Sonic branding is the embodiment of your brand through sound. It brings to mind jingles such as “I’m Lovin’ It” for McDonald’s or the iconic sound that accompanies the start of streaming services like Netflix. However, sonic branding encompasses far more than these examples. Nowadays, numerous brands strive to establish a unique audio identity that resonates throughout various brand encounters.

Sonic Lens Agency is one of the best in the industry for businesses looking to develop their own sonic branding and go beyond just the mnemonic. Sonic Lens Agency empowers brands to use music strategically in their marketing by providing music intelligence that helps companies understand the competitive landscape.

The following excerpts are from a conversation with Marco Vitali, the Founder of Sonic Lens Agency

Q. What was the series of events that led to the founding of Sonic Lens Agency?

Arriving at Sonic Lens Agency was a long, unconventional journey. While I thought my non-music career detours had taken me off course, they turned out to be the very reason we have a competitive advantage in our space. 

Like everyone else running a music agency, I am a musician. At age 3, I was practicing violin an hour a day, admitted to Juilliard by 11, and concertizing around the world by 17. But then came the long detour. I stopped pursuing music and instead focused on getting a business education. I earned MBAs in marketing and finance from NYU. After that, I worked for 9 years trading bonds at JPMorgan Securities. Without this experience, I would probably be doing sonic branding the same way as everyone else, not have developed our “music intelligence” process, and consequently have no competitive advantage.

I was first noticed by the renowned producer Nile Rodgers, who became my manager and eventually my business partner. All of a sudden, I was working with my idol and his many Grammy-winning friends, co-writing, recording, producing, performing, and scoring films. I witnessed what real overdrive looks like and what one man can do if he dares to burn really bright. I’ll never be anywhere close to his genius, but it sure makes me want to try!

The second key event was uncovering the opportunity — a significant void in the marketing and branding sectors for “music intelligence.” I first learned about sonic branding when I was hired by a major global sonic branding agency to launch their business in the US. I was amazed that no one in the field was putting real substance behind their creative work. No agency had developed an analytical, insight-driven, strategy-first approach to integrating music into marketing. And this is dealing with the master brand — a business’ most valuable asset!

I had uncovered a valuable and unique service that no one else was offering, and I spent the next several years developing a way to bridge marketing science with creativity for clients. It’s called “music intelligence” — the reason Nile partnered with me in the agency business. It’s also why Sonic Lens can do effective and award-winning work in an industry dominated by established music houses.

Q. Why did you choose to start a creative agency helping businesses with their sonic strategy and audio branding?

I love music, branding, and doing stuff nobody else has done yet. I believe I am trying to establish a new direction in sonic branding, as not much has been explored beyond traditional approaches. It can do much more than people realize. Sonic branding can define brands and their relationships with people. Did you know music is the #1 passion area of people on planet Earth?  Did you know audio cues are 8x as effective as visual logos at triggering unaided brand recall?  The sky is the limit because my field is incredibly far from where it should be. There is tremendous value that is untapped in the world of music and brands, and our approach helps brands discover and unleash it — and gives senior marketers a huge win, not to mention pretty consistent gold trophies for their shelves!

Q. How has Sonic Lens Agency grown since its inception?

I only launched Sonic Lens after fully developing our more strategy driven approach and proving it in the marketplace. While I oversaw all the sonic branding projects depicted in the graph, I constantly focused on developing my own “music intelligence” process over a decade. This process is now our main advantage over our competitors. As shown in the chart, this has resulted in gold for every project undertaken since launching our agency.

Now that testing has come into play, the results Sonic Lens is achieving have been consistently off the charts. A bank rebrand we just tested received high praise from Sentient Decision Science, who declared, “This is one of the strongest performing sounds we’ve seen.” Another example proven by testing is Disney Junior EMEA, which assessed our work against their previous sound branding with 820 kids and parents. To quote their ECD, “Music intelligence enabled us to pinpoint specific connection points with our audience with laser accuracy and deliver on key objectives from our brief.”  The results were beyond what anyone expected, like 98% of kids found it memorable, 78% of kids liked the new brand track, with 41% of girls saying they “loved” it.  83% of kids agreed the new music was “fun,” and 70% of kids agreed the music was “exciting.”  

Q. What challenges has Sonic Lens Agency encountered over the years that have shaped the company into what it is today?

I guess our first challenge was to avoid falling into the churn-and-burn trap of large music agencies. I was offered an opportunity to lead a sonic branding division for a big NY agency.  Tempting, but feeding a big staff and covering high overhead costs results in churn and burn — I witnessed it firsthand. Taking shortcuts in sonic branding leads to subpar work. If I were doing this for the money, I would’ve kept my job on Wall Street. I’m not interested in doing the most work; I’m interested in doing the best work. 

Another challenge that helped forge us into a unique agency was honing creative direction. In this industry, ‘analysis’ usually has no direct bearing on creative direction, so briefs have been very open-ended. As a result, composers weren’t given clear instructions, only a few paragraphs and reference tracks. Despite the importance of crafting a master brand asset, agencies were relying on composers who had no idea what the brand needed to provide a magical answer and then had to sell it to clients based on nothing but subjectivity. This was a major problem and not fair to clients!

This frustration led to the development of “music intelligence” and our “creative briefs 2.0,” which are long and detailed, taking at least an hour to read and absorb. If a company hires an agency to define their brand with sound, the agency’s job is to eliminate creative risk as much as possible before spending their money. The hardest work should come before creative work starts — in the thinking and strategy phases. This is what shaped our business. We offer a detailed document to music creators, showing clearly our objectives, methods, and examples through sound to tell the story. Clients are confident in the music we ultimately create because they know exactly what to expect, and award-winning artists and composers constantly share with me that our briefs are unique in our field. They love working in a smaller creative sandbox, knowing exactly what the client wants, and having tons of inspiration provided to draw from. We reduce creative risk for clients by making informed decisions before investing in production and by selecting the most talented professionals for the job.

One final challenge I found quite natural to resolve was coordinating cooperation between people I bring on board to achieve specific creative demands. I have teamed artists from different continents and time zones to work together on projects more often than I’ve had them in the same physical studio. I’ve found that great talent is usually quite humble and collaborative. I see myself as the conductor of an orchestra, responsible for ensuring that everyone works together in harmony and sync.

Q. What sets Sonic Lens Agency apart from most other creative agencies? How does the company make a difference for its clients?

We get “in between” — into the neglected space between clients and vendors that is preventing real progress in our field — the critical role of figuring out exactly what’s needed by providing a strategic framework. If you believe that sonic branding is important just because others are doing it and you hire someone to create your brief, you are not fully realizing your potential.

Sonic Lens is here to investigate, look for opportunities, and help you see them. Help you do more with sound than you expected. We are not just here to execute great creative; we are experts in delivering platinum-level experience. We’ll hold a lens to the sonic landscape and discover how you can resonate better than everyone else. We create personalized music and sound systems to work in various ways and to enhance your brand. We prioritize strategy over tactics. We don’t just create assets; we give brands a voice and the flexibility to use them however they need to.

Q. Can you talk about Sonic Lens Agency’s incredible range of sonic strategy and audio branding services?

First, we are a platinum level creative music agency — adhering to my experience running an agency with the legendary Nile Rodgers. We offer creative services such as recording, production, and music supervision. That said, what makes us unique is our “music intelligence” consulting and strategy-first approach. This is all the marketing science, research, analysis, data insights, and strategic development that we conduct before producing any music. We offer a marketing lens that helps clients and agencies understand the sonic landscape and pretty much author their own tailored sonic strategy. This inevitably results in much more than just standard mnemonics and anthem packages. We develop holistic and flexible “sonic identity systems” and many other innovative ideas that make use of the immersive, sound-filled world we now live in.  We advance greater business objectives for clients than simply creating memory devices, which is what most marketers still think sonic branding is limited to.

Q. It is not every day or everybody that gets to work with music legends like Nile Rodgers and The Wu-Tang Clan or brands like MTV and Disney. How was your experience working with them?

Thank you for that “pinch me” question. I feel lucky to work on amazing projects and collaborate with my heroes. Especially Nile and RZA. Just being in their orbits has been a huge blessing in my life, which I don’t take for granted. I’m a musician, first and foremost. Nothing beats collaborating with Nile Rodgers or RZA on music. It’s amazing to go to Nile’s house to record strings or to assemble an orchestra for RZA’s 36 Chambers performance in NYC. Also, being in his Hulu show is a great experience! Nile paired us up when he was my manager, and amazingly, RZA still calls me to work on his genius projects. I even got to play his “maestro” in Hulu’s Wu Tang: An American Saga! I’m not sure why I’m so lucky!. When I was 10, I wanted to be a concert violinist. Now, I have the opportunity to work and perform with these music legends, and I consider it an unbelievable blessing. I’m so grateful. 

I love teamwork, especially in the creative phases, and have always gotten great results from putting talented people together. Whether it’s collaborating with marketing scientists or music talent, my role is team building with heavy active participation. Like Nile once told me, his secret to producing so many bands (Bowie, Madonna, INXS, Duran Duran, Daft Punk, etc.) was becoming a member of their band and working as a peer from the inside. It’s collaboration as a mentor as well as a participant, and I love the way this works and love doing it.

Meet the Founder

Marco Vitali is the Founder of Sonic Lens Agency. Marco started playing violin at the young age of three and entered Juilliard at the age of eleven. He holds MBAs in Marketing and Finance from NYU and has a decade on Wall Street in his background. In addition to an impressive collection of top industry awards for sonic branding, he has won numerous titles, including “Brand Strategist of the Year” in 2022 and “Creative Director of the Year” in 2023 by Transform Magazine, and has worked with artists like Nile Rodgers, Wu Tang Clan, Quincy, Aviici, Ceelo, J. Geils, Q-Tip, Pete Rock, and many more.

And working with global brands like Disney is wonderful! I really love the marketing community and working with branding professionals and their agencies — incredible thinkers and enthusiastic collaborators and creators. I’ve never had a bad experience with any client or partner — ever! I can’t say that for my former Wall Street career…

“Sonic branding is evolving at breakneck speed, and we are pushing the boundaries of this exciting frontier by creating the world’s most sophisticated sonic identity systems.”

“We find the right mix of music intelligence, creative and amplification to supercharge your sonic strategy and audio branding.”