100 WORD SUMMARY
Dolby Atmos - Seven Sonic Wonders
How do you make a ‘hidden’ consumer tech brand the heart of a story? That was Zeno’s challenge when briefed by Dolby Europe Ltd to create a consumer campaign to dramatise its groundbreaking audio technology.
The Zeno team worked alongside Sir David Attenborough’s sound recordist Chris Watson and BAFTA-winning composer Nainita Desai to create Seven Sonic Wonders – a unique soundtrack capturing precious and precarious natural recordings.
Available on all music streaming platforms including Apple Music, the powerful campaign paid royalties from album downloads direct to Mother Nature via Brian Eno’s charity Earth Percent, just like any recording artist.
Title of campaign
Seven Sonic Wonders: A Dolby Atmos Experience
Brief from client
If you’re a cinema lover, you’ll know Dolby. That dramatic, ten-point speaker, immersive audio technology that transports you into the heart of the action? It’s delivered by Dolby Atmos, audio technology that immerses listeners in sound, revealing details with unparalleled clarity and depth.
But like many consumer tech providers Dolby is in-built, not out there. An ‘ingredient’ brand, its smarts are locked away inside our TVs, phones and sound bars, heard but not seen. And there lies the problem. After 12 months of building up media relationships and engaging consumer lifestyle media for Dolby the brand, we’d reached a point where we needed to give them something meaningful to write about.
Millions experience the power of Dolby’s audio technology every day without realising it, and the brand’s ambition - to associate Dolby Atmos with the best entertainment experiences on Earth - was never going to be realised without a bold move. In a crunch meeting we asked our client for a rebrief. Give us free rein to create a campaign that connects people to the brand emotionally, focusing on how Dolby Atmos makes us feel, rather than how it works. Basically, trust us and let us show you a different way.
She said OK. And set these objectives externally:
· Generate editorial excitement around Dolby without reliance on a partner brand (traditionally related to studios and cinema)
· Position Dolby as the brand that delivers immersive experiences, transporting ABC1 ‘Entertainment Enthusiasts’ to ‘the heart of the sound’
· Create a campaign that only Dolby could do
And internally:
· Create a campaign that elevates PR and comms to tell the brand story whilst making it globally relevant for implementation by other markets
Strategy & Creative
In December 2023, the brand launched a new global platform called Love More, designed to insert Dolby into cultural consciousness and help people understand its role in entertainment in cinema, music and beyond. This laddered easily into our ambition to create a campaign people might care about. But the question was Love More what? Given Dolby’s products - with a focus on vision and sound – there were tons of thematic routes available. Music, skills, celebrity?
To narrow the terrain, we delved deeper into what Brits care about. Primary research amongst 2,000 adults showed that 83%[1] were concerned about the environment. Digging further, nearly half (44%) were worried about nature depletion and degradation, with concerns raised about the possible loss of species and places as a result of climate change.
At this stage what struck our creative team was the fact that nature depletion is so often measured and dramatised statistically or visually – shrinking ice caps, reef destruction and deforestation. In contrast sound depletion, the prospect of waking up, say, on a spring morning to the sound of nothing, is discussed much less. Which is why, instead of the Seven Natural Wonders of the World, we decided to identify and raise awareness of the fragility of the Seven Sonic Wonders of the World, using Dolby’s remarkable Dolby Atmos technology to let nature be heard. Not only that, we committed to then create nature’s ultimate soundtrack, before it was too late.
Method deployed
The right line-up?
With the idea in place, the next challenge was how to credibly decide upon and source the sounds. Given the tight production budget, dispatching content creators or sound editors all over the world to record in situ simply wasn’t an option. Nevertheless, we had to find a way to decide upon not just seven sounds, but seven wondrous sounds.
Sadly, Sir David Attenborough was busy elsewhere (we tried, of course!) so we took an adjacent leap and found the next, very best thing - his sound guy. A long-time collaborator with Sir David, award-winning wildlife sound recordist Chris Watson had travelled to the most extreme parts of the world, working on flagship series including Life and Frozen Planet. After a career spent capturing a vast, sonic back catalogue and armed with first-hand encyclopaedic knowledge, no one was better qualified to determine which sounds constitute a natural wonder. And crucially, Chris’ particular expertise also made him a fluent advocate for Dolby Atmos’ technical superiority.
Tapping into a private archive never released independently to the public before, Chris applied the same criteria used to determine the existing Seven Natural Wonders of the World, to put every potential sonic contender through a rigorous selection process. Does it possess a natural epic beauty? How rare or endangered is the sound? Does it embody a sense of mystery?
And after days of debate and narrowing down with the Dolby team, he finally decided on the following Seven Sonic Wonders:
Vatnajokull Glacier, Iceland
Tracing the millennia-long journey of Iceland’s largest glacier from peak to shore, before shattering to release air bubbles that have been frozen in time for 10,000 years.
Dawn Chorus of Lake Suvasvesi, Finland
In the Arctic Circle’s taiga or snow forest, the summer sun never sets, creating an endless dawn chorus of black-throated diver birds.
Laughing Hippopotamus, Kenya
According to Maasai folklore, hippos wallow away the day trading jokes in the Mara River, before laughing their way into the sunset.
Frog Beats in Gamboa, Panama
During the pitch-black nights beneath the rainforest canopy, a tranquil frog chorus conceal the slither of venomous predators lurking underfoot.
Starling Murmuration, UK
Tens of thousands of starlings flock together in a dazzling swarm, a phenomenon so loud that it flashed on Britain’s WW II-era radar screens.
Whispers of a Coral Reef, Sulu Sea
The snaps and crackles of a healthy coral reef offer sonic signposts to local aquatic life; compared to a reef silenced by coral bleaching.
Humpback Whale Song, Caribbean Sea
The humpbacks’ song is also their way home, as whales follow their ‘mind’s ear’ over thousands of kilometres to warm winter waters.
Chris then handed the recordings to EMMY award-winning composer Nainita Desai, known for her work on Netflix’s The Deepest Breath, to create a unique score. Her brief was to craft a soundtrack that felt as if the listener was standing in the middle of the rainforest or swimming in the depths of the ocean, dramatising the sonic impact of Dolby’s technology. Working with Dolby Atmos Engineer Kurt Martinez, Nainita mixed the album at Dean Street Studios, ready for release on launch day on platforms including Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify and iTunes.
Paying our Dues
Making the soundtrack available to the public was always a central part of our campaign, but beyond this, with climate change concerns called out in our research, not crediting the natural world’s fundamental contribution to the album felt like a misstep.
We needed to treat nature, and the inspiration drawn from it, as an artist. So, as a final step, we brokered a partnership with Earth Percent, a charity supported by legendary music producer Brian Eno, which invites the music industry to donate a small percentage of its income to organisations that address climate change. Through them, we could ensure that all royalties from plays and downloads of the album were paid to Mother Nature.
Activation
After a nervous, 24-hour delay due to the Baltimore bridge collapse, launch day saw us sweating a host of media relations assets to drive conversation through Earned, Social and Owned including:
- A sell-in blitz unveiling our primary research and revealing the Seven Sonic Wonders
- Behind the scenes film documenting the creation of the album
- Broadcast interviews with Chris
- Social assets for owned and talent channels
- Additional brokered exposure from Earth Percent, Nainita and Kurt
Outcome, including formal evaluation of results
Seven Sonic Wonders has been Dolby’s most successful UK brand PR campaign to date, with Chris’ irresistible BBC credentials helping to generate:
· 72 pieces of earned coverage delivering a reach of 319 million
· Including Sky News with Kay Burleigh, The Sun, Mail Online, The Mirror and Apple Music’s Home Page Spotlight
· A seven-minute piece on The Today Programme and 15 minutes on BBC Radio 2’s Tina Daheley – key media outlets for Dolby’s target audience
· International hits including NY Breaking, Off the Press and What’s New 2 Day
· 32 Social Posts – owned, earned and paid
· 17 Organic Social Posts / 3M reach
· 15 Owned and 2 Paid Social Posts / 72.6K Owned Social Impressions
· 5.76% Owned Post Average Engagement Rate (1% industry average)
· 28,000+ steams to date – 50% on Spotify and 40% on Apple Music
· With a track completion rate of 86%
Relation to objectives, brief and cost-effectiveness
What started as an idea that gave our small team in Old Street goosebumps, turned into a blueprint for best practice, standalone comms throughout Dolby’s global organisation. Elevating the brand from consumer tech nibs to front of book features, Seven Sonic Wonders has been activated across Europe and India, showcased across every operating region, and even featured at a recent U.S. ‘Dolby Family’ shareholder report.
A tight budget meant we always walked a fine line between practicality and credibility, which in turn meant our partners had to be irrefutable experts in their fields. They didn’t let us down.
And for further validation, our second Love Dolby campaign was signed off less than four weeks after completing the first, and this time we’re going global.
Our brave and brilliant clients said this:
In the US, Dolby’s CMO [BK1] said this:
“Wow!! Amazing coverage and overall program. This type of program should be more of what we do in marketing in the future.” [WM2]
And if you’d like to listen, before it’s too late, our Seven Sonic Wonders are here: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-seven-sonic-wonders/1733901685
