Hi, my name is Lisa DeStefano and I am with the Home Depot. I am the vice president of brand Marketing and Creative. Welcome to the Sound In Marketing podcast. I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner and founder of Dreamr Productions and Sound in Marketing Learning. I create, consult and educate brands and individuals on the power of sound in marketing. Looking to create branded sound or need a sound strategist? Head on over to www.DreamrProductions.com and let's chat www.DreamrProductions.com.
For season five, I'm excited to bring you more from the brands and companies actually producing and implementing Mindful Sound. This either means official sonic branding, sound and or music tied to brand identity, or simply companies that are taking their use of sound and music more seriously. For this episode, we spoke with Lisa DiStefano, the VP of brand Marketing and Creative at Home Depot. Since the recording of this episode on June 16th, 2022, Lisa has since retired.
I just wanted to take a moment and congratulate her on a job well done. All the best in your next adventure, Lisa. Now on to the show. During her nine years working for The Home Depot, Lisa was also involved with the creation and production of The Home Depot song, which we'll be discussing today. This song was so catchy that it's being parodied and remixed all over TikTok. Welcome to the show, Lisa! Thank you very much. I'm so happy to be here.
My podcast generally has been focused on the voice manufacturers or the producers and stuff, and I haven't been able to talk to the brands that are actually using sonic branding and sound efficiently and effectively. So it's very exciting to be able to talk to The Home Depot, especially about this project.
It's an exciting thing, and I don't think people necessarily give credit enough credit to, using all the senses possible in, you know, the marketing practice and in connecting with your customers. And I thought one of the things, as I was really thinking in preparing was that our, our brand and our category is a sensory category. If you walk into our stores, they have a smell. But there is a sound of DIY, there's a sound of doing which we can incorporate.
And when you listen to our equity track or the orange theme, you get that sound. And that's part of the magic of it, I think, and why people are attracted to it is it fits authentically with who we are, what we do. (The Orange Song playing) It has that DIY sound. It sounds like you're walking into one of those stores. It really makes me feel homey, I guess. And I just, I love the song that was created. Can you tell me a little bit more about how it came about?
Were you looking for that specifically or was it just kind of a, needle in a haystack situation, you know, as a brand? You know, historically we've always felt that, you know, having a, an energetic tone, right and doing right. We're, you know, we empower doers. That is, you know, that is what we are in the business of doing. We were working on a brand new campaign. We were energizing around fall and really trying to think about how to prepare ourselves for that and to compare a full campaign.
So in 2013, we had gone through a new transition with our campaign work, and we needed a sound and we needed a, you know, to be environmental track for that. And so it wasn't intended to be our forever, recognizable song or experience. No. But we knew right away when we heard it that there was something special about it. There was a pace, there was a tone.
When we think about our brand, that song, as well as the idea of doing, we think about coach, like energetic, incorporating that kind of thing. When you listen to the voiceover and voice acting for our spots, we also feel like that as part of that, that overall sound and those pieces fit together. So it had to be strong enough to drive a sense of doing and then be able to work overall with, some of the louder noises that occur within, our environment as well.
What do you say to a spin around the color wheel to paint with primer already mixed in test samples instead of canned commitments? What do you say we dip into our wallets less and grab Ahold of the latest tools out there so we can quit all that messing around with extra steps and get busy turning our doing dials up a notch. More saving, more doing. That's the power of the Home Depot. It was part of a series of work that stuck with us.
While campaigns have come and gone, that sound has stuck with us as part of our brand essence. So it's, maybe serendipity. At the time that we found something that was so impactful and Rory Doggett was the composer of that work, and we're super proud. And I met him. It's like there was a little, like, fangirl in me when I got to meet him, and he was on a shoot with us in LA and, and, he's done iterations. And other people have riffed on his work.
And of course, as you said earlier, the magic is that culturally, people are riffing on our work all the time. And we welcome that. You know, some of it is parody, and funny, and some of it is just representing, you know, the thrill of doing, which we love about that. And we welcome people to it, you know, we give them access and say, hey, have fun. That's what it's about. Rory Doggett. I love that name. That's an amazing name.
Was he commissioned specifically to write this, or did he have the song? And you're like, oh, we have to have this. Nope. He wrote it. He wrote it for us. And, as I said, it's continued. We've gone back at different times and riffed on it. And one of the things that, we love about that strong base beat and the way it pieces together is that we also can play within that because it's recognizable. Even when you start to do a little manipulation or a little, change to it.
And seasonally we adjusted even in our most more serious work. We recently did a campaign 545 it's in there, you know, that beat, that methodical kind of approach to it. What kind of person would come here at 5:45 a.m.? well, there's Carly, a carpenter, just like her dad. There's Juan he's building a house and a better life. Kenton and Sadie are here because the couple that grouts together stays together.
Mary, is a drama teacher, and she'll do anything for her students, even build sets before class. LaMar needs a torch and clamps for welding school Ed’s putting in a pool for a friend. We all need an Ed. That's who’s in our parking lot at 5:45 am real customers made for doing. At the Home Depot everything we do we do for them and even in our, you know, our more branded serious work or other work, it it plays out really well. So it's been magical in spring with lighter sounds.
It's been, terrific in holiday with, those kind of tones and bells that you'd think of from that work. And so it's been a really great baseline for us to build a lot of things. And it is so recognizable that we, we feel like it it allows us to be identifiable and a trigger for folks even when they're looking at artwork. You were able to extract and use a lot of different pieces because, you know, now that I'm like playing it back in my in my head, you've got the beat, which can play on its own.
And I think with the beat, you still get the essence of what Home Depot is trying to do. You've got the guitar, you know, so if you want to get a little bit more rock heavy, you want to get aggressive. You know, maybe you've got a big project with, like, heavy things. And then you have the bells. And I think the bells work for holiday. The bells can be for, like, maybe trying to attribute, lighter DIYers. There's so many elements that you can use with this.
And it's, it's kind of fun to just see that this was like, a serendipitous thing, because I was going to ask you, why didn't you just go with, a sonic logo or a short mnemonic of sorts? Because there's a lot of companies that are focusing on that and then extracting from it. Is it just that this worked and you stuck with it? I think it's it was malleable in a way. And we recognized that pretty early on with, with a mnemonic or a sound logo.
You know, it's a it's a trigger, but it doesn't allow you to play necessarily in that same way, that extension, you have to work a little harder in this case. Right? We had this moment. And to your point, we could extract it and move it. When people use licensed music, right? It belongs to someone else. Often people have another reference. That's why people use it, right?
It gives you a feeling, connectivity to a certain moment, a memory, whatever the situation is, we created that and that energy. And now we get to riff on our own work and own it, and be able to play with it and manipulate it, you know, engage with it and leverage it. That ability to riff on our own work versus needing to leverage. And plus it's it has longevity, which is amazing, and it's our ability to play with it.
Whereas, you know, taking another piece of work off, then you're in a series of things where it's one piece of work at one time, and then you're going to move into another piece of of licensed work at another time. And in this case, it becomes just that, that, bed, that constant track that we use it internally. It motivates us.
And the thing that I really like about this is I started reading about, an article about your TikTok parodies and the remixes and all that stuff, and I'm like, Home Depot doesn't have a song. And I was really confused. And then I like, looked it up and I'm like, oh my gosh, I totally know that song. And if I heard it again, I would think Home Depot. And I think that's the brilliant part, is that it's not just a song, quote unquote. It's something else that like, it kind of is guttural.
It gets into the actual essence and personality of your brand, and I think that that's just lovely. I think that's lovely. Yeah. And it's, it's, funny, we've had people put lyrics to it, which is really fun, you know, and we've had people send us stuff, which is great. And becoming part of, of the, the cultural zeitgeist that goes on. And being in that environment, that's a wonderful connectivity with customers and doers.
And we have this relationship, we have this shared thing that goes on that people are playing with it and enjoying it and, and amplifying it, without having to be asked. And that is a really special place for a brand to have a connection, even if it's sometimes fun or silly or even, you know, sometimes, you know, a parody is not necessarily always flattering, but we're into it because it's people playing and having an experience, and it's all about our brand and their connection to it.
And, and, it's something we can always build on. And the TikTok piece was a surprise for us. We were, as I think, amazed once we started really looking at the number of people who were. And we've just, you know, really enjoyed that. Because it's a good range of stuff that's going on. There are wonderful sound logos and, and, and, representations that trigger you in a certain way to lead into something else.
And, and so I wouldn't, you know, have outdone them by having this, this song because those triggers are so critically important. But it has been, pretty joyful thing for us. And it's lasted, you know, since 2013. Yeah. Coming up on the ten year anniversary of it, I guess it's not a competition, in my opinion. Like, companies trying to outdo each other with logos or jingles or songs or whatever.
But what what is really cool is when they succeed with what you just said, where it's this community participation and it's this engagement, and people are sending you things and they're telling you about how they're engaging with this inanimate object that they now have an emotional connection to. So it's just a wonderful, perspective of sensory marketing at its best. It takes on a life of its own. And that's, you know, my soapbox. That's what you want it to do. You want it to to live.
And that's what it's doing. Have you ever explored, sound and music before this? Like really taking it in and going, you know, how can we how can we use this? Have you done that in the past? I don't think we really knew. I don't think we had captured this, moment until we started to see the longevity and our ability to play with, this particular sound, this particular song. I don't think we really thought about it that way. I don't think we'd explored it or really appreciated its true value.
Sound was always something that existed in our work, but it was maybe least important. And I think we've learned a great deal. The customer, our associates have taught us a great deal about the impact of this sound authentically within our brand. And we then did a whole sonic branding exercise with this at the center. How do you amplify this? How do you think about this? You know, how does this become the orange theme?
We really use this opportunity to keep expanding on this whole philosophy of the sound of doing, and what that means. So I would say again, this was the energy, that has come over time and has been the base from which we work. It's not like a burden or a heavy thing that's like, oh, well, that's, you know, part of our brand standards. We have to stick with this. This is living, which is super cool, right? We were gifted with orange. That is amazing. Right?
An energetic color to begin with, which is an interesting just again, that's serendipity because, you know, when our founders started, it was what's the most inexpensive way that we can go about getting our name out there. And it was spray painted with stencil with the, you know, the we got discounted orange paint. Let's like blow it out. Some things happen in a serendipitous way like that. But this song was just the start of something that's really been able to, power us forward with that.
And so I think we learned a lot through that experience. I hope you're enjoying the show. Stay tuned next week for the conclusion to our interview. Don't forget to subscribe on all the major podcast channels, share with friends, follow and rate. Spread the word because, well, more people should know about this stuff. I know you know that. Now. For any other inquiries, you can find me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
You can also email me at [email protected] [email protected] All links will be provided in the show notes. Let's make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.