• by Todd Wasserman , March 3, 2022

In the old days, a jingle was worth a lot. “You deserve a break today” sent customers into McDonald’s, while almost 50 years later, almost anyone can complete the line “I am stuck on Band-Aid cause…”

The run continued in the 1980s (“Have a Coke and a smile,” “I don’t wanna grow up, I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid,”) and somewhat in the 1990s (Mentos, Folgers), but seems to have dissipated in the aughts and beyond..

Some top proponents of what is now called “sonic branding” met in New York City on Monday at the Audio Intelligence Summit to talk about the current state of the practice.

One thing that jumped out is that while there aren’t many jingles out there, sounds are very important. Participants agreed that the best sonic branding  of 2021 is the Liberty Mutual sign-off (“Liberty, liberty, liberty!”) that one can hear several times a day.

Among the other standouts was Frito-Lay, which doesn’t have a jingle per se, but instead is known for sounds like the pop of a can of salsa opening. In a 2021 ad featuring Kate McKinnon and Dan Levy, the two merely traded sounds to attempt to convey the experience of eating the chips and salsa.

At the event, Hana Golden, the marketing director of Tortilla Chip Brands, said that sounds best evoke the tortilla experience. “There's some joy to cracking open a small bag of chips around a table with your friends,” she said. “It was our job to make sure that joy was still being accomplished in the home.”

To demonstrate, Frito-Lay had a deejay on hand -- Lucas Murray, producer at Made Music Studio -- to synchronize the pops of a can of salsa opening. Golden said that Frito-Lay’s current sonic logo, the sound of a salsa jar opening, clocks in at 1.5 seconds. “This may be the fastest sound logo on the planet,” she said.

Frito-Lay isn’t alone in pioneering a sonic identity. Netflix, HBO, Intel have well-known sonic logos, as does McDonald’s, whose “I’m Lovin’ It” can be rendered in whistle tones.

That may be bad news for all the prospective jingle writers out there, but for branding execs, the best advice may be to just listen to your customers.