4 strategies for brand marketing and digital audio

Let’s take it from the top. What is brand marketing?

It’s okay if you’re a new brand or business and don’t know everything about brand marketing. We’ll give you the TL;DR: brand marketing is a long-term, strategic plan to maintain your brand’s reputation and make your product or service recognizable to your audience. A smart brand marketer consistently communicates her brand’s values in the marketing channels where her audience is engaged and receptive to hearing about the brand.

Research shows that branding in marketing can increase a business’s total revenue by 23%.¹ So what’s the first step towards building a solid brand marketing plan that engages your target audience? Show up where your audience is.

You probably know what we’re going to say next: you can reach your target audience listening on Spotify. And digital audio advertising is a critical channel that can help you meet your customers where they are—and when they’re primed to hear your message.

How to add digital audio into your brand marketing strategy:

Before the streaming age, brand marketers could easily overlook audio as a channel. And we know why: audio ads used to have a certain reputation because of traditional radio's disruptive nature and estimated audience targeting. But digital audio ads are a valuable tool that can help marketers build their brand and forge connections with their target customers.

The benefit of using digital audio in your marketing efforts? Digital audio can go wherever the listener takes it. Spotify listeners soundtrack their days with their favorite music and podcasts, spending up to 2.5 hours a day listening across devices.² Digital audio content complements, rather than detracts, from people’s activities.

We’ve laid out our top four strategies for businesses and brand marketers who want to tap into an audience of listeners.

1. Use sonic branding to drive recall.

Sound can help communicate your brand’s personality and identity in the same way that a logo or specific font does. More importantly, it can make your brand recognizable in audio-driven platforms where your target audience is spending time—platforms like Spotify.

Whether it's a signature song or sound effect, sound creates another layer of identity and recognition for your brand. What makes sonic branding successful? We’ve found that simplicity and consistency are key for building audience recognition and trust.

A sonic brand cue can be as simple as a sonic logo like, "Hey, BRAND here" at the top of the ad, a jingle, a memorable brand character, or a recognizable voiceover artist (or celebrity—with their permission, of course). Our research shows that as long as your sonic branding is heard consistently in your creative message, earlier and later brand cues can both lead to better recall and higher brand lifts.⁵

So add sonic brand cues to your audio, video, and social ads—anywhere an audio element is present. And when people hear your ad, they’ll be able to say, “Aha, I’ve heard from this brand before."

2. Establish brand guidelines.

It’s essential to establish clear rules for audio to help you maintain brand consistency across media channels and audio touchpoints. Make sure your brand’s sounds align with your larger brand identity, from the cadence of the voiceover in an audio ad to the background music you choose for a multi-format campaign.

Start by outlining your brand values and the key messages you need to communicate to your customers. Then consider the following questions to help you build a holistic soundscape for your brand:

• What sound effects could help convey the brand’s values and messages?
• What genre of music would resonate most with the brand’s personality and target audience?
• What cadence should a narrator adopt in a voiceover?
• What age or personality should a voiceover narrator communicate?

3. Connect with your audience in context.

People listen to Spotify almost everywhere—in the car, gym, office, and even in the shower.⁶ Thanks to our logged-in audience, we can understand how people stream across devices throughout their day and deliver the most relevant message at the right moment.

Understanding your audience’s context and taking an audience-first approach to your brand marketing strategy will help your brand show up in the moments that count—for both your target listener and your product or service.

4. Learn from your competitors.

Researching your competitors and learning what they’re doing well (and not so well) is a crucial step in building audio into your brand marketing strategy. Check out how they’re branding their business through audio.

• What brand stories do they tell in audio-first channels?
• How do they use audio to bring those stories to life?
• How can your brand take a unique approach and highlight your differentiators with sound?

If you need inspiration, take a look at our case studies.

You can hear how other businesses integrate sonic branding into their identity and connect with their audiences with Spotify ads.