Bunnings, VB lead Australia's audio branding charts

New index ratings of the most effective audio branding identifies the top Australian companies for sonic branding creative

Bunnings and Victoria Bitter lead the way in Australia’s audio branding effectiveness stakes, a new research project claims.

The new sonic branding research was kicked off by Southern Cross Austereo in partnership with audio intelligence platform provider, Veritonic, and sought to ascertain which Australian brands boasted the strongest audio branding creative effectiveness for consumers out of a list of 26. The files were analysed via machine learning and learning algorithms, with data then combined with survey responses from 2100 consumers across SCA’s insights community. The work was based on a range of attributes including brand familiarity and memorability and saw each brand’s audio tune given a ‘Veritonic Audio Score’.   

Bunnings came up trumps on the list for winning scores across almost all indicators, from authenticity, to likeability, uniqueness and high recall. In addition, the brand scored highly for other emotional attributes such as trust, authenticity and happiness.

The hardware retail giant also recently topped a recent survey by Roy Morgan of Australia’s most trusted brands, results derived during the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.

Coming in second was Victoria Bitter, which matched Bunnings for emotional attributes such as authenticity, likeability and uniqueness. All of these characteristics map directly to high recall, the list authors noted.

Following Bunnings and VB in the top five were Toyota, McDonalds and Telstra. Rounding out the top 10 brands in Australia were Coles, Intel, AAMI, Woolworths and Harvey Norman.

In terms of category, FMCG proved the best-performing industry for sonic branding, driven by VB as well as brands such as SPC. Retail followed closely behind, while automotive was found to be the lowest performing sector. The one major exception was Toyota, which has been running the same audio branding around its ‘Oh what a feeling’ messaging since the 1980s.

Global brands performed strongly on UK and US versions of the list, such as Intel and Netflix, were shown to be consistently strong with Australian consumers as well.

SCA national head of creativity, Matt Dickson, noted familiarity as a big influencer on recall and its impact on list scoring.

“Each of these businesses is both long-established and among the brands spending the most on marketing in Australia,” he pointed out.

All of Australia’s top 10 brands, the list authors noted, used melody as a memorable audio device. Broadly, audio logos featuring a melody had a 20 per cent higher memorability and brand association result than those that did not.

“An audio logo needs a melody to be memorable and if it contains the brand name as well it’s even more effective,” Dickson said. “There’s also the ‘whistle test’. If you can’t whistle an audio logo, it’s probably too complex and won’t be as effective. It’s an interesting parallel to visual logos – if you can draw a visual logo, it’s more iconic and easier to remember. The same applies to audio branding with whistling or humming.”

Another finding was audio logos resonate more depending on age group, although the age of the brands could also play a role here. For example, Boost Juice and Netflix were found to be 42 per cent more memorable with those aged 18 to 39, while SPC’s sonic brand was 18 per cent memorable for those aged over 40.

By contrast, Bunnings, Toyota, McDonalds and Harvey Norman all scored relatively equally across demographic groups.

Dickson claimed the need for sonic branding was growing in importance as more audio-based capability came into our lives through technology such as smart speakers, changing the way we interact with brands and buy.

“Every search that happens via smart speaker is one less search that happens visually,” he added. “If your brand doesn’t have audio brand assets, then how is anyone going to know who you are in a voice environment?”

Read more: IAB: Why your audio branding is just as important as visual branding

Follow CMO on Twitter: @CMOAustralia, take part in the CMO conversation on LinkedIn: CMO ANZ, follow our regular updates via CMO Australia's Linkedin company page, or join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CMOAustralia.

 

 

 

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in