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 individuals and brands on the power of sound in marketing. In this season of the Sound Marketing Podcast, we'll be focusing on the thoughts and theories and musings that I formed over my years of experience in sonic branding and sound marketing.
If the content in these episodes inspire actionable ideas for your company, don't hesitate to give me a call. This is what I do. This is what I know. I make it sound on purpose. Now on to the show. This episode we'll be discussing what does a black t shirt sound like? So here's the question. How do we describe a black t shirt with only sound advertising? We can describe a black t shirt in a lot of different ways. It can be described by texture, hue and color, style, to name just a few.
But what if we were to describe what it sounds like? What is sound advertising? I worked with a company called AdSonica for about a year, and they had strategically aligned themselves with a very unique opportunity within ecommerce, where finding a product sound is now a viable option. AdSonica is a sonic marketing tool that allows you to embed audio into an image file.
It's patented technology allows for a no coding option that then compresses those media deliverables into a formatted package, ready for upload to any of the major advertising third parties such as Google, Facebook and LinkedIn. The technology is groundbreaking and holds a plethora of potential for advertising options, one of which being e-commerce. AdSonica, has specifically became an official app in the BigCommerce marketplace a few years back.
So how can we optimize sound through an e-commerce storefront? Remember when you were on target.com last week and you were searching for a black t shirt? So you searched black t shirt. From the picture alone No plain black t shirt is particularly astounding. A t shirt is a t shirt is a t shirt. There are just so many angles you can photograph before there's nothing left to show, but add text to that you have something more comparable.
This one is cotton, as opposed to this one being made of polyester. This one has a crewneck and this one has a V-neck. One is more of a true black and another is more of a gray black one has a four star review with 100 reviews, while another has a three and a half star review with 40 reviews. With the example of AdSonica technology, you can take it a step further through the carousel post option. You can embed sounds within the images to depict that product specifications better.
You can put anything in there. For example, the text in the description, put to voice, background music, sounds, etc. so that the shopper can go about their business while learning about the product. Aurally. Sound is a much less intrusive marketing tool that does not interrupt the consumer's day to day. It's taking messaging beyond words and to a heightened level of engagement. In 2020, I had a really fun dialog online with some colleagues about this exact example.
What does a black t shirt sound like? Here's what transpired. What does a black t shirt sound like? Maybe a low frequency sine wave around 100Hz. I suppose it would depend on the texture of the fabric. I think the rougher the texture, the more harmonics would be present. I agree with low sine waves, and I'd add in overtones with a low pulsing. Black is strong and confident, but laid back from my thoughts in my head. The texture definitely would play into this too.
Cotton would be more neutral and calm, while corduroy. Would have more edge and be a bit more aggressive. So maybe a black leather jacket could sound like an electric guitar, run through an orange amp, or some sort of distortion pedal. Now, listening to this outside of thought conversations, I tend to think that a sound for one individual product may be too much. What do you think?
However, the point I'm trying to make is this- sound advertising doesn't just have to be specs and stats, it can actually be more creative. When you think of it outside of words and copy. Imagine, if you will, this scenario. Keep in mind this is all speculative, as I don't believe it's an option just yet. You are a new e-commerce boutique brand.
No one has seen you yet other than your homepage, but now you have this option of turning your images into image audio files and uploading them in a way that a smart speaker or a screenless shopping experience device could speak your product. Alexa, take me to Stan’s Fans. Would this give you an edge or at least an equal opportunity alongside a brand like target If you had a space in the voice first technology world? what if you were to discover that space before target does?
Again, this is not possible yet, as far as I know. But what if it were? I truly believe it will be. That it's just a matter of time. So if you are a forward thinker and you want to get into the voice search space and v-commerce, sound advertising might be something to explore further. But at the same time, you don't want to add to the noise of information being presented. Is the sound functional? Or is it just noise?
The question we need to ask when talking about this is what is the function of that sound? Is it useful? Is it adding to it? Or are we just doing it because we want to reinforce the argument that sound is important? To me, that is the foundation of all sound on devices. It has to serve a function, otherwise it's just adding to the noise. As a product sound designer, the first thing I think about is do we need the sound and why? Is there a function? Is there a utility in sonic branding?
The utility is building brand equity and trust. I worry about the future of virtual reality in virtual spaces, in virtual places, because now you have 100% attention from the user's ears. They can't close them. You know, you can close your eyes even in virtual reality. But the user is going to be bombarded by sounds. Using sound more granularly in products like the black T-shirt example might not be the utility that users actually need. When you add a sound for a particular T-shirt.
That's not scalable. What does a user actually need? How much is too much and what is going to overstimulate? And how can we help people to better absorb their experience in these virtual places? We need sonic peace. People need to have a gentle soundscape to really experience the world that they've chosen to get into. Voice first. Technology creates a unique opportunity to market differently. And seeing as post-Covid is different.
It's massively important for companies such as e-commerce to pay attention to what voice and sound has to offer. With brick and mortar functioning in a much different way than pre 2020. Those that have goods to sell need to be seen. However, site isn't the all ends all of shopping nowadays. Before Covid, smart speakers and smart technology was just starting to see a rise. I can tell you from an insider perspective that amidst Covid, it has boomed forward at an exponential rate.
What was already predicted to be the technology to watch has accelerated all expectations and companies are not just watching, but implementing said technology into their advertising. But like my friends said earlier, we need to be mindful of the sounds we are making. What purpose does it serve? Because sometimes silence is golden. Take this opportunity to heart, but don't turn it into more noise. If you do, then I think you've missed the point.
Everything is fighting for sonic attention that we've lost the ability to hear deeply into our world. And frankly, that's one of our superpowers. Our ability to hear and discern between all these different things. We can hear things that we can't even see. You can tap on a door and you can tell what that door is made of. You know, that's pretty amazing. I think it's really important that we get our soundscape back and we become a high fidelity society again.
We are becoming more and more a screen less society. We're doing things. We're having conversations. Our hands are full with kids and their schoolwork and our work and making dinner. All we want is a lousy t shirt. Why can't we just say, Alexa, find me a medium black t shirt and have the robot do the culling, suggesting and ordering. We as people are creatures of habit, but we also allow for changes. Give us something to add to our routine that is relevant and we can adopt and adapt quickly.
Sounds can be learned in the example of the black t shirt. Tones could be memorized, guiding them, giving them the utility that they need to help them figure out which black t shirt they want to buy. With the technology now available. The sky truly is the limit right now. There is so much space for creativity and discovery in sound advertising that we can't possibly rationalize it all right now. But we can dream and we can experiment. Sound and marketing is changing and evolving in real time.
Are you listening? Thanks to Charles Balderston and Jerremy Loesser for their great conversation. More behind the scenes sound bites from them will be popping up later on in the season. For sure. Thank you. Also to free clip sounds for the sprinkling of flavor here and there. I also had a fun time creating the black T-shirt and leather jacket. Sounds to illustrate are already colorful conversation.
For more on sound in marketing, check out SoundInMarketing.com, where I list lots of my resources and sources. I also have courses on sonic branding and sound in marketing fundamentals. Contact me directly and I'll hook you up with a discount. 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.