"Turn on the magic button in your marketing efforts!"

Peter Philippe Weiss, you claim that sound is completely underestimated as a marketing dimension. Why is that?

Peter Philippe Weiss: Because sound is usually only understood as music or background music for videos and events. And that's where it is mainly used. But sound is so much more! It is the key to factors that are decisive for success in marketing. Research in the field of neuroscience shows how central emotions are. Or, as Dr. Häusler aptly puts it in his book "Neuromarketing": No Emotions - No Money. There is a dimension that is "pure emotion", so to speak. And which addresses precisely those areas in our motivation and pleasure center that make something "valuable" and worthy of attention in the first place - and thus influences the purchase decision. Which will that be?

How would you describe the strength of sound in one word?

Magic! Sound makes something magical. Just like in a movie: if you turn off the sound, the magic is immediately gone. Now you can create this magic not only in a movie, but also in a website, an event, a conference, an advertising campaign or even a brand. Sound brings the message, the story closer to the people - to be precise, the decisive five centimeters closer - from the surface into the people: into the head, into the heart - and into the whole body, into the spirit - it makes everything vibrate and resonate... This opens up a completely new way of thinking and using sound in marketing activities. Switch on the magic button in your marketing activities!

Specifically: How do you make marketing magical?

For example on the Internet: Here you can open up completely new possibilities with a new way of thinking: With a "Play the Atmosphere" or "Play the Story" button, you can have the user switch on the sound and then offer them a real soundtrack to the website. Or at events: Here you can create new impressions and a spectacle with multi-channel sound installations. Are you planning a new experience store? Let me ask you: do you still have music blasting from the ceiling - since 1970! - or are you already working with generative music/sound atmospheres?

Digital storytelling and social media strategies are on everyone's lips. Can you also offer new solutions here with sound?

For sure! Especially when it comes to storytelling. Let me ask you back: What is real, original storytelling? Where did storytelling begin? Several tens of thousands of years ago, when stories, myths and fairy tales were told by the fire. Nothing is more magical, indeed more gripping, than a good voice telling a good story! That is Sound! And with a good podcast, you have the listener 100 percent with you! 100 percent attention, highly emotional, imaginative. What other marketing platform can offer this quality?

What is it like with a brand? Can you also switch on the sound?

When you see the acoustic points of contact between a company and its customers, you can imagine the potential that a strategic auditory staging of a brand can mean. The corporate sound thus becomes the actual soundtrack of the company. And it is practical. Companies are producing more and more videos. But now you have to think about which sound is the right one for each video. With a corporate sound library, you have a toolbox of ready-made brand sounds: intros/outros for videos, music tracks for telephone and events, background tracks for voice-overs. Ready to use! This saves time and money. And it's precisely tailored to the brand.

How can the audience approach this topic further?

I wrote the book: "When design leaves matter - Sound. The design of emotions, imagination and liveliness." This book is not written for sound professionals, but for you as an advertising and marketing professional. It shows you how you can use the mental design of the future for your marketing.

Personal details: Peter Philippe Weiss is an author, composer and inventor of corporate sound. He works as an artist, designer and speaker and is a guest lecturer at various universities and colleges (HSG St. Gallen, HTW Chur, FH Offenburg, etc.) as well as a jury member of the Red Dot Design Award. Corporate-sound.com

Interview: Mike Fruet