Sound Branding Examples: 12 Brands You Recognise by Ear

Five notes, and everyone knows which brand is meant. A heartbeat at the end of the commercial, a “ta-dum” before the series: the best sound logos need no explanation. This article presents twelve examples, eight German and four international, and asks each one the same question: why does it work? The answers add up to a set of rules that apply to brands of any size.

How to recognise a good sound logo

Three criteria are enough to judge the examples:

• Short: two to five notes or a single sound, rarely longer than three seconds.
• Distinct: it sounds like no one else. Whoever hears it thinks of exactly one brand.
• Consistent: the core stays the same for years, even if the arrangement changes.

Eight German examples

1. Telekom: five notes since 1999

Europe's best-known note sequence was created in 1999 in an international competition. The template was the logo itself: grey dots and a magenta T, translated into four identical notes and one higher one. For its 20th anniversary in 2020, the sound logo received a new, specially developed timbre; the notes themselves stayed unchanged. Today they form the basis for functional sounds in apps and devices, and more than 60 percent of Europeans attribute them to the brand.

Lesson: consistency beats everything. Whoever keeps the same notes for more than 25 years ends up owning them.

2. Audi: a real heartbeat

Since 1996, a heartbeat has ended every Audi commercial. It is a real recording, which in 2010 was made faster and shorter and layered with technical sounds. The idea behind it: the heartbeat is the first sound a human perceives, and it stands for life and safety.

Lesson: a sound can be stronger than a melody if it carries a meaning.

3. Deutsche Bahn: D and B as notes

Since 2014, Germany's railway has sounded like two notes, D and B, derived from the familiar platform gong. In 2022 the sound logo became softer: instead of a powerful bass, a piano plays, and the rhythm recalls a heartbeat. The brand wanted to sound closer to its customers; the notes stayed.

Lesson: the core stays, the tone may change. That is how a brand repositions itself without losing recognition.

4. Edeka: pizzicato and a heartbeat

The supermarket chain Edeka has long closed every commercial with a short pizzicato. In 2019 a second acoustic signal was added: a heartbeat that makes the claim “Wir lieben Lebensmittel” (“We love food”, since 2005) audible. Since then, sound logo and claim have meant the same thing.

Lesson: sound logo and claim should interlock. What a brand says, it should also be possible to hear.

5. Hornbach: a male choir as an attitude

“Yippie Jaja Yippie Yippie Yeah”: the jingle of the DIY chain Hornbach is based on an old folk song and is sung by a male choir. It sounds like the moment a project is done, and it carries exactly what the brand stands for: drive, strength, perseverance.

Lesson: a jingle can be an attitude. It does not have to be pretty, it has to be true.

6. Haribo: a nursery rhyme for generations

The slogan “Haribo macht Kinder froh” (“Haribo makes children happy”) dates from the 1930s; the first TV commercial aired in 1962. The melody everyone in Germany can sing today was added in the 1970s, together with the line “und Erwachsene ebenso” (“and adults as well”). It is as simple as a nursery rhyme, which is exactly why three generations know it.

Lesson: simplicity does not age.

7. LBS: modernise rather than replace

The jingle of the building society LBS, “Wir geben Ihrer Zukunft ein Zuhause” (“We give your future a home”), is one of the country's most traditional brand sounds. After more than 40 years, in 2025 it was not scrapped but reinterpreted, complemented by a sound logo and brand music for digital channels. The emotional recognition value remained; the sound became younger.

Lesson: an acoustic heritage is capital. You maintain it, you do not throw it away.

8. BMW: the sound when the engine falls silent

Electric cars sound like nothing. In 2020 BMW therefore had Hans Zimmer and its in-house sound designer Renzo Vitale compose a start-up sound that signals after pressing the start button: the car is ready. The sound has been heard in production vehicles ever since.

Lesson: where the product loses its sound, the brand sound becomes the product.

Four international examples

9. Intel: rhythm from language

Intel's five notes were composed by Walter Werzowa in 1994. The slogan set the rhythm: “In-tel In-side”. He spent two weeks refining the sounds, a mix of xylophone, marimba and synthesizers. By some estimates, the logo plays every five minutes somewhere in the world.

Lesson: the rhythm of a name or claim is often the best template for a sound logo.

10. Netflix: a wedding ring on a nightstand

The “ta-dum” has existed since 2015. Netflix briefed sound designer Lon Bender with words like “tension” and “release”; he delivered dozens of variants. The basic sound is his wedding ring tapping on a nightstand, underneath lies a guitar chord played backwards. A version with a goat bleat was in the running for a long time. It was tested with people who did not know which brand it was for: they found the sound dramatic and felt it marked the start of something.

Lesson: test without the brand attached. A sound logo has to work on its own.

11. Mastercard: one melody, many cultures

Since 2019 Mastercard has had a melody that is played in different genres and regions, from opera to electronic, developed among others with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park. At the end of every variant stands the same short note sequence, which also sounds when paying at the terminal.

Lesson: think of a melody as a system, not as a single jingle. Then it fits every channel and every country.

12. Nokia: a waltz from 1902

The Nokia ringtone is an excerpt from Francisco Tárrega's “Gran Vals” for guitar, composed in 1902 and therefore in the public domain. In 1994 Nokia put bars 13 to 16 into the 2110 model. It was the first ringtone that could be attributed to a brand, and for a time it was considered the most-heard piece of music in the world, without a single second of advertising.

Lesson: the product itself can be the most important medium for the brand sound.

Briefly mentioned

• Samsung “Over the Horizon”: the Galaxy ringtone since 2011, reinterpreted every year, from rock to orchestra. Variation keeps a melody fresh as long as the melody stays.
• Windows 95: Brian Eno wrote 83 versions of a start-up sound that, according to the brief, was to be “inspirational, sexy, driving” and no longer than 3.8 seconds. In 2025 it was added to the US Library of Congress's National Recording Registry.
• Coca-Cola: the campaign “Try Not To Hear This” (2019) showed only images of a bottle being opened and let viewers hear the sound in their heads. Product sounds can be brand sound.
• Lufthansa: four ascending notes that carry through to the boarding music. A sound logo unfolds when it plays along everywhere.

Brands without a sound logo

Nike and Apple are among the strongest brands in the world and have no sound logo in the classic sense. Nike works with the sound of the swoosh, with driving music and distinctive voice-overs; Apple has relied on product sounds since the Mac start-up chime, and on silence in its presentations. Both show that sound branding is more than a closing signature. It is the sum of all sounds a brand uses consistently.

What the examples have in common

• Two to five notes or one sound. No well-known sound logo is complex.
• An origin. The notes come from the name (Intel, Deutsche Bahn), the logo (Telekom) or a meaning (the heartbeat at Audi and Edeka).
• Decades unchanged. Telekom, Audi, Haribo, Intel and Nokia have never swapped their core, at most rearranged it.
• A system, not a one-off. The strongest brands build a sound world from the logo: brand music, voice, functional sounds, hold loop.
• Tested with listeners. Netflix tested without the brand attached, Werzowa refined for two weeks, Eno wrote 83 versions.

What this means for mid-sized brands

The rules apply regardless of budget. A sound logo for a regional brand is created by the same principles as Telekom's: derived from the brand, short, distinct, used consistently for years. The difference lies in the number of channels and the scope of rights, not in the idea. How the process works and what a sound logo costs is on the page Sound logo development. How it grows into music for commercials, events and hold loops is shown under Brand music & brand voice.

From our own work

Four sound logos created by these rules. Tap a tile to listen.

More of them, with commercials and campaigns, under Work.

Sources

• Red Dot: Telekom New Sound Identity
• Markenlexikon: Audis Vorsprung durch Markensound (PDF, German)
• Horizont: Deutsche Bahn's new sound logo (German)
• Horizont: Edeka presents new sound logo (German)
• Horizont: LBS modernises cult jingle after 40 years (German)
• Haribo: 100 years of history
• BMW Group: The Sound of the BMW Concept i4
• GameStar: Where the Intel jingle comes from (German)
• Boing Boing: How the Netflix sound was made
• Mastercard: Sound On, Mastercard Debuts Sonic Brand
• Wikipedia: Nokia tune
• Samsung: Over the Horizon
• Popular Science: Windows 95 startup chime added to National Recording Registry
• The Drum: Coca-Cola “Try Not To Hear This”
• CAPA: Lufthansa's world of sound