I'll be hosting a live podcast on Monday on the topic of 'sonic convergence.' More specifically, the art and science of designing immersive experiences.

With me will be: renowned soundscape designer Martyn Ware (London) whose work spans from founder of Heaven 17 and the Human League to a sound designer with recent installations at the NY MoMa and the Venice Architectural Biennale; and Brian Schmidt (Seattle), who has been the guiding 'sonic spirit' for audio in the Xbox and primary composer for multiple game titles for Sega, Sony and Electronic Arts, in addition to hundreds of arcade, console and pinball games.

This will be a live podcast, meaning you can 'tune in' live and participate in the conversation (via IM+Skype). (You'll also be able to listen anytime after the show as you would a traditional podcast.)

Show details: Monday January 26, 9:30 a.m. Pacific time, 12:30 p.m. Eastern, 5:30 London time. Show URL: http://www.smallplateradio.com/042/

Please join us. Many thanks in advance to Small Plate Radio for making it possible.

-- Noel Franus

Image by onkel_wart

New year, new traction. Budgets may have tanked in the last year, but that doesn't mean we should be standing still, ignoring the fine-tuning and maintenance that's required to maintain strong brands.

I've talked with a number of companies that feel stuck—stuck to do anything other than maintain status quo in all aspects of the business. And that's simply not necessary. It doesn't cost much to spot a problem and understand how to fix it.

At Sonic ID we focus exclusively on the intersection of brands and sound. So I've compiled a quick list of five simple, decidedly easy options for improving the performance of your brand by exploring your costs and returns on music and sound, and how to boost the value of those investments in your brand. Comments/additional ideas welcome.

1. Embrace the bottom line. Times are tight, and budgets are, too. Every last dollar in your CMO’s control is under the microscope: brand positioning, brand programs, traditional advertising, online media, guerilla marketing and so on. With most companies, however, there’s an elephant in the room regarding the dollars spent on music and sound across those touchpoints. People are hearing your brand on television, on the phone, on the web and at events, and what they’re hearing directly affects their perceptions about your company. What’s the cost of reaching those ears? If you don’t know, you should. Ask your peers, internal departments and agency partners. The sooner you can define that bottom line, the sooner you can make informed decisions about future spending.

2. Assess performance. Once you’ve quantified your budgets, you can measure effectiveness. As with all brand-level funds, these should be performing as investments—not throwaway costs. Think NBC, Intel or Nokia; does the sound of your company articulate your core values and attributes, or are you just making a lot of dispensable noise? Music and sound affects what we think, say, feel, do...and buy. It should benefit your brand. Now’s a good time to listen to the brand across your mediascape to see what it says about your company.

3. Take a snapshot. Assessing brand perceptions through the lens of music and sound can take time, especially if it’s a competitive review. But for powerful easy-bake results, a ‘sonic snapshot’ of your company can be conducted from your desktop. Using the web it’s relatively easy to find commercials, events, webcasts, podcasts, demos and other sonic evidence of your brand in the wild. What to look for: does your brand sound consistent, or chaotic? Unique or generic? Flexible or staid? Collect, compile and assess.

4. Harness the power of quick wins. A revision to your company’s visual identity can affect hundreds of touchpoints and cost millions. Sonic identities are no different—the process of seeding, growing and strengthening perceptions takes work. There are, however, some simple fixes you can put to work right away: the music and sound deployed in your call center, online media and networked technology (computers, iPhones, mobiles, ringtones) are relatively inexpensive and easy to update, versus the extensive effort required to spread the sound of your brand across your next few tv campaigns. Identify your low-hanging fruit opportunities and move on them.

5. Don’t wait to plan for the future. Now’s the time to think long term; what does your brand sound like, where should this live, and how should it evolve for maximum brand value? Yes, the economy sucks, but nothing lasts forever. Someday those budgets will free up, and when they do, you’ll be the one who approached the Powers That Be in your organization and said: “I’ve spotted a problem—we’ve been spending $x per year across the enterprise on this with dubious results. I can solve the problem and improve the performance of our investments. Here’s how.” When budgets open up, it’s better to be prepared than not.

-- Noel Franus

I'm back after more than two weeks away. Here's five inspiring links to get things rolling again.

Does music sound better today than it did 30 years ago? Sonic ID's very own Martyn Ware leads a podcast conversation with experts Tom Dunmore (Stuff magazine), Rob Kelly (Strongroom studios), Stephen Budd (artist/producer manager) and Tim Lawrence (culture writer). Facilitated by B&W.

Bowers and Wilkins Senior Design Engineer John Dibb recently led a "sound tasting" at Abbey Road Studios: "On a personal level I felt the same satisfaction I felt as a teenage speaker designer, and still do as a professional, when someone really gets how important sound is and how getting the illusion closer to reality is such a magical thing." Here's the story.

Brandchannel.com has a good writeup on the use of sonic branding and identity in India -- with quotes from our pal Marcel de Bie and my former Elias frontman Martin Pazzani.

Mascara has gone electric. Unfortunately the sound of Estee Lauder's and Lancome's new electronic eyeliner is a "hum as annoying as a vibrating cellphone." I can only assume this is not an intentional attribute of either brand.

And finally...nice Frontline World story about a Mozambique singer who's saving lives by singing about...latrines.

-- Noel Franus

• The dynamic duo at Audiobrain is featured in this month's Fast Company. Nice job -- great to see sonic branding and identity taking center stage in mainstream media.
• Martin Pazzani at Elias Arts has an interesting thought: too much music can dilute your brand. He's right.
• And finally, my Sonic ID partner Martyn Ware (who's populated this space recently) has an interesting new blog and podcast over at the Bowers and Wilkins website -- part of its Society of Sound Lab. (Warning: clicking may suck you in for an entire afternoon.)

All for now. My podcast number two is going up this week. Stay tuned. -- Noel Franus

Photo by Joachim S Müller Shining a little sonic spotlight on a new organization: Ear to the Earth, a group whose aims go well beyond art for art's sake -- they have a problem to solve, and it's a big one.

Ear to the Earth is an organization that aims to engage the public in environmental issues through environmental sound and sound art. It's a new idea. And it's an important idea. Listening can get people involved. Listening is close and personal. And we believe that by connecting people with the sounds of the world, we can involve people in what's happening to the world.

Multimedia bonus from their website: Bernie Krause, one of the leading researchers on the "noises of nature" provides a sonic peek at the sounds of a jaguar in the wild, practically sitting atop Krause's microphones. Grab your great speakers or headphones and turn it up: Stunning, beautiful, haunting, superlative. Awareness-raising, for sure. -- Noel Franus

Here are four late-night links for the always-curious sonic-branding nut in each of us. Some of these may seem to be from left field, but there's always something to learn. How can you apply some of the innovations/ideas/thinking that's referenced below to your (or your client's) brand/product experience?

The remote you've been waiting for Dolby offers a new TV-volume leveler that actually sounds kinda interesting. Wild prediction: customers will love it, advertisers not so much. How long before Microsoft buys them out?

The music tool you've been waiting for? Yamaha's Tenori-On...it's been out for a while, and I've avoided it because of its high-gimmick factor. (It's very hard to believe anyone who pitches their "digital music instrument for the 21st century.") But most reviews of the Tenori-On have been positive...so what gives? If you've played with this (perhaps at the MusicLive Show in Birmingham?), please share your thoughts.

The chair you've got to hear to believe From Networked Music Review: "the Sound Chair begins as a sound that is precisely crafted to form the physical shape of a chair when visualized as a 3-dimensional object using a volume, time, frequency line plot. The life-size chair is an exact replica of the soundwave graph. The result is a product with dual existence as both a 'sound' & a 'chair.'"

The noise you won't forget Making Noise in NYC features "work by visual artists who utilize the many different modes by which sound is produced and received. Exploring the possibilities that lie within the relationship between producer and receiver, these artists demonstrate how the manipulation of sound can become a tool for the organization of power and, in turn, the subversion of it." November 28, 2007 – January 2, 2008 at the Melville Gallery at the South Street Seaport Museum.

-- Noel Franus

Been a while, so you're expecting a brilliant post as payoff for the wait, right? Fuggedaboutit! Today's post is all noise, all the time. First off: Henry Bean's newest film is all about the unrelenting urban soundscape. Cue VO: "Tim Robbins is a man with a mission: annihilate the noise of New York City, and bring power to the people. Noise. Coming soon to a theater near you." (Surely there's a musical to follow -- "Noise! Noise! Noise!") Second: the entertaining conversation at the community-link site Metafilter that follows the movie announcement, where people share their top-five "worst noises of all time" and also offer up some clever homespun remedies for shutting up the neighbors. (Hint: plug your nose!) -- Noel Franus Related: The Worst Sound in The World. Survey says... Related: No Two Spaces Sound Alike. The unexpected consequence of a jam-packed jungle.

Julian Treasure has penned a thought-provoking piece at Sound Business: Where Has Sonic Architecture Gone? Required reading. Here’s a snippet: Since Pythagoras (and surely long before that) building designers considered sound as at least the equal of visual design in the making of buildings. The sound of water (representing life) has been used for millennia, especially in hot places, to create pleasing ambient soundscapes, with many homes designed around a central fountain. Clever architecture has deliberately utilised echo, reverberation, focusing, diffusion and absorption to manipulate sound waves for spiritual, artistic and practical reasons.... When and why did the skill to design like this get lost? With modern architects and urban planners investigating the leading edges of interactivity, technology and all forms of light, it seems sad that the ancient wisdom about how to make buildings that sound appropriate and nourish the activities inside them is gone. I wonder if we can ever recover it? I’m so glad Julian’s asked this as it’s been on my mind lately. I agree that the skills are lacking, but it’s without blame -- most architects and designers simply lack the sound-related playbook or best practices necessary to ensure successful projects. Understandably so; for many architectural engagements, budgets and time become first priority and clients often give their attention to that which is familiar (and negotiable): walls, floors, heating and air conditioning, materials, colors and furniture. It's no surprise that fuzzy intangibles like sound drop to the bottom of a priority list. I’m encouraged, however, by my own conversations with architects who compensate for any lack of expertise with an abundance of enthusiasm. Architects who see themselves as facilitators of choreographed experiences are clearly eager to acknowledge and leverage our relationship with sound. They’re waiting for inspiration. So, consider this a call to action: if you're reading this, show me your inspiration. Where have you experienced successful sound in the built environment? If you think that sound affects our thoughts, actions, spending patterns and habits; if it can direct our physical movements and alert us to danger or guide us to safety; and/or if it can transform our sense of being in ways that are conscious, subconscious and even physiological -- then where are you seeing it happen? I'll share my hit list with you next week, and I may also dive into some of the guiding principles for designers that I provided at the Experience Architecture Forum at Harvard last month. For what it's worth. Meanwhile, let's keep the ball rolling -- let's hear your thoughts.

Well, there you have it. As much as I promised myself I'd stay away from writing about today's Apple coverage -- there's more than enough coverage out there besides this li'l blog -- I just can't help it. Here's why: Today a computer company and a coffee company agreed on a deal sell music together. Or, put another way, two significant lifestyle brands extended their reach beyond their core businesses to provide more of what people want, in the easiest possible delivery system. Under the new deal, wi-fi enabled iPods will sense when a Starbucks is in range, and provide instant access to that store's playlist via the iTunes music store. Like that Feist with your latte? It's yours now -- but it at the counter or download instantly with just a few clicks. Personally, I don't think this particular deal is incredible, nor do I think this will affect my life in any significant way. (I'm a tad more hyped about the "low-tech" 80g iPod classique.) But this isn't about me -- what this signals from a branding perspective is interesting when you peel back the onion. I mention the "computer company" and "coffee company" because most of us have a very hard time envisioning our brands being successful at something so far away from primary core offerings. IBM is still in the PC business, McDonald's is still about food (for the most part) and AT&T is (still) in the telco business. For the little computer company from Cupertino and the original Pike's Place Market Starbucks coffeeshop to be where they are today takes a visionary understanding and management of one's brand and its trajectory and an ultra-keen sense of our relationship with music and sound...we're people with ears and money to burn. Oh, and it takes a boatload of cahones to pull it all off as successfully as these brands have. Kudos to them for seeing what others don't see, and for building what others can't or don't. Reminds me of a little commercial we scored for Apple a while back. You may know it: Enough with the hyperbole. Next question for another time: what on God's green earth is holding Apple up from offering contactless payments via iPhone? You buy your coffee, you wave your iPod, your payment is done. Suddenly, my life is affected in a very significant way. C'mon, it can't be that far off, can it?

Netflix, the leading US provider of DVDs by mail (and more recently, movies on demand via the web) has put a stake in the ground when it comes to customer service: no more emails with "we'll get back to you." No more outsourcing the problem to a faraway country where language barriers can damage customer perceptions. No more oft-ineffective call-center-computers. All customer service issues are now routed directly to Netflix's 100% human customer-service line, just outside Portland, Oregon. Full story in the New York Times: "Netflix’s decision to eliminate the e-mail feature was made after a great deal of research, Mr. Osier (VP, IT and Customer Service) said. He looked at two other companies with reputations for superb phone-based customer service, Southwest Airlines and American Express, and saw that customers preferred human interaction over e-mail messages. “My assessment was that a world-class e-mail program was still going to be consistently lower in quality and effectiveness than a phone program,” he said." Curious to see if the proof was in the pudding, I dialed them up. They promised a live human in 3 minutes, but actually delivered a live voice in under 10 seconds. This from a company that's watching a well-heeled competitor (Blockbuster) creeping in on its turf and needs as many differentiators as it can get. In this case, sound is the customer service -- what's done on the phone has a direct, immediate impact on brand perceptions and reputation. If Netflix isn't betting the farm on the power of sound as a key channel in its customer experience, they're at least betting most the cows and a chicken or two. So...inevitably, this begs the question: how's it going with your company, clients or notable household brands? Have you had to call your customer-service line lately, and if so, what sort of an impression were you left with? If things aren't up to snuff, follow the lead of Netflix, as I'm sure they'll innovate as the market demands. (And should you need a world-class vendor to create a measurably improved customer experience, I may be able to recommend one. Wink.)