The conversation du jour in brand and advertising circles is, once again, either the reality of hold-co’s retrenchments or the impending fear of them.
In the timespan of my career, this has been the third major industry shake-up. The first time was in the very late eighties, the second was the almighty so-called ‘sub-prime’ scare of 2008. This one, however, comes turbocharged with the work-from-home (WFH) trend which has all but destroyed company culture.
But that’s small fry, I think, compared to the twin afterburners which have well and truly kicked in: social media and already pathetic margins being squeezed into atomic particles.
Net result? The quarter-masters are now leading the charge, not the cavalry.
I’ve never seen anything like it in my career. Accountants running the show. Creativity based on social tribalism, not disruption. Commonly known realities being paraded as insights. What I have seen before, are brilliant, innovative thinkers turfed out onto the street, or about to be.
When you display such scant regard for the value and power of visceral creativity, which ipso facto can’t be displayed with words or visual representation, that’s the spread of the accountant virus that’s got you.
That’s the zeitgeist of our business and no amount of bitter ranting is going to change that reality. Much of the problems facing the industry are self-inflicted wounds anyway. Many veterans who can’t reconcile their value and skill with the current commoditising of everything that made them so highly prized, knew very well this time was coming. They just stayed out to lunch too long before they reacted. (I include myself in this scenario.)
However, there is one particular area of ‘zeitgeisty’ fear and suspicion that’s taken me completely by surprise. It’s the concerted effort by branding agencies to marginalise, demean, ignore and/or debase sonic branding companies.
No names, no pack drill. And obviously barring one or two exceptions. But I have witnessed a branding agency go out of its way to advise clients not to consider sonic branding because ‘in these times of economic scaling-down and greater accountability for every marketing dollar … etc.’, or similar smoke and mirrors nonsense to protect their shrinking piece of pie once referred to as a marketing budget.
I’ve seen individuals who work for branding agencies discontinue their online association with a sonic branding company when it started winning multiple awards and loads of new business.
Apologies for the continued military theme, but surely this is akin to the quartermaster getting rid of his army’s lean protein and healthy fats diet because there’s a cheaper way to fill bellies.
When you have to pretend that sonic branding has no merit in the branding universe and certainly cannot justify its price, that’s a stronger and more dangerous strain of the same virus.
And just to add fuel to the fire (if there’s any left after the turbochargers and afterburners) advertising’s most high profile arbiters of what is innovative and what is not, the 2025 Cannes Lions judges, awarded a Grand Prix to Budweiser for a campaign called ‘how to use other people’s music for personal gain without paying for it’.
Okay so it wasn’t called that, I just felt a descriptor was more accurate than the title under which it was entered.
When you display such scant regard for the value and power of visceral creativity, which ipso facto can’t be displayed with words or visual representation, that’s the spread of the accountant virus that’s got you.
When you have to pretend that sonic branding has no merit in the branding universe and certainly cannot justify its price, that’s a stronger and more dangerous strain of the same virus.
I have worked with a few branding agencies in my career as a copywriter and creative director and I have found a level of thinking that’s deeper and more informed than any ad agency.
So when I experienced this type of spiteful dismissal of sonic branding I felt, at the risk of being dramatic, that the last bastion of authentic service and visionary thinking in marketing had been breached.
And just to be clear, when I refer to accountants, I mean the practice, not the person. I write this because I’ve also seen one accountant in an ad agency rise to leadership, because his love for creativity superseded his by-the-numbers background.
The guys who started the sonic branding company I’m now associated with, WithFeeling, had already added immense dimension to my work in Dubai a decade ago. And one of them I didn’t even know at the time.
Every time I’ve shared my reel face to face with prospective clients, there have been smiles or some other positive show of emotion at the precise moment you could hear the audio contribution of these guys.
That is value.
Sonic branding is on the rise, which may seem contradictory to the tone of this article. But we want everyone onboard, including branding agencies. We’re brothers and sisters in arms, for goodness’ sake.
Perhaps it’ll occur when some sort of tipping point/critical mass is reached. But before that, the balance sheet needs to be reconfigured.
By John Smeddle, Creative Head, WithFeeling.
