The Sound of SSC
WINNER 2022 | Category: Audio Branding
Entrant
Unmute
Abstract
In partnership with the Ministry of Sport in Saudi Arabia and the design agency WORKS -Unmute has created a new sonic brand identity for SSC (Saudi Sports Company). Four sports channels was launched during 2021 focused on Football, Motorsports, Multisports and Heritage Sports. All tied together by a distinct sonic identity designed for longevity.
Description
The new sonic identity for SSC (the only sports broadcaster in the Kingdom), required a contemporary sound, appealing to its under 30 demographic (70% of the population) and with creative depth to stand the test of time.
With a young native population that craves entertainment and where especially sports has proven extremely popular -and with a large number of arabic speaking countries – SSC expects to be bringing sports to a rapidly growing audience in the coming years. Another reason for the increased focus and interest in sports is the battle against obesity which has become a huge health risk nationwide. New sports facilities are continuously being established and promoted to increase the interest, motivation and health of the population.
From the outset Unmute suggested a unifying sonic brand across the four specialised SSC sports channels to achieve the highest degree of exposure and basis for brand recognition of the SSC brand from the get-go with common sonic assets in terms of sonic logo and shared motifs and other sonic elements – while still offering a differentiated direction and sonic palette that reflects the sport in focus on a given channel. Thus contributing to build brand equity to establish the brand as quickly as possible in the mind of the audience as a premium sports broadcaster.
With this starting point the sonic identity was initialised in April 2021 with the first sonic brand assets being launched in August 2021 with the SSC Football Channel as the first of the four to go live.
The preceding sonic identity process included:
- Thorough research into sports broadcasters with large regional or global reach to inform the positioning of the SSC Sonic Brand in the Audible Brand Domain of sports broadcasters.
- Development of key sonic concepts to ensure a sonic identity that is perceived as being authentic by the brand audience as a global premium provider of sports entertainment originating from and rooted in KSA.
- Key brand descriptors were defined and laid out for evaluation of brand attribution during sketching and development of music and sound design during the process as an objective model to use as basis for discussion and decision on iterative actions.
- Direction for sonic logo, music and sound design palette was created and adjusted iteratively while sound design palettes were created for the different sports to fit the aesthetics of the SSC Sonic Identity while feeling authentic for the sport.
The SSC Sonic Logo, SSC Music and SSC Sound Design Palettes covering each category of sports and theme music for programme openers, bumpers and other broadcast assets for the launch were created in parallel with the development of broadcast motion graphics – making sure that the SSC Sonic Identity supports the visual brand to the fullest, but also holds it own when existing purely in the audible domain.