Cutting through the noise
The power of Audio in a cluttered visual world
by Yasemin Yelbasi
As the Jet2 jingle reverberates across social feeds, there’s no doubt audio is finally getting its flowers among marketers. In a world where visual clutter has reached fever pitch, is it any wonder that a medium as sticky and attention-grabbing as sound is making a comeback?
WHY SONIC BRANDING MATTERS NOW
Sonic Branding is not new, but its value to marketers is clearer than ever. Sonic devices are 8.5x more present in high performing ads, yet they’re only used 6% of the time. System1’s research shows that jingles and sonic cues significantly increase emotional engagement and memorability, two of the strongest predictors of long-term brand growth. Jet2 is a textbook example. Their consistent investment in an emotive and recognisable audio cue has created what System1 describes as a blueprint for brand effectiveness.
THE SCIENCE OF SOUND: WHY SOUND STICKS
Sonic branding unlocks a multi-sensory approach that helps brands show up in moments and spaces where visuals can’t. It allows brands another opportunity to be distinctive and drive attention and recognition. According to Kahneman, sound can trigger rapid, unconscious, and emotionally charged processing and often overrides our more critical, deliberate thinking. This is why a One Direction song from your teens can spark such intense nostalgia. While you may still love them (guilty), it may actually be the systems and chemicals in your brain, particularly the amygdala and hippocampus, responding to the emotionally salient sounds and leading to strengthened memory encoding and retrieval. That said, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, jingles are not right for every brand and can backfire if poorly executed. The key for brands is finding an audio identity that feels true to them and resonates with their audience.
CULTURE & CREATORS: THE TIKTOK EFFECT
I cannot speak about this shift we are seeing towards Sonic Branding without mentioning the main catalyst: TikTok. As a platform built on sound, it’s been driving the resurgence of audio in marketing. In order to reach today’s most valued target audience, Gen-Z, brands must reconsider not just how they look online but how they sound. Raised on meme culture and internet irony, Gen-Z audiences tend to reject anything that feels overly produced or traditionally “ad-like.” What gets through to them isn’t the hard sell, it’s content that taps into mood, sound and pop-culture.
This is where music and sonic cues come into play. Sound has a way of sticking, sometimes annoyingly so. Trending sounds like Anxiety by Doechii or the Jet2 jingle have found second lives on TikTok, embedding themselves in culture and conversation. For brands, leveraging these sounds can deliver clear engagement benefits, with research suggesting that videos featuring trending audio see 68% higher engagement than those without. TikTok makes sure that audio is no longer just background noise, it’s the headliner.
While it’s tempting to chase every viral sound or trending audio, TikTok also offers an interesting opportunity to build sonic consistency. Creators like Nara Smith and A Guy and a Golden, who instead of hopping on every trend, have built a strong personal brand through the repeated use of their now coined TikTok sounds. Just a few opening notes are enough for audiences to know exactly who’s on their For You Page with no visuals needed.
Balancing both virality and consistency is a challenge brands face. However, all the noise and clutter make it clear that success doesn’t come from putting all your effort into producing the next viral jingle or video and there’s an opportunity on TikTok to craft a long-term audio identity that builds recognition.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
Sonic branding isn’t just a fleeting trend, it taps into our biology, emotion, and memory, giving brands a direct line to audiences in ways visuals alone cannot. With platforms like TikTok proving how powerful audio can be in shaping culture and attention, it’s clear there is an opportunity for brands to be distinctive through audio. Those, just like Go Compare and Domino’s, who think carefully about how they sound, not just how they look, have a chance to excel and stand out in a world where most are still optimising for the eye.
By Yasemin Yelbasi