A current episode with a production point

On 28 October 2026, LBB published a new Heard Mentality episode with Commercial Radio & Audio. The discussion brings together SBS marketer Uma Oldham, Bureau of Everything’s Emily Taylor and Mosaic Music & Sound’s Adam Moses to talk about how brands use sound, radio and music to build memory.

The event is verifiable. LBB published the article and credits. Omny hosts the episode as The Feeling Is the Brand: How Domino’s, Amex and SBS Use Audio. This piece does not claim access to private campaign assets or to work that is not publicly available. The production lesson comes from the published reporting and episode description.

The useful point is not simply that SBS and Domino’s are talking about sonic branding. It is that radio is being treated as a format that deserves its own brief, not as the audio leftovers of a TV or social campaign.

That matters for agencies and producers outside Australia too. Audio is often commissioned late, when the edit is approved and the media plan has already decided where sound will appear. By then, the team is usually asking music to solve strategy, attention and versioning at the same time.

We have made a related argument before in why sound needs to arrive upstream. This new episode gives the point a sharper commercial shape: if radio is meant to build brand, it needs writing, casting, music and sound design decisions of its own.

SBS: sonic identity as a flexible system

LBB reports that SBS discussed a sonic identity project with MassiveMusic. The context is unusually rich: an Australian public broadcaster with a multicultural and multilingual remit, telling stories across more than 60 languages, while competing for attention in a crowded entertainment market.

That is a useful case for any brand with more than one audience. A sonic identity is not only a three second logo. It may need to open a streaming platform, frame a trailer, sit under a promo, work in audio-only media, support a podcast partnership and still feel connected to the same organisation.

The production question is therefore not just, what should the brand sound like? It is, what jobs must the sound perform when the logo is not on screen? Does it mark entry into a platform? Create trust? Signal cultural breadth? Hold attention in a radio break? Make a short social cut recognisable before the viewer looks down?

If those jobs are not named, the music team is forced to make a beautiful object instead of a usable system. It may impress in a presentation and still break under real campaign pressure.

Domino’s: do not brief music too literally

The Domino’s Australia discussion is just as useful. LBB reports that its Drop Everything platform used the track Snack by Australian artist Ivan Ooze, which Domino’s had already licensed. The strategic point is the move away from literal music search. A song about dropping things might have matched the words, but not necessarily the appetite, momentum or comic pull of the work.

That distinction is central to music supervision. Music does not have to repeat the copy. It can make the audience feel the reason to care. Too many briefs ask for a track that says the idea back to the viewer. Better briefs describe the behaviour the cue must create.

Concrete example: for a delivery brand, a weak radio brief says, make it upbeat and mention speed. A stronger brief says, create instant craving, then a comic turn at three seconds, then a short branded sting that still reads under a fast voice. One asks for decoration. The other asks for structure.

If an existing song is part of the route, the rights process needs to start early. For more on that decision, see using a famous song in a commercial.

Radio has its own edit grammar

One of the strongest production reminders in the LBB piece is Adam Moses’s argument that radio is still underused and often under-briefed. That matches what many sound teams see every week: radio is requested after the hero film, with the assumption that the TV idea can simply be stripped of picture.

It usually cannot.

A 30 second film can rely on a cut, a face, a product shot, a written super or a visual silence. A 30 second radio spot must build the room by itself. Voice rhythm, music entry, sound effects, silence, transitions and the final mnemonic are not supporting details. They are the direction.

This is not only a radio issue. Social edits, podcast reads, retail audio, BVOD bumpers and short digital cutdowns all test the same system. If the music only works in the hero film, the campaign does not have an audio idea. It has a soundtrack.

For teams managing multiple durations and outputs, stems, cutdowns and versioning should be part of the planning conversation, not only the delivery checklist.

The limitation: audio cannot fix a vague platform

There is a serious objection to all this. Sonic branding can become a fashionable answer to an unclear brand problem. A mnemonic will not rescue a weak proposition. A memorable song can even make the problem worse if it helps people remember an idea the brand should have sharpened first.

There is also the time issue. LBB reports Moses arguing for sustained investment in sound over time. That is the part many brands underestimate. Distinctive audio assets become valuable through repetition, adaptation and discipline. If every campaign changes the music, the voice, the rhythm and the sonic logo, the brand is buying newness rather than memory.

The useful ambition is not, let us make a clever radio ad at the end. The ambition is to decide what the brand can repeat without becoming flat: a rhythmic habit, a vocal attitude, a way of introducing product detail, a small signature, a particular use of silence.

That is strategy, but it is also craft. Someone has to write it, record it, mix it and protect it across formats.

What to ask before the next audio brief

The practical response is straightforward. Before briefing radio or any audio-led asset, ask what the channel is supposed to do: build fame, deliver a retail message, localise the campaign, create intimacy, explain a product, or extend a film idea without picture.

Then ask what should be recognisable after repeated exposure. Is it the voice, the musical gesture, the rhythm, the sound design, the line, the silence before the brand, or a combination? Ask what survives in 6, 10, 15 and 30 seconds. Ask whether the same assets can work in podcasts, streaming audio, social video and retail.

Finally, attach production reality: usage term, territories, media, voice rights, master rights, stems, cutdowns, local versions, mix specs and approval path. Without those details, the audio idea becomes fragile exactly when it needs to scale.

If a campaign is expected to live in film, radio and social, bring music and sound design into the treatment stage. Not to slow the process down, but to make sure every format has an idea you can actually hear.