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Beauty brands know a thing or two about looking good. But what about sounding good?
According to a new report from sonic branding agency amp, some companies in the global beauty category—which reached $446 billion in retail sales globally last year—are hitting the right notes, while others are a little off key.
While some beauty and personal-care brands have tapped into audio assets like custom music and sonic logos, amp found that sound “remains surprisingly underused in communication strategies within this sector.”
Spice things up: Old Spice ranked as the No. 1 beauty and care brand when it comes to sonic branding, per the report. Amp based its rankings on factors like use of sonic logo and identity and use of owned versus licensed music.
Old Spice has a sonic logo that’s almost as memorable as the McDonald’s jingle, and it’s been used consistently for more than a decade, including in 88% of the brand’s content this year, per the report. That repeated usage has led the sonic logo to become adopted and memeified across social media, according to amp. The brand also regularly uses custom music in campaigns like “Farewell, Teenage Me,” per the report. Those factors both contributed to Old Spice’s high sonic ranking.
Old Spice also made the top 10 of amp’s sixth annual Best Audio Brands report earlier this year.
Other companies on the top 10 beauty brands list include:
- Lux
- Degree
- Got2Be
- Schwarzkopf
- Lancôme
- Colgate
- Palmolive
- L’Oréal
- Sunsilk
Can’t hear you: Scores drop significantly after Old Spice due to a “lack of custom and branded music being used across the sector,” according to amp. Some brands that have custom sounds, like e.l.f. and Gillette, didn’t crack the top 10.
- E.l.f. came in at No. 13 “using 40% licensed music despite having some of the most successful owned viral sonic campaigns in the history of social media,” per the report.
- Gillette landed at No. 45, which amp attributed to “inconsistent” use of its relaunched brand song on social.
A common theme among beauty brands, amp reported, was the inconsistent use of a sonic identity. For example, the report notes that brands often partner with influencers and allow them to use trending sounds in their content instead of the brand’s sonic identity. Colgate, for instance, has a relatively new sonic identity but did not use it in an influencer-oriented campaign this year, the authors of the report wrote.
“While using influencers can often be a good strategy, we have seen a steady increase in influencer voices replacing brand voices,” amp wrote. “This is not to say brands should ignore influencers. Rather, brands can invite DIY creators and micro-celebs into their sonic world with a well-crafted sonic identity…Even if a full sonic identity or branded song isn’t yet created, there is always the trusty sonic logo to add that little bit of audible recognition at the end of a video.”
Now that’s an earworm we can all enjoy.