Intentional | Audio Identity Blog

Something that received a lot of buzz earlier this month in traditional media — but seemingly nowhere online — is the new, Katie-Couric-enabled CBS Evening News anthem/intro/outro music (the stuff they play as the show begins, and as they cut to commercials, etc.).

For those of you with a Wall Street Journal account, here’s the story — yes, with accompanying sounds.

Sure, it’s an interesting story. (Contact me offline if you’d like to “read my copy.”) But in the last few weeks it’s been gnawing at me about this. I think I have a handle on it, so here we go:

It’s nifty to read about how much thought went into the overall process: Hollywood composer James Horner was challenged with creating something that packs an entire, proud legacy of quality reporting into a ten-second piece of music: “The music couldn’t sound too similar to the “Roman fanfares” of NBC and ABC, Mr. Horner says, adding, “Katie told me she wanted something that reminded her of wheat fields blowing rather than Manhattan skyline.”

Got that? History. Quality. Past. Future. Legacy. And fields of wheat. Clearly, Horner and company had a challenge before them. Almost impossible, unless you can sell upstream. And I’m not sure that’s the case here.

I’m not interested in pointless criticism of anyone’s work — all too often clients can whittle down the most beautiful creative work into a simple slice of Wonder bread — but this anthem just doesn’t cut it. Not because I personally don’t like it, but because it doesn’t seem grounded. It doesn’t stand for anything.

It sounds almost identical, in fact, to the John-Williams-composed NBC Nightly News theme (also playable at the WSJ site). And that’s not just me blowing heat: as an exercise during an audio-branding presentation to groups of 50-plus people, I’ve played both themes, unidentified, and only half the crowd ever guesses the difference between the NBC and CBS news themes. (Imagine the results if I threw in the sounds for ABC, CNN or Fox News.)

Here’s why that matters. Just as with any other brand communications, a sonic identity should definitvely identify your organization — and clearly differentiate you from your competitors. But it appears as though CBS has rebuilt their audio identity to establish themselves as simply being in the club: hey, we’re here. Still around, dammit. We Are A Network That Has News.

Sure, sometimes “not dead yet” can actually be an effective brand strategy. Show your pulse. Pop in now and then. But that’s not what the CBS goal was, not at least as stated in the article. And that’s Lost Opportunity Number One: they’re not telling us how unique they are; they’re telling us exactly how much alike they are to those Other Big Network Shows.

Which brings us to Lost Opportunity Number Two: the sound, from what I can tell, only lives in a tiny little place called the Broadcast Version of the CBS Evening News. Why?

Even if your sound is just like The Other Guy, surely there’s a way to extend the brand and leverage it in an innovative fashion — pluck a short melody out of that existing Horner piece, truncate (pick the catchiest part) or perhaps tweak it a little, and use it everywhere the brand lives: yes, go ahead, play it during the news.

But what about extending it to the CBS website? What about the network promos? What about taking that theme and building that earworm factor into everything I ever see or hear that has to do with CBS? Journalist blogs, cell phone distributed content, ringtones, and so on.

There’s so many ways to grow this investment. I’m surprised I haven’t seen any of them implemented yet. And I’m disappointed that there’s this much buzz about a branding vehicle that doesn’t seem like either a strategic or a tactical fit. Yet.
Let’s hope that changes. They have the material, and they can use it as a palette or a foundation, rather than a one-off. It’s up to them. I hope for the best.