Rio, 40 degrees, a city full of people. The music of Baroque Vivaldi echoes throughout Rio’s subway stations. The project of creating a Sound Branding identity for a transportation company emerged in this context. The study we did revealed four personality attributes that are fundamental for a brand:

Music theme and sound logos

These four attributes were used as the basis for creating the music theme and the three sound logo examples that precede the operational messages, institutional messages and announcements. It worked so well that the music of Metrô Rio became a trend at graduations and among the city’s urban line dancers!

Brand voice and verbal tone

In a cold and mechanical setting, the warm brand voice of MetrôRio, which speaks in the same accent as the citizens, quickly became a companionship for Cariocas. “At first, I thought it might be risky to occupy this place, but I rose to the challenge and today I love being the voice that drives the journey for thousands of people”, said Zanna.

We trained the drivers to speak as if they were airplane pilots in order to create an alignment between the verbal tone and the brand voice of Rio’s subway. It was so successful that several of them were featured in newspapers for using phrases such as: “Good morning! I hope all your dreams come true.”

Applications

Our Sound Branding strategy is present in all train and station messages, in URA (Land-lines), in movies, advertising spots, and door sounds. This is the first soundscape in Brazil. We added the sounds of Rio’s forests to the music theme, creating the sound of the stations. As you purchase tickets – at the machines or at the box office – you can also hear our sound trademark to call the next in line.

Affection marketing

The pandemic has shown people’s passion for the sound of MetrôRio. An audio message we released on WhatsApp went viral in Brazil: “Next station: your living room, connection station to your bedroom and the kitchen. Next stop your dining room. Mind the gap.” The audio was featured on different media outlets after more than 1,300 videos were created on TikTok with an average of 48 million hits. And so it goes…

TikTok Videos