Does Sonic Branding Actually Work? The Data Behind the Sound

Yes. When it's built properly, sonic branding measurably lifts ad recall, purchase intent and brand trust, and there's now enough independently run research to prove it, not just agencies (including us) saying so.

That's the short version. Here's the longer one, with the numbers.

• A 2023 Veritonic and Audacy study of 113 podcast and radio ads found sonic branding increased ad recall by 14% on podcasts and 17% on radio, with a matching lift in purchase intent.

• Tostitos added a single 1.5-second sonic logo to its ads and beat CPG category norms for ad recall by 20% and brand appeal by 13%.

• 139 of the world's top 250 brands now run a formal sonic identity, according to Bigeye's 2026 audio branding research, this stopped being a niche play some time ago.

• The data holds up, but only for sound built as a system. A one-off jingle bolted onto a media plan doesn't move any of these numbers on its own.

Before the data, a definition worth being straight about: sonic branding isn't a jingle, and it isn't background music. It's a deliberate, consistent audio identity: a sonic logo, a set of tones, a musical signature, applied everywhere a brand makes a sound, from a TV ident to an app notification. "Does it work" means one thing specifically: does that consistency change how people remember, trust and buy from a brand. On the evidence, it does.

The most rigorous public study on this came from Veritonic and Audacy in 2023, who analysed 113 podcast and radio ads across entertainment, auto, CPG and financial services. Ads carrying a consistent sonic brand saw a 14% increase in ad recall on podcasts and a 17% increase on radio, alongside real movement in purchase intent: not just "people remembered it," but "people were more likely to buy."

One case from that same research is worth sitting with: Tostitos added a single 1.5-second sonic logo across its audio and video ads. Nothing else changed. Ad recall beat the CPG category norm by 20%, brand appeal by 13%. That's the entire case for sonic branding in one sentence: a couple of seconds of consistent sound, and the numbers move.

Zoom out and the pattern holds. Bigeye's 2026 audio branding research puts brands with a strong, consistent audio identity at 8x higher recall and a 76% lift in brand power against those without one, and notes that 139 of the top 250 global brands now run a formal sonic identity, proof this has moved well past the experimental stage.

None of this works if the "sonic identity" is a three-second logo slapped on the end of an advert and left alone. We've made this argument before: a sonic logo is the least interesting thing about your sonic brand. The recall data above didn't come from isolated stings, it came from consistent use, across formats, over time. Consistency is the mechanism. Skip it, and you're just left with an expensive clip nobody connects to anything.

This is why our process starts with a brief, not a beat. We've been doing this since 2014 from our Shoreditch studio, and the brands we've built sonic identities for: Sky Atlantic, Premier League, Huel, DAZN, all needed the same thing: a sound that shows up the same way whether it's a title sequence, a stadium tannoy or a fifteen-second cutdown. That's a system, built to a brief, tested and refined in the studio, not a single asset. It's also, frankly, the more interesting job.

Does sonic branding actually increase sales?

Indirectly, yes. The published research measures purchase intent and ad recall rather than direct sales, but the two are established predictors of buying behaviour, and Veritonic and Audacy found sonic branding lifted both.

How long does it take before you see results?

Recall and recognition build with exposure, the same way a visual logo does. Brands running consistent sonic identities across their touchpoints tend to see measurable recall lift within the first few months of consistent use, not overnight.

Is sonic branding worth it for smaller brands?

Scale doesn't remove the fundamentals: a smaller media budget just makes consistency more important, not less, since you get fewer chances to be heard.

What's the difference between a sonic logo and full sonic branding?

A sonic logo is one asset: a short mnemonic. Sonic branding is the system it belongs to: the logo, the tone, the instrumentation rules, applied consistently everywhere the brand makes a sound.

Curious what the data would look like for your brand? Speak to the team and let's get in the studio.