Ritter Sport: Audio Branding Initiative

Speaker: Uli Reese
Client: Ritter Sport
Agency: iV2 – Germany/USA

Abstract (Description of the project by iV2)

“Ritter Sport, celebrating their 100th year as one of the premier, family owned chocolate brands in Europe, wanted to establish a unique audio presence for their brand. A Request For Proposal (RFP) was issued and, after careful consideration, the brand and their Agency of Record (Kolle Rebbe) awarded iV2 the task of launching a robust audio branding initiative.

Heavily focused on analysis, design, creation, testing, and implementation, our process highlights include:

Strategic analysis, culminating in a written brief and distilling the core essence, values, and attributes of the Ritter Sport brand into a series of five key observations.
Positioning of the brand on an x/y axis of arousal and valence, creating a “target” for the development of audio brand assets.
Use of workshops to further define the sonic brand space and to foster more objective ways for both agency and client to listen, think and communicate about sound.
Creation of more than a dozen original brand themes featuring an embedded brand mnemonic, all designed to be congruent, distinct, flexible, recognizable and ownable audio reflections of the brand.
Partnering with Copenhagen based Delta Senselabs for the design and implementation of a quantitative testing methodology, demonstrating the value and accuracy of the iV2 process and yielding data that informed more objective decisions about audio choices.
A “Product Sound Tool Kit” created from studio recordings of natural product sound formatted into an extensive sound library, available for use by audio post professionals.
A written Audio Style Guide that effectively aligns multiple audio brand elements (including Brand Mnemonic, Brand Theme, Brand Voice, Product Sound, Advertising Sound and Soundscapes) across a variety of touchpoints.
Educational presentations provided for brand champions at both Ritter Sport and Kolle Rebbe, helping them understand the audio branding process and results, along with the necessary management of the audio branding assets to maximize ROI.

Several months and several pounds of chocolate later, the Ritter Sport audio brand has debuted in broadcast commercials, soundscapes, on hold loops, social media, cinemas, and corporate videos, beginning to build awareness and equity in their audio brand. iV2 continues to provide management and support to both Ritter Sport and Kolle Rebbe to insure that the audio brand is used as consistently as possible, as often as possible, and in as many contexts as possible.

Video Presentation

Time period of realization

Strategy, Design, Asset Creation,Testing: August 2011 – January 2012
Implementation: March 2012 – On Going

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In addition to the published information this case includes material that is confidential and only for the eyes and ears of the jury.