Thinking
Writing on sound, brands and music
Essays by Daniel M. Jackson on sonic branding, brand voice, memorability, audio media and building a music business.
Sonic branding: the questions people askWhat sonic branding is, sonic logos, melody, cost, licensing, measurement and how to choose an agency. Eighteen straight answers.Why melody beats every other brand assetDistinctive, ownable, flexible: why the best sonic branding starts with the tune.Sonic branding and music supervision are the same jobComposed and licensed music answer one question: what should this brand sound like?How to brief a sonic branding agencyEight things to put in the brief, and why the answer should come back as sound.“Alexa… how do I get a brand voice?”In voice-activated systems there's no screen, and a hundred-year-old logo is redundant. A five-step method for choosing a brand voice.The Joy of PodsFrequency, recency, relevancy: why podcasts are the medium memorability was made for, and the bad habits brands bring from radio.Ten years of CORDFrom a spoon stirring a mug of Nescafé to a business sold to Keywords Studios: lessons from building a music agency.Most Memorable Ad ManWhat David Bernstein taught about memorability, in three words.Gamers love virtual realityNotes from the Game Developers Conference on VR, spatial audio and the tools reshaping games.