Colgate is a multinational toothpaste company, with operations in over 180 countries. The company produces a wide range of toothpaste products, including toothpastes, oral care products, and dental floss. Colgate is one of the world's leading toothpaste brands, with a market share of approximately 25%.
Colgate connected with Massive Music in 2020 with the idea of creating a new sonic identity. The music branding agency was faced with three main tasks:
- Create consistency across all the regions in which the brand operates, but allow for flexibility in order to adapt to specific regional needs.
- Feature a simple system that could easily be understood and used by creative and production teams from all around the globe.
- Capture optimism and make it the main thread throughout the brand's sonic identity.
In order to tackle these challenges, the company turned to science. What is the science behind the universal sound of optimism? Since Colgate is a brand used by millions, they wanted its sonic brand to be culturally and regionally agnostic, something understandable in any country. Through research, they found that certain types of humming are universally accepted as a human expression of optimism and wellbeing.
The important discovery allowed Massive Music to base the sonic identity on that specific building block.
The D major key is widely accepted as very optimistic, so the whole identity is musically based on that note.
Considering Colgate's rich history of over two hundred years, Massive Music developed a suite of sonic assets and compositions to be heard on all brand communications worldwide in more than 200 markets.
Recently, Colgate launched several campaigns, one of which is “Choose Optimism” that is fully centered on the core value of the brand. The scores used in the 30s video content worldwide are a perfect fit for the story of optimism that the brand is trying to tell.
Their study guided the direction of musical ingredients such as strong beats, shocks, bright noises, and startling moments for an overarching approach to the Colgate brand sound. It also ensured that the fundamental sonic DNA was adaptable and flexible enough to work across a variety of styles and music genres while remaining distinctly Colgate.
Roscoe Williamson, Creative Strategy Director at Massive Music London, stated: “We needed to create a sonic architecture that could tie Colgate’s diverse marketing content and geographical reach together with a sound that could be universally understood as both optimistic and unmistakably Colgate. Working with a team of academics and psychologists, we were able to really decode the ingredients of optimistic music. The result is showing to be highly recallable and adaptable.” (The Sound of Colgate)