The Unexpected Blend of Art, Innovation, and Sonic Branding That Transformed a Telecom Giant
1. PUT YOUR BRAND EVERYWHERE
It’s another day on the subway—riders are glued to their screens, some lost in some far corner of the Digital Global Collective. The subway hums under New York, speeding beneath the city’s rhythm. And then—ping—that T-Mobile ringtone.
Five notes.
That’s how we launched T-Mobile’s sonic branding. It wasn’t just a jingle. It was the sound of a global takeover, a brand carved into people’s minds with one quick tone. Simple. Iconic. It stuck. And just like that, the whole world was listening.
2. BUILD YOUR NETWORK IN ALL DIRECTIONS
Flashback 20 years, and we’re setting up shop in Union Square. Back then, it felt like the edge of nowhere. We built our studio, not knowing how fast everything would change.
The call came from Interbrand. Interbrand is one of those super-sized marketing think tanks, and they’d been charged with taking a stodgy old government brand, Deutsche Telkom, and launching a new look, feel, and emotion—a vibe to connect to the rapidly emerging global telecommunications market.
They wanted a ‘corporate acoustic.’ Yeah, that’s a thing. We didn’t fully see what was coming, but we were hyped. That moment was the shift. You could feel it in the air—the old-school ways were done. The world was moving, and we had to move faster. Spoiler: We did.
3. THE MAGIC IS IN THE BRIEF
Two days later, the brief hit: pink. The big “T.” Digits that meant something more profound. And the challenge? Crafting a sound, a vibe, a global identity—all from scratch. But here’s the real deal: that brief wasn’t just a doc; it was the blueprint for the future. We dove in, breaking down every piece. We weren’t just making a sound but crafting a whole world. That’s the kind of project you live for—turning a brand into a vibe that the world can’t ignore.
4. RANDOM RESEARCH LEADS TO BREAKTHROUGHS
I hit the library with my daughter. Sounds old school? Trust—it’s where the magic happens. These days, Google gives you answers, but it doesn’t give you the journey. I wanted randomness. I wanted the unexpected. So we roamed the stacks. What’s one word every human knows? We flipped through dictionaries, and it hit us—“hello.” The one word that transcends languages. We had our anchor.
5. LET YOUR INFLUENCES GUIDE YOU
Looking at T-Mobile’s graphic, I thought about those dots and pulses—digits connecting the world. It reminded me of aboriginal art I’d seen in Australia, with lines representing journeys. I hit play on Terry Riley’s In C, and wandered the city, feeling the pulse of the music sync with the city’s energy. That’s how I saw it—T-Mobile’s digits represented a global pulse, like an ancient rhythm meeting digital life.
6. CONNECT EMOTION THROUGH VOICE
Next, language. I dived into this wild concept: glossolalia. It’s like a made-up language but with emotion behind it. Vowels are universal, no matter where you’re from. So I thought, why not create a language everyone feels? That became the core of the voice for T-Mobile’s sound—something everyone could vibe with, whether or not they understood the words.
8. COLLABORATION IS AN ART
I brought in my crew—Mike Harvey, a vocal genius, and Lance Massey, a talented composer. They got it. They understood the vibe we were going for—global, modern, and pulsing with energy. We built something that captured everything: sound, rhythm, and emotion. We were creating more than a brand—we were making a sonic identity.
9. POWERFUL RESULTS COME FROM ORGANIC PROCESSES
Lance nailed it. He turned those digits into a five-note mnemonic—a simple, catchy sound that would be the signature of T-Mobile. It was genius. That five-note pulse became the brand's heartbeat, but everything around it—the layers of sound, the global vibes—made it powerful.
10. FINISH YOUR WORK
Our mixer, Tim Leitner, pulled it together in the final stretch. It wasn’t just a sound logo but a sonic journey connecting voices worldwide. Mike’s voice added that last layer of emotion, and we had it—a global anthem built from scratch, repping a new world of communication. That’s how we created T-Mobile’s sound.
Never underestimate the Power of the Pitch. We built an entire anthem to contain the T-Mobile ringtone, and it was received so well that it landed us a recording contract with BMG.
Here's the full music pitch below.
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