Audio Branding

We create lots of pieces of media that include sound as an element.  But what about actual, physical, spaces? This is where architecture and sound vibrations, meet. 

There are actually buildings crafted specifically to allow us to hear tones that feel uplifting or inspiring to us.  Shea Trahan (https://www.sheatrahan.com/), an architect intrigued by how sound works through his chosen instrument of creation, studied this in detail. 

He talks about Resonance – sound as “sympathetic vibration” – and relates that to buildings that seem to exist to amplify this.  Then he adds information about Reverberation – how long a sound lingers once the source sound has stopped. The combination in a building, makes it the idea place for a concert.

But this application could also be used for health care.

Sonic therapy is useful for the treatment of PTSD, depression, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease. Imagine how useful a space could be if it had built in healing resonances and reverberations.  And I'll talk more about sound for health care in future episodes.  For now, have a look at his TEDx presentation, and see what you think:

https://youtu.be/R-BMF4e-1bg

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

John McClain knows a thing or two about sound.  For one thing, he's the owner and lead sound designer/mixer at The Dog and Pony Show in Las Vegas, Nevada (https://www.dogandponystudios.net/).  For another, he won a Grammy for his work with the late, great George Carlin, and an Emmy for his work with HBO on the series 24/7, his work with PBS on the show Outdoor Nevada and his mix of the documentary African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience.   If that's not enough, he teaches a class in Tech for voice talent through the Voice Actors Studio - https://www.thevoiceactorstudio.com/ - owned by Melissa Moats (https://www.ladyluckvoiceovers.com/ - another fantastic voice talent in Vegas) and another course on Sound for Film at UNLV.

The second part of our discussion covered a bunch more topics like:

• Voice actors and editors need to pay attention to the tempo of a script
• How sound that's inconsistent or simply not good, can make a person turn away without knowing why
• Information on a book John uses in his course called The Sonic Boom (https://www.amazon.com/Sonic-Boom-Sound-Transforms-Think/dp/0544570162)
• How sound allows you to time travel
• When he first became conscious of sound and began to love it
• How architecture has its own sound
• Some information on his latest sound design projects
• More information on his podcast, VO Inertia (https://anchor.fm/voinertia)

Dog and Pony Show can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DogandPonyStudios/
and on Twitter at @DnPSound

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

John McClain knows a thing or two about sound.  For one thing, he's the owner and lead sound designer/mixer at The Dog and Pony Show in Las Vegas, Nevada (https://www.dogandponystudios.net/).  For another, he won a Grammy for his work with the late, great George Carlin, and an Emmy for his work with HBO on the series 24/7, his work with PBS on the show Outdoor Nevada and his mix of the documentary African Americans: The Las Vegas Experience.   If that's not enough, he teaches a class in Tech for voice talent through the Voice Actors Studio -  https://www.thevoiceactorstudio.com/ - owned by Melissa Moats (https://www.ladyluckvoiceovers.com/ - another fantastic voice talent in Vegas) and another course on Sound for Film at UNLV.

The first part of our discussion was a fascinating trip through a bunch of topics, such as:

• What he teaches students who take his Sound for Film course
• How music can completely change the tone of a piece of film
• Why sound needs to be paid attention to
• How evolution has shaped our understanding of sound
• How voice talent can use silence to their advantage
• Why marketers and advertisers are starting to pay attention to good sound design
• Some examples of sound design - such as casino "win tunes" for machines
• The laws about manipulation using sound in casino gaming (there actually are some!)
• What music notes are used more often for the sound in casino games and why
• How it's the wild west in advertising when it comes to sound
• How to use compelling sound in advertising

John's podcast, VO Inertia can be found at https://anchor.fm/voinertia
Dog and Pony Show can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/DogandPonyStudios/
and on Twitter at @DnPSound

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

Sound has a very powerful effect on our behavior and it can be used to great affect in a variety of different settings.

Here's a link to the "piano stairs" experiment I mention in the podcast:
https://youtu.be/2lXh2n0aPyw

This is the article from 2015 within the APS (The Association for Psychological Science) called Background Music Influences Buying Behavior - https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/minds-business/background-music-influences-buyer-behavior.html

I'm sure you all know about Pandora: https://www.pandora.com/

And here's a link to Steve Keller's very interesting TEDx talk on the subject.
https://youtu.be/yvnxQ2fQg10

He's written an extensive white paper about using music and sounds within the healthcare industry and I'll be exploring that in a lot more detail in future episodes.

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

What can you expect from this podcast? I explain what the podcast is about, and why you might find it interesting to listen to. New episodes can be found every Wednesday morning.

Kattie Laur has a background in broadcast radio so it naturally seemed to follow that she would become interested in podcasts.  She's putting that passion to good use as a podcast producer and gives us some tips on what makes a great show, why she feels podcasts are an important medium and how they're the wave of the advertising future. 

In this second part of our interview, she talks about:

* what a podcast needs to do to keep her listening to their intro over and over
* how she decided to create sound breaks to switch between thoughts within a podcast
* how different cultures experience your audio differently (context is everything!)
* the differences between podcasts she's paid to produce ("learned passion") vs. her passion projects
* what she can do for people when she's producing podcasts
* how many different hats she wears, doing what she does
* some more information about how she's highlighting female-fronted podcasts in her blog
* how podcasting is still a bit of a male-dominated industry - so she feels more people should hear women's voices in podcasts
* why podcasts appeal to people so much
* how advertisers are catching on to the potential in podcasts

Her website is at: https://www.kattielaur.com

She has some really helpful information in her blogs, too!
She’s written about the 5 key things you need to think about before starting a podcast:
https://www.kattielaur.com/blog/how-to-start-a-podcast-5-key-things

And she's started a blog series that highlights women podcasters and their shows:
https://www.kattielaur.com/blog/podcasts-by-women-to-stop-sleeping-on-vol-1 

Her ethical travel podcast is called Alpaca My Bags:
https://audioboom.com/channels/4984382
(and is in all the major podcast outlets)

And you can find and follow her on Twitter: @podkatt

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

Kattie Laur has a background in broadcast radio so it naturally seemed to follow that she would become interested in podcasts.  She's putting that passion to good use as a podcast producer and gives us some tips on what makes a great show, why she feels podcasts are an important medium and how they're the wave of the advertising future. 

In this first part of our interview, she talks about:

* her beginnings in studying broadcasting
* her interesting relationship with the CBC
* how she got into podcasting
* how she decided she could produce podcasts for a living
* what kinds of clients she works with
* what fires her up about producing podcasts
* why she feels the concept is way more important than the equipment you use.
* how audio branding plays a role in the production of podcasts

Her website is at: https://www.kattielaur.com

She has some really helpful information in her blogs, too!
She’s written about the 5 key things you need to think about before starting a podcast:
https://www.kattielaur.com/blog/how-to-start-a-podcast-5-key-things

And she's started a blog series that highlights women podcasters and their shows:
https://www.kattielaur.com/blog/podcasts-by-women-to-stop-sleeping-on-vol-1 

Her ethical travel podcast is called Alpaca My Bags:
https://audioboom.com/channels/4984382
(and is in all the major podcast outlets)

And you can find and follow her on Twitter: @podkatt

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

 ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It has to do with certain triggers, usually having to do with sound or sight, giving you "tingles in your brain".  It may seem like a strange reaction to have while hearing unintelligible whispers, someone using a marker on a pad of paper or seeing someone use a makeup brush to caress your "face" (when the face is the camera). But it's very real!

Here are links to the article and videos I mention in the podcast:
Duncan Geere's article in in Science Focus is here:
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/asmr-more-than-a-feeling/

This is IKEA's "Oddly IKEA" ASMR Video from two years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLFaj3Z_tWw

Here's Gibi's ASMR video with a couple of her friends:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxXnfGD3vUM

For those of you that have been following my blog and podcast, you know I'm a gamer.  Gibi even did a video where she interacted (the video was about wood tapping and scratching) with a product from Wyrmwood! (They were a sponsor for this video. And she promoted them perfectly for her audience.)
https://youtu.be/nY_o_mloMEs

And here's Gibi's guest appearance on Rooster Teeth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18zv8ruA8rM

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

Show Notes:

Hannah and I talk about what she considers audio branding to be, how it affects the clients at her ad agency, and what she does to help those clients come up with their brand's consistent sound. She also reveals how she created an animated short and chose voices and music for that project.

For more information on Hannah, visit:

Hannah's Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahstrenger/ (lots of pictures of her adorable rabbits here too!)

and Hannah's Website (she's also a creativity coach!): hannahstrenger.com

This episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco (http://www.humbertofranco.com/).

Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast? If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453 And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much! 

So according to Forbes (https://www.forbes.com/sites/paularmstrongtech/2019/02/14/mastercard-just-spent-a-ton-of-cash-on-a-jingle-you-wont-care-about/) - Mastercard spent $15 Million Dollars on their new sonic branding.  I talk about this in my latest podcast and show you the video of their new sound (at https://youtu.be/Wbh8btP5Tfg) to let you see (and hear) how important this sort of thing is (even if this particular branding may not be the best).  They wouldn't spend that kind of money on something they didn't think was important!

As it turns out, Visa had already spent a year, two years before, developing a signature sound for themselves (as detailed in this discussion on CNBC: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2017/12/07/visa-spent-a-year-developing-a-signature-sound-report.html).

The future of branding is sound and if I can help you with the voice over end of that, feel free to reach out.  Even if I’m not the right voice for your particular sonic image, I know a lot of talented folks that might be able to help and I’m happy to make introductions.

Now – go out and make some noise!

To subscribe to the YouTube channel, visit here: http://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO
You'll also find more detailed show notes and subscription information on my blog here: https://voiceoversandvocals.com/blog/

 Would you consider reviewing the Audio Branding Podcast?  If so, here's the Apple Podcast link: https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/audio-branding/id1489042453  And if you like what you hear (and read!) - please do share it with anyone you think might be interested. Thanks so much!