Until a couple days back, it was almost a customary for passengers traveling via Vistara Airlines to hear the tunes of ‘Ta Ra Ra Ra’, but with Singapore Airlines and Tata Sons deciding to merge their aviation company- Vistara with Tata Group’s Air India and getting FDI clearance for the same, Vistara flew its last flight- UK986, an Airbus A321, from Mumbai to Delhi on November 11, 2024.
And that last flight of Vistara also marked the end of its ‘Ta Ra Ra Ra’ sonic branding, which apparently happened to be the very first work of Rajeev Raja’s sonic and audio branding agency- BrandMusiq.
Hence, while the world was lamenting the loss of one of India’s pioneering premium airlines- Vistara, it was only obvious that the development sent Raja to a much cherished and heartfelt nostalgic memory down the lane which made him say out loud- “This sonic identity literally gave wings to both Vistara and BrandMusiq establishing us as a sonic branding company that was here to stay.”
In an exclusive interview with Marketing Mind, Rajeev Raja, Founder and Soundsmith, BrandMusiq, recalled his first meeting with Prasad Menon, the then Chairman of Vistara and an ex-client of Raja from his advertising days, and stated that it was within 15 minutes of presenting ‘only’ the conceptual frameworks of how BrandMusiq was wanting to create the sound of a brand, that the board of Singapore Airlines and the Tata group agreed and Vistara’s MOGO begun to be incepted.
“When we went to meet Prasad Menon over a cup of coffee, we told him that we were starting this new company to give brands a voice literally via sound and explained our idea to him since we didn’t even have work to show then, he at once responded and said that he found our way of looking at brands really interesting and asked us to straight up pitch the idea to Vistara’s board. Once they heard us, not only did they give us a standing ovation and hired us for creating Vistara’s MOGO but gave us our first big break and the beauty of it was such that the entire sonic identity story panned out when Vistara wasn’t even in the air!” he reminisced.
With this, BrandMusiq’s Raja also emphasised that what inspired the team at the time was just the name- Vistara (origin: Vistar), which in Sanskrit means limitless expanse, and the fact that its visual identity was just being created.
Commenting on the brief received for the sonic identity or what BrandMusiq likes to call MuSE (short for Musical Strategy Exercise), Raja pointed out that since the essence of a sonic identity is rooted in the principle of understanding the brand and what it wants to convey, and being a nascent concept at the time, the team found the two for their perusal via their interaction with the brand team.
“The brand team was clear on wanting it to be a combination of Singapore Airlines’ global standards and expertise and the Taj Group of Tata Hospitality’s warmth, Indian-ness and sincerity of Indian hospitality, both of which were supposed to come together as one under Vistara. So, we knew that in coming up with the sonic identity for the upcoming Vistara of the day, we had to have a global sound as well as an Indian soul,” he elaborated.
To this, he added that the Indian quotient was very important because upon deliberations with the brand team, BrandMusiq had quizzed them on whether the entity should want to have an asian sound since the new venture comprised both- Singapore Airlines and TATA group, to which the response was instantaneously- “We are an Indian airline, and even though we have global standards, the soul has to be Indian.”
“This input straight away led us to the realisation that we had to create a contemporary Indian sound, almost a fusion of world music and global kinds of sounds with a very Indian soul. Hence, we used the female voice more in an Indian classical but modern, and used the flute to set the whole feeling of ‘caring’ and ‘carefree’- two beautiful words that we gave ourselves as the brief from our interaction with the brand team, in one tune itself,” he mentioned.
Furthermore, he also explained that the two words- ‘Caring’ and ‘Carefree’ were used as brief to give both- a very soft and gentle kind of feeling to the audience as well as a calm feeling of flight as flying since time immemorial has been giving a very anxious feeling to many.
“From then to a couple days back- when Vistara flew its last flight, the sonic branding ran across all Vistara flights, so much so that many people actually took to their social media handles to express how they’ll fondly remember the sound of Vistara which made them feel comfortable and cared for. In fact, a lot of thinking went into why the tune should not be hummed but be a composition of voices singing the tunes of ‘ta ra ra ra’ as well, because we wanted to establish a subliminal connection,” he said.
Having said that, Raja also mentioned that when the BrandMusiq team played the sonic identity of Vistara- ‘Ta Ra Ra Ra’, live, the then CEO of Vistara- Phee Teik Yeoh also wrote glowingly about BrandMusiq and that’s how both Vistara and BrandMusiq came about to fly its first big flight together.
Cut to 10 years later, BrandMusiq has worked on the sonic branding element or musical logos (MOGO) for a slew of Indian and global brands like HDFC Bank, Mastercard, Infosys, Jio BP, Amazon Pay, Zomato, Vim, Saffola, Fortune, Brooke Bond Red Label, Reliance Smart, Federal Bank, 7up, Himalaya, Tata Salt, MG and much more.
In fact, having created the sonic brand identity for Vistara, BrandMusiq had also been tasked with the creation of the musical identity for Air India Express, Air India’s smart flying airline for modern Indians.
Sharing the behind-the-scenes story of how BrandMusiq came about making Air India Express’ MOGO, Raja stated that for Air India Express, the brief was not about positioning it as an economy or low cost airline but smart and hence the usage of the human voice, its layering and the harmonies that were built, unlike Vistara, had to be in a way that it comes across as more young and vibrant.
“Whether brands are in the same category or in different ones, the whole idea is that there is no way that one brand can be similar to another brand, because fundamentally their DNA is bound to be different and even if some qualities of Vistara may be imbibed or integrated with Air India, the brand is still Air India. So as far as we were concerned, we will now have to create the sound of Air India as a brand and not focus on the merger bringing together two different entities,” he elaborated further.
Adding to this, Raja also highlighted that the transition is not going to be easy, but if, maybe somehow, some of the qualities, service levels and the whole vibe of Vistara start getting imbued into the Air India experience, it’ll again lead to the same becoming a part of the brand DNA as the TATA Group since forever been known for making global brands with an Indian heart and hence, if Air India becomes a world-class airline, India will again be at the core of it but without any compromise on international standards.
The ideal Air India brand in the future, as per Raja, will be all the classiest of Indian and world standards, but with an Indian heart in the times when what’s missing in a lot of airline experiences, especially global travel, is the Heart.
“It will be the Indian earthiness, warmth, sincerity and courtesy, which will make the actual difference in the whole experience. sincerity and courtesy that India provides,” he mentioned.
Upon being questioned on what role does sonic branding play in the modern times for brands across strata, Raja replied that in today’s market where brands are finding it increasingly difficult to cut through the clutter and there is so much visual fatigue with shortened attention spans amongst the new generation amongst other things, a logo and a visual identity alone is not serving the branding needs of most brands in the digital era.
“It is for this very reason that brands are increasingly looking at other dimensions to be able to add to their brand to reinforce their identity. That said, sound and music have always been a part of brands from the time we can remember. Earlier too, they say that marketing actually began in ancient Greece with a hawker selling his products by exclaiming when he would go past homes with a very distinctive kind of sound,” he stated.
Moreover, he also went on to point out that the reason why brands are realising that they should build sonic and visual identity alongside and treat both as important assets and making the sensorial dimension of sound all the more critical for many reasons is for two main reasons- breaking through the clutter and adding an emotional dimension to their brands as things are increasingly becoming transactional in the absence of not much human interaction.
“Today, brands are finding an emotional deficit between them and their consumers because everything is becoming transactional. For example, users simply go to Amazon, Swiggy, Zomato, etc. to order their desired products and boom it is delivered. So how do you establish an emotional dimension or bridge there? Now, music and sound can do it because they are basically carriers of emotion because when you listen to a piece of music, you feel happy or you feel nostalgic or you feel sad or you feel excited,” he explained.
To add up to this and explain how sonic branding has evolved over the years, BrandMusiq’s Raja stated that when branding really started, say in the 1920s, jingles were a big thing and not only were they used in radio but also got carried into the television era, be it the Washing powder Nirma ad for Nirma, or the Hamara Bajaj ad for Bajaj, all of them used sounds and then, it was not a necessity for the jingle to be reflective of the brand.
Having said that, while jingles were basically advertising messages delivered through songs, sonic branding is not a jingle- it is the sound-filled creation an identity for a brand, and hence, unlike jingle-based ad campaigns, the whole parameter of evaluating a sonic identity is not ‘Arey yeh hit banega kya?’ but does it represent the essence of the brand, thereby it is more about generating Return on Emotions as against the tactical Return on Investments.
“The difference between a sonic identity and visual identity is that the former is a strategic long-term brand aspect related to music. Now, it should not remain at the level of an identity only, but it should start moving and transcending into content and experience. It’s not just about creating the sonic identity and putting it at the end of an ad, but ensuring that it lives, breathes, and evolves to meet the needs of various target audiences within the brand portfolio,” he added.
To this extent, BrandMusiq helps brands by coming up with various elements under sonic identities such as a Musical Logo (MOGO), MOGOscape (Sonic palette), mini MOGOs/Alert notifications, sonic IPs and audio content strategies for brands.
“In a market which is under recession and the focus starts coming upon more short-term sales, we have now started a vertical called BrandMusiq XP which is about creating sonic ideas for the moment that will address short-term marketing challenges and provide sonic and sensorial solutions which could be in the form of experiential, activation, etc. that are strategically thought out with consumer insights. Unlike other offerings of ours, this will be open for retainers because sonic branding in itself is an artform that commands a premium owing to licensing models,” he added.
Commenting on the sonic branding industry’s future in 2025, BrandMusiq’s Raja predicted that with the future being sound and marketing undergoing a change itself, the old days of one-sided conversations are getting over, leading to subconscious branding’s takeover in the realm, Sonic branding is going to play an important role in making brand intimacy and brand love, the new holy grail for marketing arena. And with the onset of AI, BrandMusiq, recognising the pulse of the market is also working on creating an AI platform to help cater to the sonic branding needs of brands.
“Where brands, creative agencies, all of them embrace Sonic as a dimension and really, really add value to brands, I think that’s really where we are headed towards,” he concluded.
