After 14 years, BMW is changing the signature sound logo in its ads. What's a sound logo anyway? It's the signature sound (double gong tone) that you have been hearing at the end of BMW commercials for years.
BMW has now revealed its new sound logo (listen in the video below).
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As part of the evolution of our acoustic branding, we are replacing the ‘double gong’ used for the past 14 years with a new sound logo, which gives the brand a distinctive modern, aesthetic and dynamic recognition factor and can be used in many different ways worldwide,” says Joachim H. Blickhäuser, head of Corporate and Brand Identity at BMW Group.
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It was a very intensive process and a wonderfully exciting challenge right from the start,” sound designer Thomas Kisser of Hastings media music, commented on the development of the new sound logo.
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The questions I asked myself at the outset were: What does the BMW brand sound like to me? Which sound themes represent the values I associate with BMW, such as Sheer Driving Pleasure, aesthetic appeal and power? And how can I create a sound logo that clearly differentiates the brand from other brands—especially other automotive brands? Important criteria for the development process included global cultural compatibility, variability of application, brand fit and recognition value.”
That BMW would take great care about a signature sound logo comes no surprise. In the engineering process for its cars, BMW has sound designers (acoustic specialists) obsessing on every sound in the car, from the exhaust note to the window motors. This process was featured in CNBC's recent documentary on BMW - "A Driving Obsession". See the sound design process in the following segment from that documentary (starting at 1:25 of the video)