Don't add music to your branding, start with it

Branding was once simple: logo, tagline, colours, maybe a jingle. Now, top brands have become inhabitable worlds that dictate what consumers should see, care about, feel and hear.

We've entered an age of brand worldbuilding, where branding is storytelling and design is the structure of a desirable universe. Like Tolkien's Middle-earth, brands now construct their own worlds, where visuals provide the framework and sound imbues the soul.

Sound is so important that we've decided to add it as a new category, Sonic, in this year's Brand Impact Awards.

Branding Is evolving, just not the way you think

Pit Diaper: The First Mosh Pit Diaper by Liquid Death x Depend - YouTube

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Agencies like Amplify have been banging this drum for years. Its recent docuseries, Brand Worlds, positions modern branding not as static identity systems but as dynamic, co-authored universes. Less campaign; more living culture. Less messaging; more mythology in motion.

Take Liquid Death – a brand that sells, of all things, water. In a can. But step into its universe, and you’re suddenly backstage at a ’90s thrash metal tour. Fake lawsuits against "big water" corporations. Horror shorts starring Tony Hawk.

Full-length albums of screaming guitar riffs released under the Liquid Death "record label." Every asset, every ad, every sound is on-brand because the brand isn’t the product – it’s the world. The audio isn’t filler. It’s fabric.

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Now take the polar opposite: Aesop. A luxury skincare brand that whispers in measured, poetic cadences. Its stores feel like secular temples – all hushed tones and curated silence.

Its newsletters read like Kierkegaard essays. Many of its retail spaces are infused with bespoke, location-specific soundscapes: soft ambient textures in Kyoto, field recordings of Parisian courtyards in Le Marais.

Different vibe. Same outcome: an entire world, meticulously crafted – and sonically tuned to its core. The undeniable truth that both brands understand is that to build a successful brand world, sound can’t merely be the soundtrack to the story – it is the story.

Why sound is the real secret to immersion

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Humans are visual creatures by nature, but when it comes to commanding emotion and building connection, it’s sound that hits us in the gut. It doesn’t ask for attention. It bypasses logic and speaks to our very nature.

Music sets the emotional temperature of a moment. It can build anticipation like a tightening coil or offer release like a sigh. Music creates memories like a scent you can’t place but could never forget.

To fully understand, try watching the Omaha Beach scene from Saving Private Ryan with the sound off. Or the opening of Up. Or any pivotal moment from your favourite film. No matter how stunning the cinematography, without sound, the magic collapses.

The human experience is multi-sensory, both in real time and in recall. And sound? It’s often the first sense memory tags – it’s why a piece of music can ambush you with nostalgia, or why the hum of a particular refrigerator model can teleport you to your grandmother’s kitchen.

The same applies to branding. You can have the cleanest typography, the most meticulous UX flow, the most breathtaking motion design – but if it lands with a sonic thud, the spell breaks. Sound gives your work dimension. It makes it breathe.

Don’t add music. Begin with it

If you want your brand world to feel real, it needs to sound real from the first sketch. Artists and marketers alike often talk about moodboards – those curated collections of photography, colour swatches and type specimens that encapsulate the feeling you’re trying to convey.

But your audience doesn’t live in a moodboard. They live in a loud, cacophonous world. So when designing a campaign, sound should be a part of every step. You can inspire teams with a soundtrack by starting your brief with a playlist. Different tracks unlock different emotional doors.

That’s where sound vignettes come in. Just as a designer collects images, you should collect fragments of sound to use as emotional references: field recordings, movie clips, ambient sounds.

Imagine you’re designing the identity for a tourist region – a coastal city, a wine valley, a mountain retreat. The instinct is to start with aerial drone shots, heritage fonts, maybe a tagline about 'untamed beauty'. But what does it sound like to be there?

If you’re not capturing the cicadas at dawn, the muffled laughter in a vineyard’s tasting room, the creak of hiking boots on alpine trails – you’re missing half the story. These are the sonic clues that define memory and place.

When selling your campaign, music can be just as integral. Never pitch in silence. Your deck needs a walk-on song, and your ideas deserve a soundtrack because music can shift the emotional tone of the room. Even a placeholder track can change how your concept lands.

It’s also key to collaborate with composers early, bringing in your music partner from day one to build the sonic world alongside the visual one. You’ll end up somewhere more original – and more human.

If you’re designing a brand world and you’re not capturing its sonic DNA, you’re building something incomplete. You’re offering a brochure when you could’ve issued an invitation.

For more on sonic branding, see things I've learned about sonic branding and why you need a sonic identity.