Sonic Branding for Small Businesses with Jeff McQuilkin

“They loved what I did. They put it on the ad, and they reported back to me six months from then that the ad had over-performed, that it had helped them get more than half a million dollars in revenue. And they had gone from near zero brand visibility in that market to almost top of mind in the polls. Six months. So, I looked at that situation, and I said, ‘That was real value.’ Then I looked at the landscape, and I saw that virtually nobody was offering this to small businesses. I knew what sonic branding was, but the agencies that are doing it are mostly serving the enterprise-level companies. So that was the need that I saw. I saw where I could add value, and I actually had a good time doing it. I was just helping to tell a brand story instead of a story of film and TV. So, as I began to get more projects like this, it made sense to create a company around it.” – Jeff McQuilkin This episode’s guest is an award-winning composer who’s created musical scores for numerous acclaimed indie films, as well as music for TV series such as History Channel’s American Pickers and Oxygen’s Snapped. He’s also the founder of JetstreamSONIC, a boutique agency offering affordable sonic branding to small businesses, empowering them to become top-of-mind over their competitors and to make their marketing better remembered, using the same audio techniques used by global brands. His name is Jeff McQuilkin, and if you want to learn how to turn raw emotion into audio, why great composers love silence, and how to use sound to stand out in a noisy world, keep listening. And if you like what you hear and you want to support this podcast, there are a bunch of ways to do that at audiobrandingpodcast.com, including subscribing to the YouTube channel, the newsletter, writing a review, or buying me a coffee. Because this takes a lot of coffee. Thanks so much. (00:00) – Sound and Film Scoring Our conversation starts off with Jeff’s early memories of sound, particularly the dramatic change that moving from California to Michigan brought as a child. “I think the first time sound really shook me was the first time I was ever in a thunderstorm,” he recalls. “When I was five, I moved to Michigan, where we did have them. And that was the biggest sound I’d ever heard.” We talk about how he got into the sound industry and what he’s learned from working in film and television, such as the unexpected value of silence in setting the mood. “What you need are the things that are unspoken,” Jeff explains. “What you need is to feel the subtext. And so I’ve learned to look for the things that are left unspoken, and what the characters might be feeling, or just the overall mood of the space.” (15:36) – Sonic Brands for Small Businesses Jeff tells us what inspired him to found JetstreamSONIC, and how social media helped create a gap in the sonic branding industry. “When the ad music field started gravitating away from jingles and more toward licensed music,” he says, “and the small business world moved over to digital media and social media and YouTube and podcasting, they began creating content in a new field, and I think somewhere along the way they just kind of forgot about the sound signals.” We discuss how audio branding has made a comeback in recent years, and how its online focus compares to brick-and-mortar techniques. “They’ll talk about what kind of scent we can put in the air,” Jeff says, “what kind of soundtrack are we going to put on the speakers, what environment are we creating? Scent, sight, sound to engage the senses as a brand experience…. Online, we have sight and sound, and we use sight a lot.” (29:10) – The Need for Original Sound As the first half of our conversation comes to a close, Jeff shares his thoughts on making the best use of sonic branding. “To have an effective sonic brand,” he explains, “it needs to basically be at least three things. It needs to be original, it needs to be memorable… and it needs to be exclusive. In other words, your brand is the only place that sound occurs.” We discuss the impact of AI and particularly how evolving copyright and licensing laws are helping shape its role. “There is kind of a guardrail against AI in what I do,” Jeff tells us, “because it is intellectual property. Like I said earlier, somebody needs to own the copyright. If it can’t be copyrighted, it shouldn’t be part of your brand.” Episode Summary Our discussion on how silence is used effectively in film scores. Jeff explains the importance and process of creating sonic identities. Exploring studies on how sound influences brand memory. Tune in for next week’s episode as we discuss how small businesses can use sonic branding to stay ahead of the competition, the lessons Jeff has to share about overcoming imposter syndrome and committing to a creative project, and where he draws the line between old-time jingles and sonic logos. Connect with the Audio Branding Podcast: Book your project with Voice Overs and Vocals by visiting https://voiceoversandvocals.com Connect with me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jodikrangle/ Watch the Audio Branding Podcast on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/c/JodiKrangleVO Connect with me on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodikrangle/ Leave the Audio Branding Podcast a review at https://lovethepodcast.com/audiobranding (Thank you!) Share your passion effectively with these Tips for Sounding Your Best as a Podcast Guest! https://voiceoversandvocals.com/tips-for-sounding-your-best-as-a-podcast-guest/ Get my Top Five Tips for Implementing an Intentional Audio Strategy https://voiceoversandvocals.com/audio-branding-strategy/ Editing/Production by Humberto Franco - https://humbertofranco.com/ This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy