SOUND DESIGN
Driving Home Lasting Impressions
Sound is the single most overlooked component of a marketing campaign, with the most benefits to offer. Sound is efficient and immediate—human neural pathways respond to sound up to 100 times faster than they do to visual images. You can’t glance away from sound, even if you stop paying attention your brain can still absorb the message. Neurologists have found that noise remains in your mind for up to 5 seconds, whereas visual stimulation disappears in less than a second. It has also been shown that sound lights up more of your emotional core and is more likely to evoke memories than visual stimulation. Emotion and memory activation is a fast-track to message retention--the goal of every campaign.
Quality sound design instantly gives any visual an aura of professionality and therefore legitimacy in your audience’s minds. This is not something that is conscious or learned, the average person with no affinity for or knowledge of audio mixing recognizes it immediately as just seeming like higher quality. You also get a higher level of memory encoding from your audience when sound closely matches visuals. While the advent of smartphones and the increasing quality vs. cost of digital equipment is blurring the lines between professional and amateur recordings, post-production sound mixing is where the professional advantage becomes crystal clear. When an ad with professional sound mixing is juxtaposed with one of average quality, the differences are obvious and immediate.
Beyond diegetic sound, we often use audio branding with our clients. Also known as sonic branding, it is the strategic use of tonal elements to communicate a brand identity to the customer. We work with you to determine an audio mark that best represents your brand’s personality and the promise your brand makes to consumers. This can take the form of a few musical notes at the beginning and end of commercials, a sound effect such as a specific whoosh whenever your logo is shown, or even a full-length jingle if appropriate. This is a key component of creating a memorable, distinct brand identity across all touchpoints.
We’re a team of audiophiles here at Brother3, and we never, ever overlook sound design. Check out some of our work and listen for yourself. We’re ready to take your production to the next level of professionality and maximize every opportunity to establish your brand identity in your customers’ minds.