MOps + Branding… Audio Branding! w/ Jodi Krangle

We had a great conversation with Jodi Krangle, a voice actor, who has a podcast about Audio Branding. 

What is Audio Branding, you ask? 

Great question. In the episode, Jodi breaks down:

• Definition of audio branding (hint: the Netflix sound is part of it, but not everything)
• Why should we as marketers and marketing ops professionals care about it?
• How this overlaps with – and should be considered like – other parts of branding like visual, written tone of voice, etc.
• The tradeoffs between custom and “stock” audio

And, if you are into brain science, we talk a little about how sound can affect our other senses. #mindblown

Recorded live November 12, 2021.

Hi, I’m Michael Hartmann, I’m Naomi Lou, and I’m Mike Rizzo. And this is ops cast, a podcast for marketing ops pros and rev ops pros created by the MO Pros. The number one community for marketing operations. As professionals tune into each episode as we chat with real professionals to help elevate you in your marketing operations career.

Hello, everyone. Welcome to another episode of OpsCast brought to you by the MO Pros today. I’m joined by Mike Rizzo and Michael Hartmann. Mike say hello. Hey everybody. Glad to be. Awesome. Well, today we’ve got a, uh, interesting topic. At least I find in history, and this is what I love about being in control of this a little bit.

But, uh, today we will be talking with Jody Crangle, who has been a voice actor since 2007, has worked with clients from major brands all over the world, including Del Bebe, VA and crack. Among others. She’s also a singer and has put out her own album of jazz blues and traditional tunes over the years and doing what she does.

She’s learned a lot about sound and how it influences people. Her podcast on the subject is called audio branding, the hidden gem of marketing. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Well, I think it’s going to be art. We’re going to have fun with this one. I could already know from our sort of lead up to this, but, um, so let me for our audience is mostly in marketing ops and you and I talked about whether or not this would make a whole lot of sense for them.

I think it will, uh, let me give some background about how this even came up, right. And how we connected. So first I think the, the folks who are under one of our earliest guests on OpsCast was Brandy Sanders. Um, who I think we referenced some of her stuff from that topic, the topic we’ve covered there even today, but she was also a guest on your podcast.

So I think, and then when I saw, as opposed about, I think we are hundredth episode or something like that, and you mentioned her and that’s how I discovered. So, because I’m curious, like, I think a lot of people in our audience, I jumped in and started listing and connected with you. And you made a recommendation about a couple of episodes to listen to.

Um, but I, you know, I think this is definitely an, a topic I had never even thought about and I’m guessing most of our audience is not thought about. Um, but I do think it’s interesting and I think there’s a connection for marketing ops folks who are looking for ways to sort of. Help move things quickly through when it comes to go into market and all that.

So why don’t we start with a definition first, right? It’s when you, when you say audio branding or people talk about that, like how do you define that? And kind of what’s the scope of that? Well, I’m going to give you the definition that the international sound awards do. There’s actually a, an international sound awards it’s put on in, uh, Germany in Hamburg, I believe.

And, uh, it’s done every year. And some of the stuff that they have on that website is really groundbreaking. So I highly recommend people check it out. If they’re interested. Uh, they define it as a brand sound that represents the identity and values of a brand in a distinctive manner. The audio logo, branded functional sounds, brand music, or the brand voice are characteristic elements of audio branding.

So it’s the wide umbrella of all the sounds associated with your brand, really. Um, and it, it becomes a S a sort of sound spectrum of the sort of things that your company offers, the way that you have a visual spectrum of your. Yeah. So, I mean, I think I talked to brand marketers and they talk about voice of brand and they’re often not really talking about.

Um, the written steps, the language we use the terminal. Yeah. My head immediately went to, um, the sort of like knock on Netflix that opens up every time that, and then it like kind of zooms it. Yeah. Yeah. So that is a Sonic logo, I guess it’s what you’d call ’em an ear. Khan is another way to, uh, to describe it.

I wouldn’t call it. It is a port, a portion of audio branding. It’s not the whole thing of what audio branding is. So just to let you know, it’s like it’s under the umbrella. Okay. Got it. Interesting. So, so if we were talking audio branding and we’re thinking about, you know, Netflix in the form of, uh, delivering audio, You know, through their video channels right there, streaming content, um, would that require that every single production, theoretically, I don’t know that this is true of Netflix or not.

Right, but would that require that every production meet a particular decimal standard of output or always kind of fall within a range based on maybe the category of the video or the show? Like if it’s a documentary, it has to come back to these things. Yeah, it’s possible, but, um, I mean, each production is different, so I’m assuming, um, when we’re talking about brand, we’re not necessarily talking about the movies and, and, and such that they put out.

I mean, yes, they are, um, produced and, and funded by. Uh, by Netflix, but Netflix itself has a brand identity and that brand identity has sounds associated with it. So that’s their audio brand, the same way that they have a visual brand. So, you know, you’re just looking at two sides of the same coin. It’s just a, a further way to make a connection with your audience and, and, you know, people know what that bottom is and they don’t need to see the.

That’s the thing, right? Like, yeah. So turned on Netflix in the house, right? Yeah. So the key with all of this is consistent repetition because if you use these things consistently and repeatedly, people start to recognize the sounds as you and they don’t need the visual representation. So that’s how our brains work.

That’s why this is so powerful and that’s why people should be paying attention to it. Well, yeah, so I think that’s, that was kind of, one of my next question is like, why, why should marketers in general care about their audio brand and, and maybe, uh, You know, our audience is a little bit unique within marketing, but you know, why is it important?

It’s does it, does it matter if it’s B2B or B to C? Um, I think a lot of our, our, our listeners are probably lean more heavily towards B2B brands as well. So yeah. I’m curious what your take is on that. I don’t think it matters honestly. Um, what your brand is and your brand is important. No matter who you’re selling to, uh, your brand is basically what people say about you when you’re not in the room.

Right? Isn’t that how they define it, right. Yeah. So first of all say is in there that’s audio who knew, right? Um, so that is your, your brand is something that people talk about when you’re not there. So that whole consistent repetition thing being consistent across all the sounds that you have for your brand is going to let people understand that you know who you are.

That you are confident in who you are, and it’s not just about the visual, it’s also about the audio. So you, you know, I, I’m not sure exactly what your audience would be using as far as audio is concerned, how involved they are in the content creation and all of that kind of thing. But for instance, um, I know that, uh, there are some very well-known large brands that use.

The music from music directories on a regular basis. And the difficulties of doing that and the dangers of doing that can be that you end up sounding like everyone else because everyone else has access to that same track on that same music, directory, and five different other companies and completely different sectors than yours could use the same piece of music for.

Prominent advertising. So, you know, that just honestly, it makes you look amateur. I thought it was interesting that you, I mean, you, you shared with me before this, right? A real example of basically the same audio used by, I want to say it was three or four brands in very different contexts. And, um, it was really.

Something where now I pay attention to that. Whereas I think in the past, I probably wouldn’t have paid as much attention that being said it does. So I think, I think the connection for our audience and what we do is right. A lot of our, the folks in our team kind of in the marketing ops world of marketing technology will be involved with bringing the other parts of the brand to life.

So producing websites, producing emails that have the right imagery, the right copy of the right fonts and things like that. Um, as the reason I thought this was a connection here is that I think particularly with video, right video is becoming a bigger part of go to market activities. And so video naturally is it’s going to probably have audio in most instances, whether it’s voiceover or it’s something that’s underneath it.

And I think that’s why I thought already use would care is as they’re being kind of thrown into learning a new. Channel or a new technology that, you know, so, yeah, I think that, um, one of the things that we deal with is digital asset management, right? So you’ve got imagery. How are there, are there platforms out there that do really good job with, uh, you know, helping store and categorized and, you know, audio and how you would bring that into video production or whatever?

Well, there are, like I said, those music directories that, you know, will allow you to have licensed free music, so you can get that on a regular basis. But again, like I said, anyone can use those pieces of music. So your competitor could use that same piece of music. And then how do you differentiate yourself?

Right. Um, what I would say. Uh, first of all, video. Yes, it’s very important. But if the video is bad, but the audio is audible and able to be listened to, you will generally get that audience still tuning in. If that audio is not good, they’ll tune right out. There’s no way they’re going to sit there for bad.

Yeah. So, yeah, so, so I just think that’s so important. First of all, I totally agree. Yeah. And second of all, I think that a lot of these big companies and small companies, you know, depends on how many assets you want to get. That’s where the expense comes from, but your touch points should have different sounds associated with them.

And if you. Getting those from a license free directory, then anyone can have those same sounds. So that’s why I usually direct people to audio branding specific companies, because those companies know how to get you a different sound for each touch point. So whether or not you are GE with a kettle, that makes a sound when it’s.

You know, or you’re on Google home and you need to have a particular sound for someone when they’re buying something on Google home that happens to be yours. How do you differentiate yourself? From your nearest competitor who sells exactly the same thing as you, but there’s no visual there. You’re not seeing anything.

So, and then also you have the little added extras of, well, how does that audio sound on Google home as opposed to in a kettle or on a television or in a podcast? So all of these things are things to pay attention to, and they can get very nitpicky, but they each have different uses and different. Use cases.

So it’s, that’s why I suggest a company that can help you navigate all of that, because it can be a little complicated. It doesn’t have to be, it depends on the size of your company and what you do. You know, it could be as simple for you as having a jingle. It could be as simple for you as having a Sonic logo, um, or having some, something that you say at the end of a video, every time you do the video, it doesn’t have to be complicated.

But I am saying it’s something to think about. It’s definitely something. To give some consideration to not after all the visuals are done, but during that. Yeah, absolutely. I think, I think for, as it relates back to a marketing ops function, right. And just sort of like almost this like role of being kind of the purveyor of like, is this thing doing what I expect it to do.

Um, and based on what I know about my organization and our standard. If I see something, say something, or in this case, if I hear something, say something, or maybe if I don’t hear something, say something, um, you know, I think folks who are managing the operational delivery of a, um, maybe a telephony system, right.

Where someone has to get bounced around to different customer support engines. Uh, I think it’s. An important idea to be looking at that system and thinking about, Hey, as this user is going through this part of the user experience, um, what’s the hold music going to be like, whose voice is going to be speaking to this person?

Should it be somebody internally or, you know, Not only that, but, um, you know, what’s the music that you’re using. Is it? Well, here’s the thing. It depends on what your company is. What does your company do? What do you want, what emotion do you want to evoke in people when they experience your brand? Yeah. So that’s really where the thought has, has to come in.

And it’s a melding of what you like and what you think your customers are going to. Like, it’s not just what you like. Yeah. Oh, totally. And I think, I think to add a little layer of complexity to that is. Um, you know, I worked with a close friend for a long time who a lot of their, their system was based on inbound calls and a lot of their business, um, saving the business was based on their reps, fielding a call and making sure a customer got exactly what they needed, even if they were ready to cancel, they were looking to save.

Right. And so in that layer of like, Hey, this person clicked the button because they want to get out of whatever it is that they’re signed up for. What, uh, what emotion do you want to evoke as they’re on hold, waiting for this person? Because either they’re super mad or they’re just, they’re just done.

They just, it was too hard, you know? And so like, you certainly don’t want to annoy them. Right. So, you know, you want to get them something that’s peaceful. And, but more than that, like, think about who the company is. I’ve I’ve mentioned this kind of an analogy before, but if you’re a high-end jewelry store, don’t have eighties hairband on your on-hold.

It just doesn’t work. It’s not a good look for you. Let’s just say, right. So you have to sort of match the sound of your company to who you are and who you want to be to your. And all of this works together. Our senses all work together. So we need to stop thinking of this as one sensory experience. It’s not just the visual and you know, let’s be Frank, we’ve all been inundated with the visual for so long now.

And we’re all on zoom now. And it’s all video. Uh, you know, I’m just going to say from a woman’s point of view, needing to look good on video is a pain in the ass. Okay. I feel sick so much of our audience, not alone. So much of I’m sure. Yes. It’s just painful, but, but not all of everything that we experience is visual.

And I think that sometimes we forget that in this very highly visual world and companies shouldn’t forget that because that. The sound is a really good way for people to make an emotional connection with you and your company. So, an and again, another analogy, if you’re watching a movie and you turn off the sound, you will get what’s going on on the screen.

It’s not like you’ll miss everything that’s happening, but you won’t. You don’t get any of that emotional context. Right? So here’s yeah. So what I like in the audio portion of your brand too, is the emotional context. And that allows your, the people experiencing your brand to be able to experience it deeply into understand who you are.

And they may not be loyal customers for the rest of their lives. That’s never, you know, that may not happen, or they may be loyal to your brand and five. You know, like you just don’t know what their brand experience, as far as loyalty is going to be, but if you can reach them on that emotional level, you are definitely going to be way more memorable than anyone else.

Yeah. I can’t, I can’t remember who it was. It said, you know, people won’t remember what you did, but they’ll remember how you made them feel. Yes, exactly. So it’s, what’s really interesting to me is what you’re. I think one of the things you’re pointing out is that, um, I think you said free license audio, but I think there’s also a paid licensed stuff, but it’s still since free.

Yeah. They’re called license free music directories. Yeah. Yeah. So what’s interesting to me is because it actually, Mike and I went through this with this podcast, right. We, Mike wouldn’t found a bunch of found to go into, uh, the intro. But, um, I worked with so many marketers who will like, they will, they’re like, absolutely not.

We are not going to use stock photography. Right. Or, or stock video that’s, which I’m sure is out there as well, but yet then we’ll sort of overlay licensed free audio. So it’s like we’re missing an opportunity, especially for that, that emotional connection, I think you’re right. And so, um, Yeah, I think that’s an analogy that plays that is very comparable.

And it’s really interesting to me, because again, I’ve never would have thought of this, had we not discovered your podcast? So, um, I mean, do you, are you seeing that with some of your clients where they, you know, they, they’ve kind of gone through a process where they went and used stock photography? Um, and we’re using licensed free audio.

And you talked through that, talked to him through a process of going and doing something custom or whatever for, for their brand. Well, me personally, no, because I’m a voice actor and that’s what I do. So, so I don’t instruct people on their audio brand. I certainly can direct people to. Uh, various audio branding companies all over the world actually, cause I’ve talked to a bunch of them everywhere.

Um, and it’s, it’s a fascinating field. It really is. Uh, definitely I could help them find someone to help them with that. I will say that a lot of the time when I’m called in to do something, first of all, it’s an afterthought, which is kind of why I started my podcast in the first place, because it’s very nice to be thought as the.

On the cake or the bow on the present, but I don’t know how useful it is to the brands in the end. You know, I think really they should have been thinking of this right from the start so that it could be a strategic launch with everything that was going on. Um, not necessarily the voiceover, but the sound that they were after, as opposed to putting it out to an agent thinking they needed this sound.

Sort of changing their mind halfway through, after they’ve gotten a hundred auditions and saying, oh, okay, we’re going to go in this direction now. Well, if they had started. This whole process from way earlier, they would know exactly what they need. So I think it would have saved them a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of listening to demos that they really aren’t caring about.

So things like that I think would save people time and money. So, yes, but I mean, I will say that I am just as guilty of this as other people and I’m learning as I go along too, because when I started my podcast, I went to a license free music director. And I chose something that I thought would be indicative of.

What’s on my. Podcast and, and who would be listening to my podcast and I did the best I could at the time. And I thought it had a really catchy little guitar riff at the front that I thought would be an ear worm for people. And they’d remember it a little bit. And then as I went, I was like, well, okay, what am I preaching here?

So I was thinking, okay, well now I’m coming up on the hunt on the hundredth episode. So at the hundredth episode, I switched my music up and basically I paid a composer to make me something that was similar to what I had before. So it still had a riff in the beginning that people would be able to, you know, have that experience with, but that it was actually genuinely my own.

So. Now I could use that on my podcast and no one else can use that. It’s, it’s my specific music. And I, you know, I have heard not a whole lot, but every once in a while, I’ll hear music on podcasts that I’ve heard on other podcasts. Interesting. And like, like intro outro music that I’ve heard on other podcasts, because I don’t know what.

About, uh, some podcasts, but they really like having that really heavy rock guitar in the beginning. I hear that a lot. And I, I, there are three podcasts. I know that use exactly the same music and it’s that particular thing that, yeah. Uh, you know, so I was guilty of it and I have now fixed that we spent, we spent a bit of time.

I think we picked. We had to pay for the license to the music. It, um, so it’s not, you know, licensed free, you do pay for them. Yeah. But it’s the ability to be able to use them over time and not have to re up all the time. That’s kind of what they mean by license free totally free. But yes, you do pay, but one time.

Yeah. Yeah. So we, we licensed, we went through a heck of a process though. We were like, there was some sort of like, Techie sounds, you know, cause we, we speak to a very technical audience. So we were experimenting with like these sort of techie sounds. And then there was a, some heavier guitar kind of stuff and then some folky kind of stuff, which is of course, like kind of in my pre my taste preferences, more, more than anything else.

And so I think we fell somewhere sort of in the middle. It’s not, it definitely isn’t on the techie sounds kind of thing, but it’s like, you know, a nice energetic. A rhythm to try to, hopefully, you know, we’ve never even heard about it from anybody. We just turned it on one day and like, you know, I don’t think anybody is at anything.

So I that’s either a very good thing or a very bad thing. Everybody hates it or they’re just whatever. Well, it works for you. Yeah, it is definitely a process. The reason why I suggest that companies who have a lot of possible touch points do this kind of thing is because it’ll save you money in the end.

You know, when we were, um, like years ago when video was still a big thing, it’s, it’s always going to be a big thing I’m sure. But when it became, um, very internet content driven, Then people who, or companies, brands that had been making one or two videos a month or something like that. Now they’re making 50, you know, like there’s a huge amount of content going out there right now.

So imagine having to license a piece of music every time you’re making a new video. That’s a lot of money. If you think about it, I mean, cause you’re, you have to you’ve to ask for permission to use that piece of music. Every time you make a new piece of content, that it is huge. So ultimately I think if someone really goes through and makes an audio brand for their company, I think they’re going to save money at this point because there’ll be.

That for all sorts of different videos, they can switch the tone of it. They can use major keys or minor keys. They can use different instruments. It’s like the theme song of a television show. Right. I don’t know if you remember, because I don’t know how much they do that anymore, but, uh, they used to have.

Themes on television shows where that theme would then play throughout the entire episode, depending on what feel of emotion you were going to have in that scene. So really happy go lucky. It happens even with my, so I have a three and a half year old boy. Yeah. Yes. Video games for sure. Three and a half year old boy who was obsessed with the show bluey.

And for those of you with children, definitely watched that show. Um, and I actually love the show. It’s great, but they, their music is played in completely different keys, depending on if it’s happy or sad or a learning moment, but it’s the same tone. And the transitions between like scenes often uses the exact same.

You know, thematic music and you’ll see that a lot with, with the kids shows for sure. Cause it like hooks them. It’s that year warm that you’re talking about this. I don’t know why people think this works with kids or they know it works with kids and then they don’t use it on adults because it’s so totally, still works on adults, adults to, yeah.

And I th I think, um, you, you touched, you alluded to it at least earlier on in our conversation. I know. Th I want to get into like the brain kind of connection to sound other, other stuff, because one of the podcasts you suggested I listened to, uh, and I forget the gentleman’s name. Who’s from Keller. Yeah.

At Pandora. Right? Yeah. He’s actually the Sonic strategy director now for all of Sirius XM and all of their properties. And he works. Yeah. He works with an advertising agency called studio resonate. That is part of Pandora and Sirius XM and all of that. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you, you told me it’s gonna blow my mind or blew your mind, would you like, and I like the, the, the one I remember.

Uh, and maybe we can kind of talk about the connection to the brain and how that works. Um, but the, the one I remember, and I cannot remember what drink maker it was, but they actually did a test where they play, they had people drinking a sports drink if I remember, right. Yeah. And to be salty or sweet, right.

Or lead on more. And they, they had people listening to different kinds of music and re sort of self-reporting the tastes. Right. And so what did they end up finding? Well, when, when they were doing this promo and this was before the, before times before, before COVID, uh, I think it was like 20 different parts of BC, right?

Exactly. Yeah. BT before times. Um, I think this was like 2018 or something like that. I could be wrong about that date, but it was definitely before any of this. They would, uh, they were doing a. Uh, promotion for propel. And it was a big demo. People were there. They had people walking around, looking at things that had to do with propel.

And then they had these DJ stations and these DJ stations, people could go up to them. They’d put a pair of headphones on, they’d have an iPad in front of them that would allow them to turn the. Sounds that they were hearing in their headphones. Um, and the taste into, from salty or sweet because these are electrolyte drinks, right?

So they’re either they’re Gatorade like drinks. Um, When they, when they did this, it was actually changing the way that the drink tasted based on what they were hearing in their ears. And I don’t S I don’t necessarily know that it was specific songs or a piece of music. It might’ve been sounds. He didn’t really specify what that was.

So I’m not sure exactly what it was that did it, but it was definitely a sound you were hearing in your ear that was affecting what you were, what you were tasting. And they’re doing a lot of experiments like this, because. People who are, who are diabetic in hospitals, they really like sweet, but they can’t have it.

So if you can pipe in some kind of music or sound that they’re going to hear while they’re in their hospital bed or whatever, and you’re feeding them something that isn’t sweet, but it tastes a little better to them, then that’s helpful. Or if you want to use sustainable. Food. Like, I think jellyfish is one of those things.

That’s sustainable food and they, they have them all over. You can have a ton of them, but the way that you prepare them, sort of like, it, it depends on the taste. Depends on how you prepare them. And if you make them like crunchier, like if you put a batter on them or something, or you make them feel like the mouth, feel a little.

Taste a bit crunchier than you can make people experiences. It has a better experience and the sound can help people. Experience that mouthfeel taste. The psychology of that is fascinating to me. Cause like, you know, you’re thinking like all of, all of what you just said, just like sort of my, my, for those that can’t see, we’re on video experiencing this conversation together and my eyes got real wide and I was like, this is super weird.

So, but just like, you know, take, take for just a moment. This concept of. If jellyfish is the example, literally the term jellyfish, right. And is like squishy, gooey. Like jelly. Right? And so when you call them potentially, but like purchase the term, like when you, like, I’m a, I P I tend to picture things. And so as soon as you said that I’m, I’m picturing this like very fluid object, that’s very flowing.

And then what you turn around and say is that like, people actually enjoy it a little bit more because they’re maybe not as freaked out by the concept of the fact that they’re consuming this squishy, gooey flowy thing when it’s. Because it’s actually the opposite of what they are picturing, right? So they’re like, yeah, it’s crunchier.

This is a little bit more enjoyable because it’s sort of the opposite of what I expected, which is the super flowy, like gooey thing. That’s just my PR my take on this, like psychology, why maybe that would work. But my goodness, like what an interesting. I know what our brains are. So this for me is interesting is that was, it wasn’t as much of a surprise because I happened to have been exposed to some recent brain research.

And there’s this concept of plasticity and brand. So the hundred years ago, people thought if you had a damaged. Couldn’t be fixed. Well, your brain can actually reroute signals. And one of the examples I remember from a book about it was they literally had people who were kind of blinded. They’d been able to see if something happened.

They were became blind. And, uh, one of the things they tried was actually putting Electra like, uh, electronic device that had electrodes on their tongue. And then like a camera that was bound on their head and they could literally have sorta like air quotes rates. See, but somehow the camera did it stimulation on their tongue to send the signals to the brain, sends signals to their brand that they could see in it.

Um, it wasn’t like really saying, but it was like, it’s amazing what you can do. So the connection, I think that point is right. This con I think we are still. Learning the connection between all our different senses and how our brains. Yeah. I don’t want to take us all the way down the crazy rabbit hole of the, like of the, uh, episode that I watched on an Amazon prime with like people that can literally see that that are completely blindfolded.

Like I watched this happen and maybe it was all fake, but it was a super deep fake, but. I think it’s possible. Like, I think some people can actually like see the world without actually using their eyes. And it’s freaking me out a little bit, but I’m very into it. And I think, Hey, you know, bringing it back to the core of like marketing operations.

I think, I think, I think two things are kind of pulling through in this conversation for me, one, it’s a fascinating learning experience to just talk to you Jody, and think about these things. And I think that that, that persona like resonates, um, throughout this. Type of role we’re we’re often very curious.

So we’re, we’re trying to learn new things and trying to think about things. Yeah. That’s why I started the podcast. Yeah. I’m not, you know, I’m learning as we go too. So for sure. So I think this audience, I hope will, will enjoy just the idea of like this, this type of learning. And then I think the second thing is that at a bare minimum, for all of our listeners who are tuning into this episode and your.

Your tangentially associated to brand, right? You would deliver brand and digital channels all the time. Um, you can turn around and bridge a conversation maybe for the first time. Maybe not. Maybe you get to talk to your brand team on a regular basis, but if you don’t, maybe this is a good episode to share with them and say, Hey.

And marketing ops. We actually talk about some interesting things that have to do with brand inclusive of delivery of the sound of a brand. And you could share this with them and maybe strike up a new conversation and make a new friend, or find new ways to collaborate with that department. So at a bare minimum, if you’re hearing this, just think about like who else on your team would enjoy this conversation, because I know I’m learning something and maybe the brand team would enjoy it too.

So. Yeah. I mean, that was exactly the same thought I had is how this could, you know, very often and Jody, you may not know this are folks in our role. Often feel like. Thought of, or perceived as a strategic part of the go to market activity in a company. We have a lot in common that way. Yeah. I said it, I think earlier, right.

Jody said it’s a little bit of an afterthought and I don’t think it should be. So I think the idea for me of why I was really a, I was fascinated, but B I thought there was a, uh, an opportunity for our audience to learn something that they could then go and take to the rest of their teams in marketing and branding and particularly.

And just say, Hey, is this something you’ve been thinking about? Because if you haven’t, you should listen to this and check it out. Yeah. Or, or if they don’t like us, you know, they could just go listen to Jody. No, I would totally everybody’s listing. We’re linking to her podcast in this episode, show notes.

Don’t worry. You can go listen to the experts. You’ve got her. You’ve got her. Don’t hire Mike or Michael. No. Well, at least Mike was, we found out you’ve done some, uh, some learning. Yeah, I have the voice for it. I took a voiceover class, but that’s. Let’s do w one other, one other aspect I’d like to kind of talk about cause you and I talked about it a little bit, Jody is how, uh, particularly for those in the audience who are trying to sell globally and how audio sort of goes beyond language and translation and that kind of stuff.

So yeah. How do you think about that? Is that another part of the value of focusing on audio branding is as a way to communicate outside of. Maybe your core geography. Oh, totally. Yeah. And I think MasterCard is actually a really good example of how that works because what they did was they launched it. I think it’s like two years ago, two or three years ago now, something like that, maybe even longer, but they’ve launched a whole new audio brand that not only.

We’ll play when a transaction goes through, but they have it on all of their commercials and they have it on everything that they do all over the world. And they are a global brand. So they have a lot of touch points, first of all, and they deal with a lot of people everywhere. So what they’ve done with certain pieces of sound or music is that they use different instruments or different.

Rhythms based on where they are around the world. And they have a specific tone, a series of notes that you will start to recognize as MasterCard, the more you hear it. And what’s really interesting about that is that when you use sound as a basis for reaching out to your potential client or customer, it doesn’t have to be based in language.

Really interesting, because then it means that you can put a sound scape together for your company that can be global, that can actually reach out to a bunch of people without you having to do a whole lot of translating necessarily. I mean, if you’re a global brand, you probably know you already have to do that.

Uh, English is, is a great language. Okay. But it. What everyone around the world speaks. And so if you want, yeah, if you want to reach a global audience, you need to be translating into various different languages, depending on where you’re marketing to. It does give a bit of a short form if you’re using those sounds so that people in those environments that may not already have that translated text can recognize who you are before that happened.

That’s super interesting. All of that. I’m watching a series on apple TV called invasion right now. And, uh, it has to do with aliens, but long story short, these creatures. It don’t have a language, they just communicate through sound. And so it’s interesting that like the universe is like, I’m watching the series and it’s all kind of unfolding.

And here we are talking about like how you can break down barriers of different language, you know, understanding. Right. I don’t necessarily understand. I don’t really understand hardly any other language. I took Spanish for a lot of years, so that’s probably my own fault. I should’ve paid more attention in school.

I feel the same way you do, but yeah. Gosh, like if I do hear that, that very familiar tone from Netflix or otherwise, like I immediately. You know, I know what it is. So, yeah. Interesting. Very interesting stuff. I think it’s just getting down to our basics and I think what happens is that as humans, we tend to complicate things overly much.

And I think really when it comes right down to it, advertising marketing branding is all about, remember. It’s all about triggering that memory being memorable. And if you’re not being memorable, that’s failed advertising, branding, marketing, really. So break it down to its basics. You know, insects use sound to communicate with one another.

Why do we have to make it so complicated? I think this has been super fascinating. I think again, for our audience, a I hope you find it. Interesting. B I hope you’ve learned something about how there can be value. I think we’ve, I know I probably, most everyone else who’s listening has played a part in helping with, um, Yeah, imagery that goes with a brand.

And how do you make sure you have the right stuff and all that. And I think we can go to the table, say there’s value in also not going with. Audio right as part of our audio brand. Um, so there’s been super interesting. Um, I’m sure we could go on for a while. I mean, it sounds like Mike, you and I both are sort of missing music nerds as well on top of that.

So Jody, we also need to listen to your year album. Um, so I will, I will say I’m not a big jazz fan, but I also can appreciate it. Okay. Yeah, I do mostly a torch song. So you know, of, of the, uh, you know, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy holiday, kind of that sort of variety. So now I’m more interested. So you don’t, and I’m just going to put this out into the world.

Anyone who wants to email me, you know, Mike at the MO Pros dot com. Um, tell me your feelings on our intro music and tell me your feelings on, um, we actually do, I specifically do. Two other different types of audio, visual intros based on the workshops that we do or the no-bullshit demos that we do so that you know, what you’re about to see is one of those two categories.

And tell me, did you pick up on that? Do you like it? Do you hate it? Um, I’d be interested and then Jody. Uh, I don’t actually want you to tell me if you like our intro music live, but after the show,

you can tell us

Larry and I got through the first two seconds and I went, boom, that’s a pretty hard guitar. She’s not going to like this pretty hard guitar on my own intro. So, you know, you do. And I liked that, so, oh wait. Jodi, super fun. Really enjoyed it. Um, if folks want to follow you, we will put stuff in the show notes to kind of point point them to your podcast and your website.

Um, but, uh, How do you, how, how can people find you and connect with you if they’re in? Well, if they are after voiceovers that might fit the tone and emotion of their brand. I’m very happy to talk with them. That’s at voiceovers and vocals.com. And if people are interested in the podcast, that’s at audio branding, podcast.com, pretty simple.

Awesome. Those are solid keyword URLs. That’s great to do SEO and internet marketing. That was, that was what I did before. Oh, the topic for another day, I found out that the key words in your URL aren’t as relevant anymore as it used to be. So it’s interesting for what it is right now. Jody. Thank you so much for joining us.

Really. This has been. Yeah, you guys are a great combo. We appreciate that. We’re just missing our other partner in crime Naomi today. So yeah, we are definitely missing her. Well, thanks. Thanks again, Jodi. Thanks Mike. Uh, thank you to our audience. Thanks for listening as always send us your feedback. If you, so choose, give Mike your feedback about the intro music on our podcast that we just added a few weeks ago.

Um, and with that, we’ll talk to you all next time. Bye everyone.