Bunnings tops SCA and Veritonic’s first Audio Logo Index study

Southern Cross Austereo has partnered with audio intelligence platform Veritonic to produce the first study into the most effective brand audio logos in Australia.

Top results for authenticity, likeability, uniqueness and high recall were the primary drivers of the sonic brand’s success, with Bunnings ranking #1 Victoria Bitter #2.

The Top 10 Included Toyota, McDonald’s, Telstra, Coles, Intel, AAMI, Woollies and Harvey Norman.

The landmark Audio Logo Index study used Veritonic’s audio intelligence platform to collect data on the top 26 audio logos in Australia.

The platform used machine listening and learning algorithms to identify trends, strengths and weaknesses and collected response data from 2,100 people from SCA’s Insights Community.

Respondents listened to each logo and assessed it on a range of attributes, as well as brand familiarity and memorabilia. The platform then assigned each sonic brand a Veritonic Audio Score, the only standard measure of audio creative effectiveness.

SCA’s national head of creativity, Matt Dickson, said audio branding is important for advertisers because it “lives everywhere”.

“Audio logos when done well offer effortless attribution and recall of a brand across audio, TV, on-premise and online. Part of the reason for this is audio’s unique relationship with the brain. A good audio logo will get stuck in your head and virtually never leave.”

Bunnings’ sonic brand had winning scores across almost every indicator including recall, correct identification of brand and industry and emotional attributes like trust.

Victoria Bitter, number two brand on the Index, matched Bunnings for emotional attributes including authenticity, likeability and uniqueness; qualities that map to high recall.

“Each of these businesses is both long-established and among the brands spending the most on marketing in Australia. In fact, all of the top-10-scoring brands on the Index – which claimed an average recall score of 97 – are heavy ad spenders,” Dickson said

Across categories, fast-moving consumer goods was the best performing industry, driven by brands such as VB and SPC. Retail followed closely behind, with automotive as the lowest-performing sector.

The study is also conducted by Veritonic in the US and UK and several international brands scored consistently across the three countries, with Intel and Netflix top performers.

Audio logos featuring a melody had a 20% higher memorability and brand association than those that did not. All of the top 10 audio logos – including McDonald’s, Woolworths, Telstra, AAMI and Coles – used melody as a memorable device.