Research: a brand´s unique sound is unmatched in effectiveness
There are countless beliefs surrounding advertising effectiveness and the use of brand elements — beliefs that still guide many marketing decisions today. From choosing visual and audio styles to allocating media budgets, decisions are often shaped more by intuition and convention than by evidence.
Visual-first advertising continues to dominate, even though study after study shows that it’s often not the most effective approach. This creates an interesting contrast: we like to think of ourselves as data-driven, rational decision-makers — yet final creative outcomes often suggest otherwise. And to be fair, I don’t think that’s always a bad thing. Historical data doesn’t always predict future success. Without bold moves that challenge past benchmarks, we’d never have breakthroughs like the iPhone or... fidget spinners.
Still, reviewing research and learning from it is, in principle, a smart move. If reading a single study helps you sharpen your understanding of marketing effectiveness, then it was time well spent. So let me make this easy: here’s a summary of the key findings from a fascinating study by IPSOS.
In February 2020, the global research firm IPSOS released the results of a study exploring how different brand assets — logos, fonts, characters, and audio elements — influence advertising effectiveness. The study covered more than 2,000 ads across various industries.
Key findings:
92% of the ads included some kind of visual brand element.
The three most common elements were the company logo (91%), brand colors (69%), and brand slogans (45%).
At the bottom of the list were brand-owned audio elements like sonic logos — used in only 6% of the ads.
In general, the study found that using any kind of brand asset — visual or auditory — increases the likelihood of ad effectiveness, compared to ads that only reference the brand via speech or on-screen text.
But when broken down by individual elements, one insight stood out clearly:
A brand’s own sound is by far the most effective asset when it comes to boosting ad performance.
And yet, it remains one of the least used.
What We Can Learn
A brand’s own voice or sound is the most powerful driver of ad effectiveness, yet very few advertisers use it.
Brand-owned assets perform better than generic ones. Sonic logos or brand characters are much harder to copy than fonts or colors.
Ads that feature any identifiable brand asset tend to generate more positive attention than those that reference the brand only through text or voiceover.
According to a recent analysis I conducted, only around 20% of Finland’s top 300 advertisers use even one brand-owned audio element in their campaigns. If you’re not among them (or even if you are), it’s worth reading on.
A Sonic Logo Is Just the Beginning
A sonic logo is a great place to start building a brand’s sound identity. It’s proven, impactful, and memorable. But stopping there would be a missed opportunity.
Equally important is the brand’s overall tone of sound, which includes music usage, voice style and tone guidelines, and other branded sounds such as product sounds, service cues, or UI audio feedback. Multiple studies (and our own client cases) confirm that the best results come when a brand’s sound is consistent across all customer touchpoints.
Let’s be clear though: consistency doesn’t mean blasting the same music everywhere. That’s a mistake. Consistency means designing a flexible, modular, and recognizable sound ecosystem that adapts to context while staying true to the brand.
At BAD Agency, we’re the market leaders in audio branding in Finland and we’re here to help brands of all sizes take their sound seriously. Every sound we create is grounded in research, not just intuition — even though intuition and emotion are key parts of how music and sound connect.
