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

Free Hearing Test

Via Chroma

The great thing about this consumer driven “viral” is that the author, Mike Solomon makes it easy for others to contribute and get involved. Download the Garageband file here and the audio file here.

Product sounds are a very powerful and often overlooked branding tool. Read a great article about sound in industrial design here. This viral exploits their potential perfectly.

Nokia remix anyone?

via Core 77

I recently did a ring around to client side marketing managers, branding agencies and full service/integrated advertising agencies to find out how and why they use sound in their marketing communications.

All noted the well known fact that sound and music has an immediate and powerful impact on emotions and subsequently brand perception and consumer behaviour.
So I was very surprised to find that no-one, none, zip, zilch, zero dedicated any resources and time to monitoring the impact, continuity and implementation of sound and music across brand touch-points.

This translates to:

1. Music on hold messages that for some inexplicable reason have disappeared with out anyone realising.
2. A lack of continuity across touch points during a “campaign”. Eg: Television commercials, in-store and digital.
3. The random and inconsistent use of musical styles and voice over artists which are the consequence of “creative decisions” being dictated by content producers rather than brand values.

In short the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing, resulting in

• diluted and confused messages
• negative and inconsistent brand experiences
• me-tooism that often promotes competing products and services

So what’s the solution?

Before The Campaign:
Pull together your different specialist agencies and/or integrated agency’s
departments and decide why, what and how sound will be used. And stick to it.

During The Campaign:
Conduct regular touch-point audits to make sure that every thing is still working.
Eg: music on hold, podcasts, in-store music.

Observe and evaluate the responses of customers and prospects.
If you do have to make modifications make sure they are consistent, co-ordinated across all your touch-points and still on message.

After The Campaign:
There is no “After The Campaign”.

Some photos’s of us “at work” (doing a lot of chin stroking) on the “Mind: Enter The Labyrinth” Exhibition at Melbourne Museum.

Read more about it here.

A big thanks to the multimedia, production and curatorial departments who made it a great team effort. It’s the sharing of ideas, approaches and the occasional debate that makes things better than the sum of it’s parts.

A special thanks as always to Nigel for his ears and smile.

Also thanks to Aaron and Luke at Studio One for making things happen and Stephan for the magic box.

Nigel chin stroking (and admiring himself in the mirror)

Marcel being the centre of attention as usual

Shane chin stroking (I think)

Marcel getting in the mood

Nigel working so fast that he’s a blur