“Can you send me your company logo as a WAV file?” That’s not something you typically hear from a conference organizer. But it soon might be.
In 2020, one of the silver linings of an otherwise disastrous year is the continued ascendance of audio and voice technology. We’re listening more, to more types of content, at a higher fidelity. And we’re talking more to the computers inside our devices, who seem to understand us a bit better each day.
In an increasingly sonic world, consumer brands are dimensionalizing their identities through sonic expressions that go far beyond audio logos and jingles for TV spots. And these same brands are coming to realize that a conversational posture is a must-have to reach consumers through a host of new voice-enabled channels.
RAIN and Audio UX – specialists in voice tech and sonic branding, respectively – have built our businesses around helping brands thrive in this increasingly sonified and speakable world.
But what about B2B businesses? To what extent does sonic branding and voice matter to them? Even looking at companies in the services world that we operate in, how many studios, agencies, consultancies or other professional services firms have thought to invest in a cohesive sonic identity the same way they’ve poured money into their visual brand? How many have invested to reach their business customer audiences through voice-enabled channels?
The answer? Not many. B2B businesses’ reliance on brand-building through primarily visual means is going to change as savvy brands begin differentiating themselves through audio-first touch-points, or find clever ways of enhancing their brands visual representation with an audio complement.
That’s one reason why we’re excited to unveil RAIN’s recently-completed sonic identity and assets, and provide a look under the hood of how Audio UX and RAIN went through the process of bringing our brand to life through sound and music.
“We’re firm believers that every brand needs a cohesive expression across multiple modalities, and as a firm that lives and breathes voice and audio, it was high time we put together a full sonic identity for RAIN. Having worked with Audio UX many times before, we knew they’d bring rigor, creativity, and nuance to this process, and we’re thrilled with the results.”
– Will Hall, Chief Creative Officer at RAIN
You can listen to all of our audio branding assets here on the AudioUX site
Our Voice on Voice theme, inclusive of both our audio logo and brand anthem, is designed to clearly delineate sections by building percussive energy at marked intervals. Some passages build momentum while others encourage the listener to pause, reflect, and embrace curiosity. Our sonic assets are built upon what we call our distinct Extractable Branding Units (EBUs), which serve as building blocks into a cohesive system. This systematic and “atomic” approach to design allows individual units to stand on their own but also to be placed into a sequence and hierarchy that’s greater than the sum of its parts.
“The pursuit of audio consistency can’t come at the cost of flexibility. Audio concepts and metaphors are our catalysts to break a brand down to its molecular components, and then use those components to define a new language—and with RAIN it was no different,” said Sean Thornton, Creative Director at Audio UX. “Together, we developed a flexible system that uses subtle references to raindrops and human speech to represent the exponential potential of voice design and adoption. The result is a dynamic toolkit that can shout or whisper but always ensures that we know it’s RAIN who’s speaking.”
Our sonic assets are not only featured on our weekly Flash Briefing on voice news (ask Alexa to play the Voice on Voice flash briefing), but we’re also incorporating it into how we communicate online, and how we interface with clients, prospective talent, new hires, and partners.
We encourage you to explore the work and consider how your brand should sound. It’s time the ears got as much love as the eyes in the world of brand development, and those who bring a thoughtful process to deriving and combining these sonic components will position themselves to be more distinguished, memorable, and enjoyable to customers.
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