As you’re reading this, take a step back and listen. You might hear the birds chirping, children playing in the background, housemates pottering around in another room. Different noises can have varying effects on our mood and the way we experience things; you may find that you’re trying to read this article in peace but you’re constantly interrupted by your very noisy neighbours, thereby putting you on edge. Sound is a sensory experience, and it can be incredibly useful to harness its power for your event.
Using Sound to Create a Mood
Making sure that your event is giving off good vibes and creating a great mood will work wonders for the overall experience of your visitors. For your event attendees, their senses are the tools they will use to establish whether or not they approve of your event, so you should definitely think about the soundscape you plan to create.
Create a balance between disorganised and organised sound. The sound of people chattering and general human movement isn’t something that you can control, but you can control what goes on in the background.
Think about the kind of atmosphere that you want to create and from there you can decide whether or not to use music in your background noise. There’s a lot of space for experimentation with music, and finding the right tune to fit in with the theme of your event can create an array of different moods to enhance the overall experience.
A great example of music being used to create a mood is at theme parks. As customers walk through the entrance to the park, anticipatory, adventure-themed music plays in the background. The feeling of excitement and eagerness is heightened by the music and the thrill of the day out is enhanced.
Sound and Brand
Your marketing strategy will mostly involve visual cues that enable people to recognise your brand, but you can also use sound to enhance your brand and create a shortcut to recognition in people’s minds.
Think about the theme tunes, jingles and sonic ID’s that other brands have created. Netflix is a great example of a sonic ID that people will very quickly recognise without even needing to see the logo. These can be incorporated into the soundscape of your event and can enhance your branding strategy throughout.
Sound can also be used as a way to direct people, as a call to action. If you’re hosting a speed-networking conference, you can use sound to signal that it’s time for networkers to move onto the next person. Alternatively, if you’re going to be making announcements throughout the event, it might be useful to play a sonic ID prior to the announcement so that people will know to listen.
Using sound to direct visitors’ attention and influence the mood of your event is an important tool for a successful customer experience. There are plenty of ways to be creative with it, so why not give it a go?
Our Exceptional Experiences content stream at IBTM World Virtual will be covering many different aspects of experiential marketing, with top speakers from brands such as Bacardí, Philips and Virgin Atlantic.
Register to attend the show and you can all the sessions on Day 3 (10 December 2020) on our virtual platform!