Now listen! Good sound is vital to getting your message over

Could you ever imagine living without sound? No? Well, Andrew Diey of Radium Audio believes that far too many creative consultancies pitch for new business without ever giving the quality of the sound a second thought.

Here is something you may never have probably considered, if you have sound as part of the story telling process you are going to be massively more successful in your campaign.. and your clients will reward you for it. We know this is true because we have helped several agencies win new business in their pitching by using sound as a part of the pitch. This isnt some costly research that we carried out this is what we deal with every week. Why, because the experience of having a story that is well crafted using sound is every bit as effective as good copy, design and visuals. Here is a sonic adventure .. If you go to the Ferrari website you will hear what we mean, as you are invited to experience the roar and power of the Ferrari California, each button click opens you up to a new sonic experience that we captured, designed and delivered for maximum impact. How we made the sounds on the Ferrari site is by traveling to Italy spending time with the concept car, attaching microphones to the car and taking it out on the open track at 4am in the morning up to speeds of 210MPh, how else would you want your Ferrari? We also created highly effective sound experiences for Bentley Motors, Domestos, Vodafone, Harry Potter, Mercedes Benz etc. We originally started as a sound design company and we have evolved into a creative company with a unique and distinct vision for craft excellence and experience using sound. We work directly with brands and also their agencies to develop experiences that tell a story, and create an experience that is unique to that brand. This is why capturing the Ferrari at full speed was vital to the sound experience of the Ferrari California website, of course we added some extra bits to enhance the sound its advertising, and we are selling the thrill and excitement of a Ferrari here. We recently wrote a manifesto on the future of sound in advertising for a large digital network, outlining our thoughts & experiences on the impact sound will have in digital and advertising. Our key thoughts were about the online experience and the consumer expectation to be entertained, rewarded, informed and enriched, as well as their willingness to be part of an online adventure. We suggested that if we worked towards creating a Hollywood standard with the sound within the online experience consumers will engage more and this will create a richer experience and resulting in the metrics displaying much more dwell time and an highly effective ROI. We know this because people want to be entertained and be part of the experience. We wanted to ask the advertising industry to raise their expectations of sound online and start thinking more about articulating the brand story and capture the essence and soul of the consumer experience using sound. We want to get the digital agencies to think like the games industry. Game Developers like EA Games have become the dominant global leader in game development IP, this is reflected in their worldwide successful game titles. They understood that their digital product was about entertainment - and within this they had a few core senses: Visual - Interaction - Audio. They aspired towards an already successful model of a Hollywood experience for their IP. The gaming experience on their developments reflects this investment into creativity and customers now trust the EA brand for all game titles. EA games is known as a leader in all their output and their customers know that every experience with an EA game is going to be the highest standards. We think that the same can happen within advertising online, and there is great potential for sound to become a core service within digital advertising, Especially with creative agencies adopting creative audio companies and building around the success of the Hollywood model of independent specialists and possibilities of how effective great sound can increase results and deepen end-user experiences. We feel we are only at the beginning stages of the online experience, and its only been two or so years that we have started to experience linear online film experiences. We think that this is only the beginning of new creative revolution with all the emerging technological opportunities to engage with consumers from gestural touch surfaces, augmented reality, RFID chip readers, mobile technology, streaming linear & interactive film, digital film webisodes consumers want to follow, share and talk about. We think that many agencies will use their client brand websites as a place to consolidate the real world experiences that consumers will have with the brand products. If these new brand channels are going to be effective then sound will play a huge role in their success, not only will we be able to create something that is unique to the brand, but we will also be able to emotionally enhance the experience. The agencies who hold sound as an important human sense will consider audio as a core service then we will start to move ever closer to the Hollywood experience. Not everything has to be huge and octane explosive, however if you think about the subtleties in story telling that Hollywood is capable of then you will understand what we mean, when we say, People dont just watch they listen and watch, and now they click and expect to be entertained.