We think this is a brilliant piece of Audio Branding by Coca-Cola. Thanks to Sound Lounge for publishing the full story – read it here .
IVR – a valuable business resource
What’s the first voice your callers hear? Interactive Voice Response (IVR) – also known as auto attendant messaging – is a popular feature with busy businesses operating a number of departments. The IVR technology quickly connects calls, offering a number of pre-recorded options for the caller to choose from. It then recognises keypad or voice instructions to direct calls to desired departments efficiently with minimum disruption to callers and staff. But that’s not the only benefit… 
Tag Me Amadeus – Listen again on BBC iPlayer
Listen again to this Radio 4 programme last broadcast in the UK on Saturday, at 15:30. Sue Perkins explores audio branding and how composers capture an entire brand in a few musical notes.
With contributions from Professor John Deathridge, one of the world’s leading musicologists, the programme is an interesting listen – but you must be quick – you only have five days left to listen again.
No cheese, please – we’re callers
Hold messages have a bad rep in some quarters. When you listen to the worst examples of music on hold, you can see why.
Sound quality. Music choice. Voice choice. All of these things can make or break an on-hold experience. But something that’s sometimes overlooked is the script. And more specifically, clichés.
In this post, we’re looking at how an overused phrase with good intentions can actually have the wrong effect.
On-brand Voiceovers
Where television and online advertising offer layers of stimulus – colour, sound, movement, logos – a telephone advert engages with fewer senses, but is no less complex.
In this post we’re looking at the impact of an on-brand audio voiceover; one that embodies your business and its beliefs perfectly.
Business Voicemail – getting it right
Business Voicemail is all part of the audio branding experience. It’s sometimes the first contact you’ll make with a customer, so it’s crucial you make the right impression every time.
Here at PH Audio, we’re passionate about getting it right for our customers, so we’ve put together a few tips on how to make the most of your Business Voicemail package.
Music and moods | Audio branding fun
Discover music based on your mood
Finding the right song for that great weather just got a little easier. We’ve recently stumbled across Musicovery.com, a clever site that allows you to find and listen to music based on its era, genre and tempo — and most importantly, your mood.
Have you chosen the wrong hold music?
Too often, choosing royalty-free music to play on hold means choosing the track that’s least annoying.
Our business is based on the idea it shouldn’t have to be like that.
But if you make a conscious decision to improve the way your brand sounds, you’re starting to think about strategy. After all, you’re now shaping the way clients hear you – creating associations that connect sounds to images.
So, whether you’re making the most of an audio branding service like ours, or simply paying for a licensed track you think works well with – and best represents – your brand, it makes sense to think about what kind of audio fits with people’s image of your company.
Get this wrong, and you could end up sending mixed messages.
Creative audio branding and visual interpretation
At PH Audio we’re in the business of making music and voiceovers that fit a company’s image and brand. Sounding right for callers is critical and has lasting effects. I found an interesting piece of writing on ‘creative synaesthesia’ which brings me nicely onto this post: creatively, how does a company develop an on-hold marketing production or create an audio brand that fits with their branding?
Artificial synaesthesia for audio branding – an overlapping of senses
Synaesthesia is a condition in which one type of stimulation evokes the sensation of another. For example, you might see colours when you hear a particular sound.
But ‘artificial synaesthesia’, as it’s coined in the article I’ve linked to above, can help businesses to understand how consumers perceive brands. By artificially recreating and understanding how people take meaning from a particular word or sound, it’s then easier to create the most effective combinations of voiceovers, content, style and music. Ultimately, you want to be able to positively reinforce brand values in the mind of the consumer.
Why time on hold is the right time for audio branding
Companies spend a lot on symbols. On symbols that people associate with their name.
It’s kind of reductive, but in the simplest terms, advertising is about making an effective symbol that carries a full brand message. That’s why the Nike ‘Swoosh’ logo equals athletics. Equals running. Equals gold medals. Equals you running faster.
Advertising is about making a large concept into a picture. Reducing sentences and paragraphs into lines and squiggles.
It’s been about that for hundreds of years. About graphic identities carrying brands.
Now, of course, we’re producing much more than logos. We’ve got the internet, for one – we’ve got the viral videos and the microsites; the discussions across social media and becoming a company’s fan on Facebook. Now, businesses are creating fully branded ‘user experiences’.
But in the last century, we also got ways to produce better sounds, and faster. We have studios and microphones. And as this medium has grown and gone digital, so too have the agencies (we’re one!) who specialise almost exclusively in audio branding – not graphic-based branding. And on commercial radio, telly, the internet, businesses are using these agencies to compete for the most memorable sound.