Interac, Zulu Alpha Kilo and Sixieme Son rethink the shopping experience with a new music track that invites shoppers to spend more mindfully. To help canadians manage their spending amid rising prices, sixieme son, a global sonic branding agency, embraced one of its most exciting challenges to date.
Sixieme son in partnership with Zulu Alpha Kilo on behalf of the canadian fintech leader, created a twenty-minute music track to leverage sound to help customers approach shopping more mindfully. Recent work by Sixieme Son on a new Interac audio identity helped to open up opportunities for the brand. Sixieme Son, inspired by an original creative idea recommended by Zulu Alpha Kilo, was challenged to use sound to reduce mindless purchases which was designed to positively affecting the shopping experience. The result is Sound Shopping.
Research carried out by Sixieme Son over the past 25 years led to the composition of an original track which taps into the emotional response and behavioral impact music can have. The music features a balance between comfort of listening, surprise and the leveraging of tempo and instrumentation in varied ways.
To put the track to the test, shoppers across Canada took part in an innovative research study. Half of the participants listened to Sound Shopping, while a control group listened to the standard pop-style music typically heard in retail environments. The results revealed that shoppers that listened to the Sound Shopping track reported feeling calmer and drew a 98% purchase satisfaction rate.
With this track, Interac brings a new sound to increase its brand equity and reaffirm its aspiration: to help give its users more everyday control of their money so they can get more out of life. Sound Shopping is part of the Interac sonic ecosystem and was designed to provide an exciting boost to the brand’s overall memorability.
The Interac sonic identity just won a Transform Award North America, becoming the first ever Canadian brand to win in the “Best use of audio branding” category.
Matt Houghton, Director of digital and integrated marketing, Interac:
“Exploring the interplay between music and shopping behaviours is very meaningful in relation to our brand purpose of helping Canadians get more out of life by being in control of their money. It also reflects the interests and needs of our primary consumer audience who are actively on the go in their daily lives, and seeking tools to help them with their finances.”
Michael Boumendil, President & Chief Creative Officer, Sixieme Son:
“Beyond the success of the sonic identity, the innovative Interac approach is truly unprecedented: it is designed to benefit all customers and I believe that it goes further than any audio initiative previously undertaken by brands in retail.
Valentin Fleur, Managing Director Canada, Sixième Son:
“Using music as a strong emotional connection with users, Interac is working to take its communications to the next level. The music we created uses all of these elements to trigger a more mindful shopping experience. The way Interac, their ad agency Zulu Alpha Kilo and Sixieme Son teams worked together was remarkable and definitely a key success factor.”
Wain Choi, Executive Creative Director at Zulu Alpha Kilo:
“The creative design articulates the notion of music meeting spending behaviours in a clear yet impactful way. Most people are familiar with the idea of music encouraging shopping in store, as a brand that stands for control, our goal was to encourage mindfulness instead.”