Applying Sonic Insight to Brand Experiences with Steve Keller of SXM Media

Aug 14

Steve Keller is Sonic Strategy Director at SXM Media's Studio Resonate, supporting advertisers on SiriusXM, Pandora, and Soundcloud.

In this episode of Let's Talk Limbic Sparks, Steve reveals how sound informs brand perception and connection. He shares behavioral science expertise and the results of fascinating experiments with sonic stimulus to demonstrate its impact on what people convey and feel. We discuss how our instinctive emotional responses play an outsized role in our conscious thoughts and behavior.

Steve shares research insight around the use of AI voice versus human voice and how each affects trustworthiness of the message, as well as research on diversity in voice casting. We also talk about how our brain interprets multi-sensory stimulus, and ways brand experiences can become more engaging when they go beyond visuals, into experiences that include sound, taste, smell and touch.

Key Takeaways and Soundbites:

“Behavioral science helps us pursue an understanding of what's not there, at least what's not on the surface. Digging down to deeper motivations, where we think we make rational decisions, but at the end of the day, the decisions are really made usually in a moment, driven by primal emotions and we rationalize on the other side of it.”

“What we've come to understand from the science is that all of our senses are related. They don't really happen independently. So, one affects the others. Our brains are wired to make things fit. We're drawn to things that are congruent. If things are incongruent, that actually triggers surprise, wonder, maybe fear.”

“Brands that are able to look at multi-sensory dimensions, define them and build congruent experiences, where your experience of what you hear, see, taste, touch and smell with a brand is always consistent, then that's where brands can really win in building connection with consumers”

“In research on AI voices... there was a 50/50 chance that people got it right being able to say if it was an AI voice or a human voice... however, we found that subconsciously the human voices were ranked 25% more positive and 24% more trustworthy than AI voices... positivity and trustworthiness dropped when people were told it was an AI voice, even if it was really a human voice.”

“Brands need to lean more into long-term brand building where they're thinking about making emotional connections overall... The real benefits in branding are over the long-term - broad reach, emotional connection, mental availability.”

“At the end of the day, it's the consumer's experience of your brand that makes the difference.”

“Yes, we need to have the knowledge and the tools to think rationally, to use logic. That's not more important than being emotionally intelligent - being able to be in touch with what we're feeling and being able to be sensitive and empathetic to what others are feeling as well.”

Here are some fun facts about Steve…

Steve Keller is the Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate, SXM Media’s in-house audio-first creative agency, offering support to brands that advertise on the Pandora, SiriusXM, and Soundcloud platforms. He is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on sonic strategy and identity, blending art and science into award-winning creative content and sonic systems for a variety of global agencies and brands. His research explores the ways music, sound, and voice influence perception and behavior and can be found in the Journal of Advertising Research, Frontiers in Psychology, WARC, Music and Medicine, Journal of Multisensory Research, Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, and Journal of Food Quality and Preference.