Unlocking the hidden meaning of music

Abbey Road Studios was always going to be a pretty magical place to unveil our new Brand Music Navigator tool and Strike a Chord research. Every tiny detail of the place was built to maximise the power of music and provide the best acoustic possible. The whole building resounds with the history of the artists that have recorded there, with original equipment and instruments – including the honky-tonk upright that The Beatles used on Lady Madonna – still in use today. You can’t help but be absorbed deeply in such musical heritage.

Music moves us deeply too and affects our emotions in ways that are hard to define. Everyone instinctively understands this: 97% of multinational brand managers believe that music can strengthen a brand. Yet somehow this inherent belief isn’t converting into action: only 38% of multinational brands have a defined brand sound. Why is music underexploited in this way? Our colleagues at Push London spoke to 62 agency CEOs, creative directors, strategic planners, advertisers and music experts to find out.

The general consensus is that music is a complicated area and generally an afterthought. People are much more comfortable with the visual; the lack of shared language to describe music gets in the way.

It’s hard to articulate the intangible but semiotics helped us deconstruct how music communicates and give planners and creatives a way of defining how specific pieces of music can be used to convey certain notions and emotions. We created the Brand Music Navigator tool to help people discover the powerful world of music and relate it specifically to their brand. It’s worth a play to explore the fascinating hidden meaning of music alone or, even better, as the start point for your own inspirational brand music journey.