Deutsche Telekom
Winners profile
The relatively young discipline of audio branding was recognised and established by Telekom early on as an important corporate building block. Now it has been consistently developed further in the form of an entire acoustic sound world. For this, Deutsche Telekom AG worked with the sound agency S12 and Klangerfinder GmbH – creating an orchestra that enriches the Telekom magenta world with captivating rhythms.
Interview with Deutsche Telekom | S12 | Klangerfinder
Red Dot: Did the Telekom jingle simply succeed in translating the brand perfectly, or does an audio logo also have to be learned by the target group first?
Deutsche Telekom | S12 | Klangerfinder: CH: Sound is easily grasped, emotionalising and almost universally understandable. Accordingly, the link between our sound logo and our brand was intuitive. Well over 60 per cent of Europeans associate the five-note jingle with Telekom and our products.
Now the audio logo has been developed further, but how did this “Telekom sound” come about?
AG: With the help of a modular brand sound system, all music genres and sound designs audibly resemble Telekom at all touchpoints without fail. This enables optimal recognition with maximum flexibility and creative diversity for all application areas.
Sound and (moving) imagery engage in inseparable symbiosis. How important is this unity?
AG: We always design our sounds in interplay with all other human senses. In this way, we achieve more immersive experiences and a significantly higher level of emotion. Likewise, we have been exploring the fascinating interplay of our sounds with haptics, scents and tastes for a number of years now. We are convinced that when several senses are addressed with a common goal, in the best case a “magic moment” of a brand is created that goes far beyond the addition of visual and acoustic stimuli.
CH: We see sound as a strategic subdiscipline of multisensory brand management. Ultimately, people perceive a brand with all of their senses.
Is the power of sound design still underestimated by companies?
CH: Sound makes brands audible, that is, they can be experienced acoustically. We call this the Telekom sound identity. Its purpose is to enhance the customer experience and to support brand recognition acoustically. It was developed on the basis of the brand positioning, contributes to a holistic customer experience and is thus an important building block of the Telekom DNA. Furthermore, sound plays an important role within digital products – supporting functions acoustically offers users additional feedback within an interaction scenario. Thus, we use music, sound design and speech across all touchpoints of our brand to enhance the holistic customer experience and achieve clear acoustic recognition in our communications, products and services.
