Marco Vitali, Managing Partner at Sonic Lens Agency, is something of a renaissance man. A musical prodigy and marketing specialist that has mastered both sides of his brain and cultivated a career as one of the foremost voices in sonic branding.
Today, we’ll be picking his brains about Sonic Lens and getting a masterclass in music intelligence.
How was your company born and where are you based?
Sonic Lens is a sonic branding agency launched in New York in 2019 - the culmination of my very strange career path which started when I was 3 years old and decided to "play" the violin.
It sounded like fun at the time, but little did I know I'd put in my 10,000 hours before I was a teen, enter Juilliard at 12, and years later run various music agencies with the very uncommon detours of underwriting fixed income securities on Wall Street, getting an MBA in finance (and marketing) at NYU, and then returning to music and partnering for years with the world's greatest music producer, Nile Rodgers (who happens to also be my idol).
It's the mix of tuning my brain to think music before I could read and write, experiencing creating music of the platinum artists like Nile, Quincy, Wu Tang, Q tip and many others, and appreciating the analytical skills I learned in finance that resulted in launching Sonic Lens in 2019 to provide a much-needed 'marketing lens' to music. Our purpose is to elevate music as a strategic consideration within the marketing mix through holistic sonic 'systems'.
Before Sonic Lens, I ran a music branding agency (Nile-Evoke) for Nile Rodgers, and before that worked with luminaries like Coke's first Head of Music, Umut Ozaydinli (who runs Deviant Ventures) and Daniel Jackson (who wrote the first book and coined the phrase "sonic branding"). We are boutique by design, but I bring the experience of crafting the sound of some of the world's most iconic brands (Coke, Chase, Colgate, etc.) through a process we call “music intelligence”.
When I was awarded "2022 Brand Strategist of the Year" by Transform Magazine (first time awarded to an audio company), judges summarized "His work centers around ‘music intelligence’, a sophisticated, data-driven means of consulting brands – making his contribution to brands invaluable. He creates fantastic work that is equally scientific as it is creative."
We're located in NY, but work with clients around the world. We believe nothing demands perfection and due diligence more than the master brand, therefore we only take on projects one at a time that allow us to do superior work with focus.
So far we've been extremely fortunate to work with visionary clients, and have the luxury of accessing a global network of incredibly talented artists, strategists, data scientists and others - enabling us to be recognized with top industry awards for every project we've undertaken.
What was the biggest challenge to the growth of your company?
We are boutique by design, so we do not have a significant marketing effort other than the quality and innovation of the work we do. We rely on clients spreading the word and the halo effect of winning top industry awards, and so far our growth has been pretty organic.
Meanwhile, there has been consolidation in the sonic branding industry and some very large, well funded agencies have emerged to whom most clients automatically call when in the market. They have PR machines and salesforces that are hard to compete with, so we don't try to.
There is plenty of work for everyone, and I just want to do the best work. I ran the North American arm of a large global churn and burn agency years ago, and I prefer to be a more focused agency that does superior work without the pressures of overhead and the need to juggle multiple projects to keep the lights on - which ultimately undercuts the quality of work brands deserve.
I believe delivering A- instead of A+ work is unacceptable because branding really is everything. When you do it, you get one shot to get it right - and if you do it sets in motion something beautiful that will flourish and blossom over time.
So yes, being a smaller fish swimming under the radar has its challenges when all the oxygen in the market is being dominated by the big players, but it's working for us so far.
Which was the first huge success that you can remember?
When I started my first business, which was a music house in NY called Soundguild, I was noticed by Nile Rodgers and became the first client signed to his management company as an artist and producer.
Nile is, in my mind, the greatest living music producer - responsible for making Madonna the biggest star in the world with "Like a Virgin", giving David Bowie his biggest record "Let's Dance", writing "We Are Family" and "Freak Out", practically inventing hip-hop via Sugar Hill Gang, and working with the greatest artists creating the biggest hits for over 4 decades.
The fact that he saw something in me in those difficult early days when I was scratching for work gave me the faith in my potential I desperately needed during some hard growth years. I wouldn't have persevered if it weren't for being part of Nile's 'family', most likely - and he proved to me what an insane work ethic could do.
We had that part in common - the 99% perspiration part of genius. I can only vouch for him about the other 1%, which he has in spades! We later reconnected and I became his partner running an audio branding agency called Nile-Evoke, which I later spun into Sonic Lens. Nile is my north start where my head goes whenever I feel the gnawing of doubt start to creep in.
What’s the biggest opportunity for you and your company in the next year?
I'm in a wonderful situation, even if I am David competing against some serious Goliaths. My field is way behind its counterparts on the visual branding side. Brand design is a sophisticated, mature industry but sonic branding had been doing things the same way for years and, in my opinion, has a lot to learn from how design agencies live and breathe.
Now that the world is suddenly sound on across so many new touchpoints, there is so much that hasn't been done that we're able to break new ground on virtually every project. It's a rare situation for any business to have so much opportunity still wide open, and I love being able to pioneer our way across what I think of as our sonic manifest destiny.
Right now we're working on a bank, and from studying what other banks are doing (or not yet doing) we've already identified innovations that are just sitting there waiting to be done. So, every job is our biggest opportunity - a chance to show the marketing world just what music and sound can actually achieve.
Can you explain your team’s creative process? What makes it unique?
"Music intelligence" is what sets us apart. It's a disciplined process that is tedious and time consuming, which is partly why nobody else really does it. As a kid who went to Juilliard for violin and would spend several hours each day over an entire year learning a single 8 minute concerto, discipline and tedium are in my DNA.
As someone who spent 8 years on a trading desk on Wall Street, I also have a deeper understanding of the value of analysis and how to do it. These things helped me develop our music intelligence process - immersion, analysis, strategy, data, workshopping, basically consulting with brand stakeholders so together we can craft a specific sonic strategy that integrates with all their branding systems and their complete marketing mix.
At the end of the day, the creative brief we produce is the keystone to everything. It's not brief at all - not what the industry is used to. 50-100 slides filled with music and sound that gives our partners total clarity around what to expect, why, and how it will be done.
This eliminates creative risk because the sandbox is so well defined, and it allows us to work with the most appropriate artists and gives them really great instructions and inspiration to do very targeted work. By the time we get to creative, we've solved the problem and get to enjoy the magic of creativity instead of hoping some composer will get lucky with his/her stab in the dark through some random demo process.
How does your team remain inspired and motivated?
We believe the power of sound is way underutilized, and we love the power of branding, and we love the joy of being the ones pushing the envelope. We especially enjoy seeing our work come into the world on a grand scale and create an effective voice for global brands. Other than performing on stage, I can't think of anything more fulfilling. And we believe what we do is very important.
When I was on Wall Street, I did not feel like my work was particularly important or meaningful. Now I've managed to turn that around, and I'm motivated to work even harder to do the very best work because it is very fulfilling. It took a long time to figure out what I'm supposed to do with my weirdly unique set of skills, and I'm incredibly lucky. I think everyone I get to work with feels like we're doing something important, and we're bringing more harmony into the world which is a beautiful thing.
When you think about it, can you think of anything more inspiring than music? It's beauty, art, science and visceral emotion all blended together, and it speaks directly to our soul. We all know how lucky we are to live and breathe it and to put more meaning around how marketers can work with it. Like Nile often says, there's nothing like the power of music to "speak to the souls of millions of people."
How has COVID-19 affected your company?
Amazingly, Covid only affected the demand for sonic branding services for a while, but it has not negatively affected how we work at all. In fact, it made our world tick better. Working virtually is what allows us to do what we do.
We're like a conductor making an orchestra sing with all its various sections (wind, brass, strings, percussion) without needing to all be in the same room. It doesn't matter if the client is in Canada, the producer in South Africa, and the design agency partner in Detroit. If we were stuck in some office where in-person still had this false sense of being mandatory for great work, we'd be at a disadvantage.
Now I can attend design meetings, talk to media planners, share ideas with creative directors, share audits with researchers, and oversee a recording session overseas all from my computer because Covid trained the world to be virtual.
Which agencies do you gain inspiration from? Do you have any heroes in the industry?
We gain inspiration from the brand design agencies - the JKR's, Interbrands, Pearlfishers, Lippincotts of the world. Clients trust them not only to handle design, but to oversee the strategic thinking behind their brands - a huge and important role to outsource.
They've put science and sophistication behind integrating their art into the science of marketing, enabling difficult conversations about how to solve abstract problems, and professionalizing the consulting aspects of a creative task. Like I said, audio branding is pretty far behind the design side which is why we try to team up with design agencies whenever possible and work as one team.
I greatly admire people like Michele Silvestri who runs Ford's design agency, Makerhouse in Detroit because she is not only a master designer but a master strategist, and she understands the importance of having sonic and design work together - as we did recently when branding DraftKings Network.
I also greatly admire other creative directors who are brilliant enough to play this dual role, like Lisa Smith at JKR who masterminded Burger King's beautiful and effective rebrand. And of course my forever partner Nile Rodgers remains my hero and idol on the music side of things.
The hardest working genius on the planet who not only produced many of the greatest records of all time but also produced iconic ads for brands like Nike back in the day.
What is one tip that you would give to other agencies looking to grow?
My advice is something I learned on Wall Street - you're only as good as your last trade. The minute you sacrifice quality to check a box or turn a profit, you sacrifice your growth. Clients need to know that literally everything you do, you do to perfection.
This is branding, not scoring commercials. This is master brand stuff which demands perfection. You should feel comfortable sharing all of your work with pride like an open book, and clients will inherently know you're the kind of agency that will leave no stone unturned and no idea undervalued, and they will feel comfortable letting you in. Quality over quantity, pride over profit.
How do you go about finding new clients/business? (Pitching, work with retainers, etc.)
We never enter a conversation with a one size fits all pitch. Any potential client deserves to hear insights that are thought provoking and enable them to understand exactly what we can do for them instead of just what we do in general.
We don't wait for an RFP, we try to inspire and excite on our first call by doing our due diligence and tailoring our initial pitch to the point where they see the value and are inspired to learn more about what we can unlock for them - and together with them.
We don't charge retainers, and we don't ask them to take the full plunge up front. We work in phases, and they pay as they go to lower their perceived risk. Our job is to convey value through great work along the journey.
As far as finding clients, we are still pretty far under the radar, and we like keeping a lot of our work secret so we can remain on the cutting edge. We're lucky to get work through word of mouth, and as more articles get written about our work and we continue winning top awards, we believe growth will come organically.
I'd rather turn down business than sacrifice the quality and focus we apply to any projects we take on, and I find clients actually respect and admire this managed growth approach - which is why we often beat the Goliath's of our field when we end up in head to head pitching situations.
What’s your one big hope for the future of the industry?
The marketing and branding disciplines might understand the power of music - that's hard not to get. But, they very rarely understand just how much it can do, how precise it can be as a form of communication rather than just an art form, and how strategically it can be conceived and integrated into a marketing mix.
Music will eventually play much more than a supporting role in marketing and branding. It can and will be a driver of marketing, sometimes at the very center of the wheel.
Our hope is not just to elevate the understood role of music and sound as a strategic consideration for marketers, but to integrate music earlier into best practices and foster deeper partnerships and integration within other aspects of marketing and branding so it becomes a truly holistic element in larger brand systems.
Basically, moving music from a tactical role to a more strategic, integrated and primary role in marketing and branding - and making sound a more important part of how brands create meaningful relationships with their consumers.
Do you have any websites, books or resources that you would recommend?
“Scratch – how to build a potent modern brand from the inside out” by Tim Galles is a must-read book! While it doesn't focus on music, it does convincingly convey the idea of "whole brands" and the idea of having a "red thread", or a north start that guides everything a brand thinks and does. It makes brands whole and gives them purpose and makes them authentic and believable, and something worth being passionate about whether you're inside the company or a consumer.
I love this because it breeds success, and because music can be part of this "red thread" - perhaps one of its most powerful threads because of its ability to speak so effectively and so specifically to people on a visceral, emotional level. I keep it on my desk and constantly open it to remind myself of what we're trying to achieve and how to think more holistically.
