Last week, the burgeoning advertising community of the MENA countries (Middle East, North Africa), along with a healthy dosage of Europeans and Asians, and a sprinkling of Americans, gathered for the first annual Dubai Lynx Ad Festival.
What a breath of fresh air, to be at the start of something new in the ad business. Of course, everything about Dubai is new. Three decades ago it was a little-known emirate on the Persian Gulf. But now, the world’s eyes are watching in awe as a megalopolis takes shape practically overnight.
In Dubai it is easy to get caught up in the feeling that anything is possible. How can you not when you are always in sight of the Burj, which at 164 stories is the world’s tallest building by far? But more important than mere size is the prevailing mindset: nothing is held back by convention or ritual, and talking big is nice, but making things happen is what really counts. It is very rare that any culture, or industry, so rapidly accepts outside people, outside ideas, and outside influences, and embraces them with open arms and open minds. Incredible things are being accomplished here with a clear plan, at breakneck speed.
So the location of this festival is very fitting, for it symbolizes what the global advertising business is becoming: a borderless, freethinking, interdependent community where execution of great ideas is prized above all. It’s a lesson we could all stand to learn a bit more. We talk a lot about change, adapting to a new marketplace, but in our case the pace is excruciatingly slow because frankly, we are afraid to let go of the practices and habits of the past, or to fully embrace the new.
We came to the Festival to meet clients, to scout office locations with our partner here, and to present a seminar on Audio Identity called “What Does Your Brand Sound Like?”
Audio Identity is an idea whose time has come. Using brand-based music and sound to orchestrate a consistent brand experience is a field that is enjoying rabid interest from our clients and rapid acceptance around the world as a new discipline. Marketers are starting to realize the sense of hearing may have been overlooked as a serious branding tool.
Our seminar demonstrates the power of music to enhance emotional connectivity, to boost recall and awareness, to influence sales at retail, and to create a cohesive brand identity–one that is held together across all touch points by cohesive and consistent application of audio.
Most brands have NO consistent standards for audio, and it shows. Most brands use 25-50+ unrelated bits of music and sound in their consumer communications, and treat music and sound as “disposable,” creating a superficial brand identity that may LOOK consistent, but sounds and feels schizophrenic and chaotic to the public. These mixed signals are detrimental to a strong brand and a missed opportunity to create additional brand assets and competitive advantage.
With the advertising business and the music business both being forced to re-invent themselves on the fly, and with both searching for new thinking, the idea that music and sound should be treated with the same care and discipline as the visual elements of a brand is one that is now ready for the mainstream.
Martin Pazzani is chairman/CEO of Elias Arts (mpazzani@eliasarts.com).
