about amp’s work on the Mastercard sonic branding that won gold at The Transform Awards Europe in 2021, and this is what he shared:

“We built a sharable sonic brand book and created a complete ecosystem for Mastercard that was implemented globally into every market. This made the brand culturally adaptive and encouraged the respective country’s marketing teams to create their assets built on the Mastercard Sonic DNA.

The long-term perspective of this investment into sonic brand strategy is to build long-lasting sonic brand capital, resulting in three main advantages for Mastercard:”

1. More creativity and choice: Licensing sonic pop culture becomes a choice when it supports the authentic narrative of a major campaign. Yet owning a sharable sonic DNA puts the brand into a position of becoming a co-creator of sonic assets, which is considered of high value in moving towards authentic consumer engagement.
2. IP ownership: Every new sonic asset, that is created as a derivate of the Mastercard – sonic DNA is owned by the brand in perpetuity, creating unparalleled ROI for the brand.
3. Flexibility to remain relevant: Mastercard is constantly adding new sonic assets that are all based on the Mastercard-owned sonic DNA. This keeps assets current and in the zeitgeist.

“It completely changes the dynamic from standing next to the cool kid, you’re becoming the cool kid,” Uli said.

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