This could be put to great use as a mnemonic/trigger in integrated drink driving and speeding campaigns. For example placing them near schools. Interruption can be a good thing.

Lancaster, California has a musical road that has been pock marked with special grooves that sing out a tune.

Made by Honda as part of an upcoming advertising campaign, the road plays “The William Tell Overture” and for best results the company advices you to drive over with a Honda Civic because the company says that the road was tuned specifically to the tires and wheelbase of a Civic.

The juries out as to whether it’s a great piece of marketing or just plain annoying. (More on Google)

However the residents want the road back in original tar because many drive past out of key. …for best results the company advices you to drive over with a Honda Civic because the company says that the road was tuned specifically to the tires and wheelbase of a Civic.

The  choice of The William Tell Overture strikes me as odd for such an innovative brand and it isn’t compelling enough to motivate people to drive a Honda Civic in order to hear it in key.

What do you think?

More musical roads here.

via Rintonia

I’m  not sure if the interaction of sound and colour quite hits the mark - simplifying the colour and animations would help in creating more obvious connections between the sound and light - but the willingness of the crowd to participate is really inspiring.

The use of human voice is really refreshing and personalises the experience.

The means now exist to create amazing brand experiences by connecting the emotional expression of sound to the benefits and personality of your brand, in  real- time interactive environments.

Imagine this happening in front of your stores…. powerful stuff.

“People with voices of different frequencies, rhythms or cadences will be able to evoke quite different magical patterns upon the surface of the building - a staccato chirping will result in a completely different set of visual effects to a long howl for example, blending old and new to continue animating the facade of the Minster”.

More at InteractiveArchitecture.org and Haque.

via InteractiveArchitecture.org

John Maeda’s Laws of Simplicity

Muzicons go right to  the heart of the power of music - its ability to communicate emotion - succinctly and directly. 

They’re already a great personal branding tool - and with a bit of tweaking, mashing and imagination could be turned into a powerful communication tool for brands.

If the creators could make it easier to integrate into blogs, and social networking sites like the iLike Facebook application they could have a real winner on their hands.

Here’s my muzicon for cool. (Apologies if it doesn’t show - Wordpress/the Muzicon site/flash are bit flakey for some reason)

Music Credits

Artist: Barry Adamson
Album: Oedipus Schmoedipus
Song: Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Pelvis

Get it on iTunes and Last FM

via Mashable

AEG-Electrolux has installed billboards outfitted with sensors to measure noise levels. So far, they’ve deployed them in London, Berlin, Madrid, Brussels, and Milan. The billboards are part of a “noise awareness” campaign that’s actually a marketing effort for a new “silent” washing machine. The data is also viewable online. Link to AEG Noise Awareness Blog, Link to AEG Noise Awareness site, Link to more info and video at Laughing Squid

via Boing Boing

I really like this because it works on the show them, don’t tell them principle,

It’s really powerful because it uses everyday experiences, and actually empathises with the consumer, customer, PEOPLE.

It’s worth clicking on the above links too, nice follow through and on-line integration.

Do not ask what sound, music and silence can do for you.
Ask what it can do for your customers.

How can sound, music and silence make their lives easier, more pleasurable, more interesting?
How can sound solve their problems?

I really like how Seth Godin prefaces the viewing of this video with the following statement.

Safe for work, audio is okay.

As our media and ad spend becomes more diversified it is important to consider the appropriateness of audio content in different environments.

For example, if your target audience spends most of their time accessing your on-line content/ads in the workplace, is it appropriate to have sound? And if so what is appropriate and how can the user protect him/herself from an embarrassing audio onslaught?

Where and when sound should be used is just as important to your sonic branding strategy as the type of sound you use, and of course determining this always starts with your audience.

Enjoy the silence.

Sonic branding is a lot more than an audio logo, or well thought out brand sound track.

It is the total impact of sound across all your assets and touchpoints.

Noel over at IntentionalAudio.com has posted a very insightful article on the impact of environmental sounds on your employees, customers and brand.

He also provided a great list of books on music psychology and related topics which I’ve placed on de.licio.us where you’ll also find a lot of other resources related to sonic branding.

You can also read more about how we approach environmental sounds and “bleed” here.

I had a great conversation with an Australian sensory consultant, about how the sensory characteristics of products impact and influence consumer perception and experience.

Some great insights were highlighted including the growing need (and interest) of organisations and brands to protect their sensory assets and property as these become more potent differentiators in the market place.

One of the examples we discussed was the pop that the Pringles tube makes when
opened. We then spoke about how this sound could be developed, refined and leveraged, I hate that word, as a consistent sonic trigger and brand differentiator, by implementing it across a range of media andtouchpoints from the packaging to advertising and digital…

The best bit came when we started talking about the crunch and noise that
chips, crackers and other foods make when we chew, how some sounds are really loud inside our heads and the feeling of awkwardness this can create when in public - the merging of sound and taste…

…you’ve got to cater for a dinner party, you’ve got a choice between the noisy cracker and the non noisy cracker. Which do you choose?

Some food for thought.

It was lovely to swap notes and excitement.

Wonderful.

There’s been bit of discussion (which is great) by user experience and web designers around how to use sound on a website

Including:

1. Making it easy for your users to find and control the volume of the sound.
2. Ensuring that the sound is appropriate for your brand.
   Why is it that those clicky sounds on a lot of flash sites all sound (a)like they’re off the Matrix?
3. Making sure the sound suits your target audience’s viewing/listening environment.

I was listening to some of the iWork tutorials on the Apple website and noticed that the volume of the narrators voice was different for each tutorial.

This meant that I was continually distracted and annoyed because I had to keep resetting the volume to a level that worked for me and others.

Usually what happens in this situation is that the user turns the sound off because it has become hard to use. Unfortunately the voice over was integral to the sales pitch… oops, sorry, tutorial.

Good bye sales pitch. Good bye customer.

Find the experience here.