Why brands need to stop treating sound as a backing track

The biggest brands pour creativity into being instantly recognizable. A logo you can spot at 20 paces. A color palette that becomes cultural shorthand (think Oreo blue or Coca-Cola red).

That visual obsession runs through every corner of marketing. TV, social, out-of-home, retail, and packaging. Millions go into crafting imagery, with every frame revised until it perfectly reinforces the brand.

So, of course visuals matter—they always will matter.

But the best performing brands aren’t blinded by them. They understand that a cohesive sonic identity that spans campaigns and touchpoints ensures your brand is remembered long after someone closes their phone or walks away from the TV.

YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO TUNE OUT AUDIO

Too often, sound is an afterthought. Tracks are chosen on personal taste, or even whatever can still be licensed at the end of a strained budget.

But audio isn’t decoration. It’s not the garnish. It deserves the same rigor as visuals. Treating it as a last-minute flourish isn’t a creative misstep, it’s a missed business opportunity.

That’s because sound is one of the fastest, most powerful emotional triggers we have. Attention research shows that audio advertising generates at least 50% higher active attention and brand lift than visual formats. A drum roll can build tension. A chord can pull you into nostalgia. A single synth line can do what a thousand highly polished frames cannot.

Leaving that kind of influence to chance limits effectiveness across channels. It also leads to global inconsistency, with local teams relying on instinct rather than strategy.

The fix is simple. Stop treating audio as a backing track. Bring it into the creative process from minute one.

HERE’S HOW TO FIND THE PERFECT FIT

Choosing music is more than scanning the charts. A trending track isn’t automatically the right choice. To score effectiveness, you need to look past taste and into the science, assessing four dimensions:

1. Engagement: Will it capture and hold attention?

2. Fit: Does it complement the narrative and the visuals?

3. Surprise: Does it offer the unexpected?

4. Recall: Will it be remembered?

Take a well-known commercial track. Immediate recognition is a win. But over-familiarity can also blunt surprise, reducing impact. A better route might be a reimagined version: a cover that keeps the sentiment but feels new, distinctive, and more ownable. Often, it’s also more cost-effective.

Look at music through both a creative and an objective lens and you give your brand cultural relevance without compromising quality.

And the data backs this up. IPA research, created with MassiveMusic, shows that:

• Highly memorable music makes your brand four times more effective at driving brand recall
• Unexpected music makes ads five times more likely to drive brand fame
• Highly fitting music makes consumers nearly seven times more willing to pay higher prices
• Highly engaging music boosts ROI by around 32% on average, and the very best performers on engagement can double your return on marketing investment.

SOUND ISN’T OPTIONAL ANYMORE

For years, music sat in the category of “we’ll know it when we hear it.” That era is over. We can now quantify musical effectiveness with the same precision we apply to visuals, linking specific sonic choices to measurable gains in attention, salience, and commercial return. It’s no longer guesswork.

In the attention economy, where differentiation is under threat, music can be the lever that cuts through the noise. From recall to emotion to willingness to pay, its impact is too broad to ignore.

Brands that embrace a scientific, strategic methodology for sound build sonic identities that are consistent, creative, and emotionally resonant.

And brands that don’t? If your campaign budget is in the millions, you’re effectively gambling six-figure returns by not testing your music. The uplift from a well-chosen track dwarfs the cost of getting it right.

Paul Langworthy is chief revenue officer at Songtradr.

source https://www.fastcompany.com/91467021/why-brands-need-to-stop-treating-sound-as-a-backing-track