When we did the branding study to create the new sound trademark, we discovered that airport users wanted more agility, less sensuality, increased sound experiences and more comfort. We then set out to create a Sound Branding strategy aimed at the brand audience.

Everything has a context

Airports are small towns where airline companies, service providers, representatives of the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa), the Federal Police, the Department of Agricultural Defenses and Air Traffic Control from Air Force Command all inhabit. The audience was feeling disoriented and inevitably charged all problems there to Infraero. At the root of this confusion was the shared usage of the airport’s sound system.
In 2010, Zanna Agency sought out the Brazilian Airport Infrastructure Company (Infraero) marketing directors to present our perception of the problem and its solutions. In May 2012, the agency was invited to develop the Sound Branding guidelines and brand voice tone of Brazilian airports.

Music theme and sound logos

Infraero’s music theme has a world music pop rhythm. It is agile without being frantic and embodies sound textures typical of Brazil that are also familiar to foreign ears. We recorded alfaias, accordion, cuíca, berimbau, guitar with nylon strings and, in counterpoint, international instruments such as a flute, guitar with steel strings, cello, box, cajon and ukulele. This mix is reflected on the three sound logo examples that anticipate institutional, operational, and commercial messages at airports.

Airport brand voice and tone

Our research revealed that the brand voice of the airports, which encompasses the travel experience for Brazilians and foreigners alike, spent decades at odds with the brand personality of Infraero: a successful, experienced, and cosmopolitan businesswoman. Thus, the new brand voice and tone should be of a 40-year-old Brazilian woman who speaks various languages.

Casting calls were done in three stages. Among more than sixty voices, Ana Paula de Aquino, originally from Bahia, but living in São Paulo, was chosen to be the brand voice of Infraero. Integrated with a comprehensive Sound Branding project, Ana’s beautiful vocal tone and overall change in personality and tone have helped the company in an unprecedented way. The brand started to speak its messages more sympathetically. The serious style of communication “Infraero informs: this airport is closed for landings and takeoffs without forecast for normalization” gave way to a language that felt closer to the audience. “Passenger, landings and takeoffs will return to normal as weather conditions improve”. Do you feel the difference? That’s how a new brand voice, tone and personality can change communication from being negative and difficult to a positive feeling.

Applications

The music theme, sound logos and voice of airports were applied to the set of messages in Portuguese, English and Spanish, SAC, telephone and ombudsman service, internet content, social media and various other applications. Zanna also made a training video to explain how the Sound Branding should be used in brand management and trained strategic areas to adopt the company’s new brand voice and tone in advertising. The goal was to bring this new way of speaking to frontline staff and airport attendants.

Recognition

“We had no idea of the grandeur and reach of Sound Branding until we met Zanna Agency. That’s why the theme wasn’t at the top of the company’s list of priorities. I realized that the field of sound brand is very broad and can help us to make the necessary transformations that the company needs to communicate. Through it, we understood the need to review all of our ways of communicating, something we’ve already started. ” Lea Cavallero, Assistant to the president of Infraero.