How did you discover your passion for sonic branding? My passion starts forever ago as a little kid and being so curious and moved by music and sound. From my very earliest memories, I remember the joy, pleasure and brain tickling of every sound—from the call of a mourning dove to the spring of a door to the sound of an engine to music I heard all around me on the radio in the streets—had me completely transfixed. As soon as I could, I was buying cassettes, CDs and vinyl at a crazy pace as I had a hunger for knowledge and the experience of music and its history.

The passion for sonic branding comes later as I began my career and advertising at ad agency Wieden+Kennedy. From there, I homed in on the potency of music and sound to empower brands and enhance storytelling. I first observed this in movies from the likes of John Hughes and Quentin Tarantino, The Graduate, and Harold and Maude as well as TV shows—but when my advertising career really kicked off, I saw how sonic branding was more macro level. I kept asking myself, “What does the brand sound like?” From there, I saw different ways that I could utilize music and sound to enhance a brand’s expression and overall positioning in the marketplace and how it communicates to its audience and consumer.

Since I come from a punk/DIY/indie spirit, artistic and musical background, the other component of sonic branding emerged from the idea of authenticity. The brand had to both speak authentically for itself as well as in a way that authentically resonated with its audience. That transactional area was super interesting to me, and I found myself particularly great at shepherding that space. Further into my career, I got to work on very specific projects illustrating sonic branding, such as State Farm while I was at DDB, MasterCard while at McCann, and, more recently, projects like TikTok and SeatGeek while at MassiveMusic. In all of these cases, it was super interesting to see the ROI and engagement that something as specific as a sonic logo could create. I’ve been evangelizing the power of music and sound for a very long time—effectively since the beginning of my career—and it has been great to see this being recognized in our industry as a super important component to branding.

Tell us about your position as executive creative director at MassiveMusic. What do you do in your role there, and what do your typical clients look like? In my role, my main objectives are to bring in amazing projects—ones that are creatively and/or financially interesting—and oversee the creative output for the projects we create and produce. I’m excited to be at the intersection of both creative and business because I find it very interesting given my decades-long experience in this industry. I’m particularly adapted at understanding the creative and financial needs of our clients and navigating the production and business components to the projects that we work on. I love working with old friends and buddies as well as making new connections to help brands and agencies create incredible and meaningful work, utilizing the power of music and sound. I truly get such a kick out of seeing how music and sound impacts creativity.

At MassiveMusic, you work primarily with licensing company Songtradr. What has this professional relationship been like for you? As both our parent company and partner, Songtradr has given me such an impactful position to work from. From my experience on the agency side, I had always loved (and required) being able to tackle any project with all the tools in the toolkit, so to speak. What Songtradr offers, along with MassiveMusic and our other sister companies, is the ability to have a full-stack, 360-degree music solution offering. With that, I can go into any project knowing we have all the tools to solve the business and creative needs of our clients. To me, this puts us in a very unique position that none of our competitors can quite offer.

What would you say are the hallmarks of an effective sound element in branding, and how does it help enhance a client’s brand recognition? The hallmarks of an effective sound element in branding include consistency, memorability, emotional resonance, relevance to the brand’s identity and values, uniqueness, conceptual rationale, and flexibility and systematic make up. Here’s how each aspect contributes to enhancing a client’s brand recognition:

Consistency: Using the same sound elements across all marketing channels ensures that the brand’s auditory identity is easily recognizable. This consistency helps reinforce the brand in the minds of consumers.

Memorability: A distinctive sound or melody can stick in the listener’s mind, making it easier for them to recall the brand later. This increases the likelihood of brand recognition and recall during purchase decisions.

Emotional resonance: Sound elements that evoke emotions can create a stronger connection between the brand and its audience. Emotions play a crucial role in memory and decision making, thus enhancing brand loyalty and recognition.

Relevance to the brand’s identity and values: the sound should align with the brand’s personality and message.

Uniqueness: The sound element should be distinctive and not easily confused with those of other brands. It should be an empty vessel. Unique sounds help a brand stand out and can become a signature element that consumers immediately associate with the brand.

Conceptual rationale: The story should have a clear rationale behind it, reflecting the brand’s story, values and market propositioning. This conceptual foundation ensures the sound is meaningful and purposeful, resonating deeply with the target audience.

Flexibility and systematic nature: The sound element should be adaptable across different media and contexts while maintaining its core identity. A systematic approach enables the sound to be modified slightly for various applications without losing its recognizability, i.e. product sound.

Incorporating these elements effectively helps a brand stand out in a crowded market, creating a unique identity that consumers can recognize and trust. Sound branding also taps into the emotional and psychological aspects of consumer behavior, making the brand more memorable and influential.

What have been some of your favorite projects that you’ve worked on at MassiveMusic? The creation of the sonic logo for TikTok. It was a incredible opportunity and such a fun project to work on. We got to dig into the meaning of the brand and what its expression in a sonic logo form should be. Also, the sheer scale and impact with that sonic logo because of TikTok being such a massive platform made it extra special. There have been a bunch of analytics since the sonic logo’s launch, and its performance has been nothing short of incredible. That’s what’s so special for me: the impact that sound and music can have when it comes to audience engagement and brand affinity.

Outside of creating music for advertising, do you have any personal creative projects? I have always had personal projects outside of advertising, as this is the core of who I am and where I came from in the first place. I am a DJ and do that periodically throughout the year and get such joy from doing this still. Being a DJ is at the core of who I am because it contains both the aspect of the knowledge of music as well as its creation. It’s parts left brain and right brain, nerding out and sharing with others. I still get such a kick out of turning people onto music that they don’t yet know about.

In addition to DJing, I had a podcast on Sonos and am also an advisor for an organization called the ARChive of Contemporary Music (ARC), which houses more than 3 million physical recordings and was started more than 40 years ago in New York City. It’s a nonprofit organization and my work is pro-bono. I find the work super valuable because I believe in ARC’s cause and also get to hang around a bunch of awesome music nerds who want to share their love of music just like me. Additionally, ARC is trying to catalog and organize the world’s music in a physical way so that future people will be able to access it as a living, breathing archive. I see this as a deeply meaningful mission.

What emerging technologies will have the biggest impact on the way that you create in the next few years? Generative AI (GenAI) will continue to have the biggest impact on creativity and productivity in the next few years—as it already has greatly impacted these. For now, I still believe it is a tool that augments creativity for artists and musicians. It will be interesting to see what positive and negative impacts AI will have on creativity and our industry as things develop. My personal take is that we will strive as audiences, fans and human beings to try and support the human output of creativity utilizing this as a tool rather than having AI supplant us as creators.

What trends in advertising and sound production are you most interested in? Aside from GenAI, the things that I’m quite interested in at the moment are in real-life environments: events, engagements and projects that also have a human do-good component to them. It’s imperative of us as an industry to try and create authentic, meaningful experiences for the audience on the behalf of our clients and brands—and also, if possible, to actually do some good in this world. Overall, there has been a post-COVID hunger for in-person experiences again, and, in my opinion, there seems to be a real brand opportunity for authentic engagement that could have positive impact on and for the consumer audience.

Additionally, projects in which brands have a meaningful POV are interesting to me. The reach and impact that brands can have is vast and, when done effectively, engages us to beg answers to questions we should be asking. For example, our client Unilever with Dove’s #keepbeautyreal project about taking a stance on AI greatly resonated with me. There’s a real human story here, and the way in which Dove addressed concerns and took a stance was super important—not only from a brand perspective but also from a human one.

Do you have any advice for people just entering the profession? My biggest piece of advice would be an old Steve Martin quote that says “be so good [that] they can’t ignore you.” Additionally, my advice is always a lot of seemingly basic but easier-said-than-done stuff: Be passionate. Be endlessly curious. Be knowledgeable. Be a sponge. Study and learn as much as you can, get in there, and network everywhere and as much as possible. Most importantly, be kind to people along the way. My career has already been incredible and quite long, and so much of it I can attribute to both my own skills, passion and knowledge but also to the relationships I’ve built and nurtured along the way. It is of vital importance to take the long view in this industry and also to always keep your eye on the future. ca