Can sounds increase brand awareness? How robota.ua starts the audio identity trend
One in three adults under the age of 35 (33%) are more favorable to brands with a sound identity, compared to 20% of adults of all ages. These are the results of a study conducted by the British audio agency DLMDD and the market research and data analytics company YouGov.
However, only a small number of companies in Ukraine have such a branding element, so the robota.ua team decided to be one of the first to dive into global trends and develop their own mobile application notification sound.
One in three adults under the age of 35 (33%) are more favorable to brands with a sound identity, compared to 20% of adults of all ages. These are the results of a study conducted by the British audio agency DLMDD and the market research and data analytics company YouGov.
However, only a small number of companies in Ukraine have such a branding element, so the robota.ua team decided to be one of the first to dive into global trends and develop their own mobile application notification sound.
Why?
It is a common belief that the vast majority of people live with their phone on mute all the time. While this statement is valid, millions of other people don’t mute, so you should never forget about this segment of users.
A properly created notification sound is an extremely profitable addition to branding tools, because it:
instantly attracts attention — the sound is physically impossible to ignore, so notifications do not go unnoticed;
creates the necessary mood during the Customer Journey;
carries the brand identity, evokes favorable associations and gradually increases the overall brand awareness.
How is the «right» sound created?
It is worth noting here that the sound of mobile application notifications is only one of many elements of the brand’s audio system. The latter is the expression of the brand in sound, a direct analogue of the visual brand, only instead of colors and fonts, the main characters here are music, sounds and voice.
As with any system, an audio brand has a «foundation» called audio DNA. It is an audio «collage» or a short full-fledged track that embodies the promise, values and personality of the brand in audio form, and also defines how all points of contact of the brand with the audience will sound. It defines the musical «vocabulary» of the brand: instruments, harmonies, tempo, rhythmic patterns, timbre of sound, voice, etc.
Therefore, the work on the notification sound of the robota.ua application began precisely with the creation of audio DNA.
To do this, the team of the audio agency VP Production — they worked on this project — analyzed the image and communication of robota.ua, as well as the sound of the main competitors of this platform, in order to create an appropriate audio concept.
In order to distinguish robota.ua on the market, they immediately abandoned the electronic sound with «jelly» synths, which turned out to be the most common niche cliché. Instead, the team chose a creative vector that emphasized the friendliness of the service, care for users and the soft tone of the brand’s general communication.
In general, the sound of robota.ua’s audio DNA can be characterized as a mixture of electronics with happy indie vibes. The leitmotif gives a feeling of confident but unhurried forward movement at a comfortable pace, while acoustic guitar, finger-snapping and choral vocal samples enhance the sense of humanity and support.
Later, it was these sound elements that formed the basis of the notification sound.
What are the numbers?
An important stage of creating a sound identity is testing intermediate results on the audience, because audio branding is not only about creativity, but also about predictability. That is why the robota.ua and VP Production teams conducted a survey that made it possible to choose the most profitable version of audio DNA.
They measured how correctly the right associations are «read» and the necessary emotions are conveyed. The test results are in the infographic below.
«I am always inspired by the moment of realizing that I am working on the sound of a company that will become the first owner of an audio brand in its category. So literally every stage of creating the audio image of robota.ua was accompanied by pleasant emotions! This is exactly the kind of work they are proud of, and this is exactly what I boldly do, demonstrating our results to everyone I can. I look forward to continued cooperation!»
Vlad Plotnikov, co-founder and audio producer of VP Production
«A push message is not only communication with the searcher, but also the identification of the application, so we decided to make our useful pushes unique with a sound that will definitely be associated with our service.»
Denis Pisarev, Product Manager robota.ua
«We sought to create a sound that would be pleasant to the ears, melodic, modern and reflect the tone of voice and mood of the robota.ua brand. I believe that we managed to implement it 100% as we imagined.»
