Playing Your Sound

Your Audio Logo is your brand’s actual musical sound that builds brand equity as consumers recognize it, and resonates emotionally with them.

From full-length compositions with lyrics to simply three to five notes, your Audio Logo is a powerful intellectual property that musically triggers instant brand identity and recognition.

As a core component of your soundDNA^®, your Audio Logo remains consistent over time and across all product lines, campaigns, demographic, and cultural targets, even as it adapts to specific deployments.

Solution
DMI took this successful theme song and extended it to become United’s global Audio Logo and part of United’s soundDNA^®. Like United’s visual logo, that is always consistent with specific color values and size/position directives, “Rhapsody in Blue” is now treated in the same way. The song is not limited to a campaign, an individual artist, or a musical trend and it doesn’t change from year to year. It builds continually and reinforces instant brand recognition for the United Airlines community. While the entire brand essence cannot be heard with the limited notes, it acts as a trigger and forges a mental connection between the sound and the brand.

DMI created over 50 versions of “Rhapsody in Blue” for United Airlines since the brand first selected the song as its theme many years ago. The genres of “Rhapsody in Blue” that DMI have produced and recorded are modular and have been crafted to fit with specific campaigns, products, or multicultural initiatives (or all of the above). When listening to the rock channel on the plane, a rock version of “Rhapsody in Blue” would be threaded throughout the program; a country version would play on the country channel; a jazz version on the jazz channel, etc. Most importantly, the signature recordings were developed to be identifiable no matter which version a consumer hears.

Results
The United Airlines Audio Logo achieved significant impact and
resonance with consumers and is recognized around the world.

DMI integrated “Rhapsody in Blue” into the following touch points: