Music and sound can be an integral part of a business’s brand, say Fast Company and Strategize. Many leaders listen to music to inspire creativity and innovation. And it’s been found that corporate voicemail welcome messages can make an impact on your business and bottom line.
The Top 100 Voice Brands project collects recordings of answering machine messages at US companies such as AT&T, Bank of America, Pfizer, BestBuy, and Alamo Rent a Car. You can nominate additional voice brands, and organizations can even request a voice branding audit to gauge how they’re doing.
So what is a voice brand? According to the project:
It’s the unique combination of voice talent, words, call flow and spirit that greets and guides callers. The voice brand is largely experienced over the telephone today, but that’s changing. With the telephone, computer and television morphing into similar multi-function devices due to digital convergence, a company’s Voice Brand is being heard on web sites, multimedia CD ROMs, kiosks, cards, point of purchase devices and who knows what else.
In the "who knows what else" category, add podcasting.
As a communication tool, an audio message that’s podcast would neatly fit into the voice brand definition. So I can imagine concise audio content that includes voice brand elements that would reinforce the corporate brand as well as deliver the specific message.
As with advertising in RSS webfeeds, it’s just a matter of time.