How Brands Can Utilise Technology for Sonic Branding

By Roscoe Williamson, creative strategy director and partner at MassiveMusic, international creative music agency

The banking industry has come a long way from the days of grain loans offered by savvy merchants. In 2011 we saw the arrival of the first smartphone banking app in the UK and today we can complete almost all of our banking tasks without even venturing out of the house. Recent developments have even enabled our smart speakers to be adopted for voice-activated banking and as we march forward into a post-Covid, ever more screenless era, the role of sound is set to become ever more important for this rapidly evolving industry.

This surge in technology and changing consumer habits has brought about many challenges. How do banking brands retain trust whilst physical currency disappears and real, human interactions become a thing of the past? There are also many opportunities. Even though there is less human contact, interactions can be more personable through tailoring the experience around the customer. The sound of this experience can play a key role both functionally and emotionally. Whether that be to tell you that you have successfully made a contactless payment or that your smart speaker has successfully set up a direct debit payment, branded systems of audio cues can play a key role in building trust. An example of this being the research for Visa on the effectiveness of brand sound and increasing trust at the point of payment. Further still, savvy brands in this sector are starting to understand how to connect the world of brand or product experience to their marketing content. A case in point being Mastercard, who last year revamped their brand and launched a new sonic logo; composing a unique melody that will play when customers interact with the brand in-store (point of sale or payment acceptance sounds) or online.

So how can a bank or financial institution ensure it’s being heard across the different technologies in which it now lives? First, it needs to define and own its sound through the process of sonic branding.

A recent Ipsos report reaffirmed the point us marketing musos have been preaching for years; while less frequently used, audio assets are on average more effective than many other brand assets. The science also backs up the impact of sonic branding on increasing brand recognition, positively altering perception, increasing emotional recall, creating brand consistency, helping differentiate, and can lead to cost and time savings.

A lot of notable banks and financial institutions are already harnessing the power of a considered and curated sonic strategy to boost their brand. Looking far beyond the solitary sonic logo, these brands are creating holistic systems of branded sound and music that are flexible and future proof for the technological advances of the future. At MassiveMusic, we’ve been fortunate enough to work on the sonic strategies for UBS, Tadawul, Deutsche Bank, ING, and CIBC – to name but a few.

Looking forwards, how banks sound in a highly safety conscious, an ever more screenless era is especially important. Covid-19 has only accelerated the trend of voice adoption and with that comes a renewed importance around the sonic side of these brand experiences.

Various banks, like HSBC, have already adopted VoiceID technology – that is, using your voice as your password to access your interest banking. But more are now looking to take advantage of the £5.6 billion smart speaker market in the UK. Last year, Natwest started its trial with Google Assistant, allowing customers to bank from home and ask eight different questions using voice alone, including what’s my balance, what are my latest transactions and what transactions are pending? With an estimated 1 in 5 UK households now having a smart speaker, there is a key opportunity for banks and financial services to capitalise on this significant user adoption. With more touchpoints with the user, these brands can be applying sound in a strategic way that, as such, conveys trust and security to customers – both critical elements in finance. A simple sound notification when a payment has been successful can be so reassuring for customers, and can do wonders for their loyalty to your brand.

Employing sonic cues and audio on these smart devices can be great for a bank brand. But it must still be distinguishable. Technology allows for this in part, for example, last time I checked there were up to 27 different voice options on an Amazon Alexa with varying pitch, speech rate and volume. So a brand can go some way to ensuring an original experience just through the considered design of the native voice experience but, by introducing ownable branded sound elements, they can elevate the experience to the next level whilst also linking it to other brand touchpoints.

Stepping away from smart speakers, there are already so many audio moments banks and financial services deploy anyway. Think of the sound the POS machine makes at the checkout when you tap your card to pay; all the noises ATMs make when selecting your options, the whirring of the bank notes being counted, and the incessant beeping so you don’t forget your card! Audio can connect all these dots – all these moments you interact with your bank via sound. Apple are great at putting the sound of their devices in their advertising, closing the loop of the OOH brand experience.

Audio provides not only brand recognition through various touchpoints, but also consistency, positive recall and most importantly trust. Bank brands that do this well – take technology in their stride and constantly evolve how music and sound play a role in their branding strategy – will have their voice heard among the crowded marketplace.