In our world of streaming, sonic logos are becoming more and more important for brands. From Netflix's opening 'dun-dun' to Apple's startup 'duuuhn' (okay, sonic logos are hard to describe in words), there are plenty you'll have heard before. And now, for the first time ever, an in-depth study has revealed most popular audio idents in the US and UK.
Created by sonic branding specialist SoundOut, the index brings together over 135 brands and draws from the responses of over 30,000 consumer participants, and it features several from our own pick of the best sonic logos.
The US brands included in the study (click to enlarge) (Image credit: SoundOut)
To determine the top 100, SoundOut's study considers effectiveness (the "intrinsic quality of the logo excluding any brand association"), market penetration (measuring how familiar consumers are with each logo) and strength of personality, reflecting how strongly the sonic logo matches the 14 core attributes of SoundOut's 'BrandMatch' algorithm.
In the US (below), the winning sonic logo belongs to Disney, followed closely by 20th Century Studios, Goldfish and Warner Brothers. In the UK, meanwhile (above), the top five are Just Eat, AO, GoCompare and Moonpig. It's curious to note that the US favourites are more cinematic, whereas the UK winners are lighter offerings from the worlds of TV and online advertising.
"While more and more brands have been investing in sonic branding as the power of music’s impact on the subconscious becomes better understood, there has been little objective analysis and measurement of the effectiveness of sonic logos," explains SoundOut CEO David Courtier-Dutton. "The SoundOut Index changes that. We are proud to be the first to establish which sonic logos have built a powerful emotional connection with consumers."
Daniel John is Senior News Editor at Creative Bloq. He reports on the worlds of art, design, branding and lifestyle tech (which often translates to tech made by Apple). He joined in 2020 after working in copywriting and digital marketing with brands including ITV, NBC, Channel 4 and more.
