#CannesYouFeelIt – What Brands Should Sound Like & The Benefits Of Ad Blocking

When it comes to using music in their marketing, brands are hitting all the wrong notes. That was the message put forward by panel members at the ‘101 Great Minds: Exploring the Power of Music in Branding’ session at Cannes Lions earlier today. 

Panel host and president of audio agency iV2, Uli Reese, revealed 80% of Fortune 500 companies are arbitrary in their music choices, arguing there was an ‘implementation gap’ in advertising, where music is treated as an afterthought rather than an integral piece of branding.

Speaking on how brands can close this gap, Hans-Christian Schwingen, Chief Brand Officer of Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile), recommended including music in the process as early as possible, saying, “Music is an attitude, it’s social and promotes group building – it’s a language in its own right. Music is one of the first things we think about as a brand.”

Schwingen also advised CMOs to avoid isolating music from visuals, recommending a ‘muti-sensory approach’, as well as having dedicated brand-level teams working purely on music.

He then drove home the point by highlighting that music drives sales – stating that their audio logo has a recall of 60% in all markets and is a ‘fundamental asset’ of the brand.

The idea of an audio logo, a special sound or song users and consumers always associate with the brand, was echoed by Amir Kassaei, CCO of DDB Worldwide.

Kassaei said, “In the next 20 years, you will live in a connected world and there will be no difference between offline and online. There will be multiple touch points, but it needs to be the right mood and the right time to enrich the experience. Ask a CEO ‘what does your brand sound like?‘, and you will find that the majority of brands don’t know this

Meanwhile,  Gerard Baker, Editor-in-Chief of Unruly’s sister company The Wall Street Journal, hosted a panel debate called ‘Advertising is Dead; Long Live Advertising’. Panellists in the debate yesterday included Sir Martin Sorrell (CEO, WPP), Shane Smith (CEO, VICE), Brad Jakeman (President, PepsiCo Global Beverage Group) and Nicola Mendelsohn (VP EMEA, Facebook). Below is some video highlights.

The panel covered the changing nature of ad agency relationships, the importance of trust and privacy, and ad blocking – with Jakeman saying “ad blocking is the best thing that has happened to this industry, because it has caused us as an industry to focus on producing amazing content that users want to seek out”.