Prolark Media’s Lee Price hosted a session at Radiodays Europe showcasing the range of offerings form audio production companies that can make your station sound great in 2024.
Three passionate music and jingle producers took to the stage to show off their audio and share thoughts about making great station imaging in a fast moving panel discussion. Some of the key points from that discussion are:
What is sonic branding?
Branding is an emotion and a feeling. We add a layer of emotion to a brand.
Sonic branding says who you are to the listener and gives them a feeling for the station.
Jingles are the gearbox for the presenter, allowing them to shift the tempo and flow of the program.
The goal of any jingle is to become an ear worm. Something people will instantly be able to recall and remember the name of your station, that’s the holy grail that we are all striving for in sonic branding.
Tom Van der Biest, the Creative Director of Brandy was the first to play some audio samples
Why should a radio station invest in branding?
Radio is an audio medium, so it should use audio imaging to brand itself. We should use the power of the medium we work in.
Adapt your sonic branding to the platforms so you can use it beyond just your radio signal. If you do that you need to adapt it, for example you need to make the jingle shorter for Tik Tok, Youtube has longer form content so your Youtube imaging can be longer. Adapt your audio brand jingle to work across all the platforms you are on.
In the past radio’s competition was other radio stations. Now it is so many more audio platforms. Use sonic branding to stand out on all the platforms you are on to build your brand with the various audiences.
If you have the chance to work with the strap line of the station incorporate singing it into the jingle. Some station’s only want the name sung for maximum recall, but if you want to add a message as well that’s where the strap line can be used.
If you get the sonic branding right it becomes part of your sonic universe, you can build on it for years to keep it fresh. A good strap line can add to the elements that you can use. You will know it’s right when you play it and it gives you a goosebumps moment.
Thomas Giger, Branding Consultant & Partner at Pure Jingles presented his set of audio samples, which are in German.
What should stations consider before commissioning jingles?
Start with strategy first, what do you want the package to do for you, are you aiming for it to enhance the current brand or do something new?
The brief will come in an emotional form, then it’s our job to translate that into notes, instruments and song.
Find songs in the station’s playlist that most resonate with the audience and say something about the station’s identity. Listen a lot to the music on the station’s playlist, understand the effect that music has on the audience to inspire the jingle creation.
You don’t always have to be big and bold, you can also go minimalist and then change and build that over time.
The biggest thing we have been asked lately is to create an audio brand that will work on air, on socials, online, across all platforms. The more platforms there are the more important it is to have sonic brand consistency.
Marc Vickers the Senior Producer/Composer at Wisebuddah & No Sheet Music has a song writing background. These are the audio samples he brought to the session.