A Look at Airline Boarding Music with Juanito Pascaul

A LOOK AT AIRLINE BOARDING MUSIC

What is “audio branding”? It’s a way for a cording artist, live music performer and brand to have a distinctive identity using music creative director Juanito Pascual, sound, be that a jingle, corporate music to work with organizations on the use or an advertising soundtrack. of music and to establish a unique and memorable identity. The benefts of having a distinct audio brand include being able to sharpen For an airline, your boarding music is of your brand identity, as well as inciting course part and parcel of your “audio certain emotions within consumers. brand”, which is why we asked Juanito Pascual to review a selection of airline This a point made by marketing strate- boarding music and to give commentary gist, best-selling author and speaker Da- on each one. vid Meerman Scott in an interview with SimpliFlying Shashank Nigam last year. In the interview David made the point for why aviation brands should be more aware of their “musical logo.”

In fact, David has set up sonic branding studio “Signature Tones” alongside re-

09 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 Norwegian Airlines

Norwegian says that the core of its audio “The live instrumentation and voices branding, the musical track “Northern were recorded in Trondheim at Øra Colours”, “was composed and produced Studio, using the Trondheim Solistene by Joel Krozer, with string and orchestral String Ensemble and Embla Choir who arrangements by Robin Mullarkey. are both local to the area.”

Comment by Juanito Pascual

Norwegian Airlines in-fight music is a The composers initial use of ethe- fantastic blend of high artistic and pro- real instrumental sounds and the duction standards matched extremely choice of gentle upwards-moving well with its intended context. melodic gestures evokes not only a feeling of flying but conjures a The instrumentation is lush and evoc- peaceful and perhaps even sublime ative, beautifully performed by a large sense of floating. cast of performers (strings and singers layered in over more contemporary key- It does a wonderful job of evoking the board sounds) and recorded at a very magic that can be associated with high standard of audio quality, allowing flying and helps portray the sense for the intended emotional potential of that this experience is both soothing the music to shine through. and yet in some way wondrous

10 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 Etihad Airways

Etihad’s boarding music was unveiled in pany Song Zu, with the soundtrack be- 2015, at the time when Nicole Kidman ing conducted by Roger Benedict of the was brought on board as the airline’s Sydney Scoring Orchestra. brand ambassador and star of its TV ads. The airline says that it has “a cinemat- The music was composed by Ramesh ic score, peppered with Arabic musical Sathiah, creative director and composer elements, forms the perfect accompani- at the Sydney-based audio design com- ment to the imagery.”

Comment by Juanito Pascual

Etihad Airways in-fight music is a bit of a and cue the listener to be a bit uneasy. study in mismatching content and context. Adding to this is the use of some rhythms The composition itself has some interest- that would seemingly connote suspense. ing elements and complexities. There is however a surprising recurrence of some The piece is several minutes long and does rather dissonant musical phrases. have some very lush and and tension-free segments. However, even in the midst of One of the main melodic passages is the more fuid and soaring sections there played on a glockenspiel (related to a xy- is harmonic movement that would seem lophone) and because some of the notes better paired with a situation where ambi- used, would seem better suited to a guity or uncertainty would be the intended movie scene designed to arouse tension emotional impact.

11 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 Cathay Pacific

We couldn’t fnd much background information about the Cathay Pacifc boarding music, but one AV Geek YouTube channel claims it is” written by a renowned Hong Kong composer, the music is a refection on the majesty of fying, and the elegance that Cathay Pacifc brings to every aspect of the journey.”

Comment by Juanito Pascual

Cathay Pacifc blends some contemporary the inherent power of sounds to conjure sounds with traditional string sounds asso- deep associations and images. ciated with their home of Hong Kong. The song rather quickly transitions however The choice of keyboard sounds in opening into what feels like a 1980’s piano driven moments conveys a fresh and contempo- television theme song, relaxing, but per- rary feeling while also feeling ethereal and haps a little irrelevant to this environment. soothing. Also notable is the somewhat stiff rhythmic The inclusion of the traditional plucked pulse in much of the piece, which gives this string sounds blends well, at the same time music somewhat of a march-like feeling, as distinguishing them by bringing out this which also pairs in an unusual way with cultural element and gently tapping into the piano melody.

12 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 Air Canada

“Born to Fly” is the boarding music developed specifcally for Air Canada’s fleet of 787 Dreamliners.

Comment by Juanito Pascual

Air Canada has chosen to portray an up- electric guitar and then a second guitar beat and youthful energy in their music. starts a main melody at which point the whole band kicks in. Interesting to note is Stylistically drawing from the band U2 the piece continues by adding strings and among other infuences, it is music that con- going on a little melodic journey into a mi- vey’s a combination of fun, excitement and nor key, adding perhaps an association of optimism in a pop-rock-infuenced song. seriousness to balance the otherwise up- beat and more lighthearted feel. Compositionally, it sets the scene with a simple 3-note piano fgure underscored by a The piece comes back to a rock band gently crescendoing synthesizer, along with instrumentation of with drums, bass and some wistful sounds evoking perhaps frst guitar underpinning a strings section, again rays of sunlight on a new day. giving a sense of youthful energy while re- taining a certain elegance and classic feel- A rhythmic plucking is introduced on ing through the use of the string orchestra.

13 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 Finnair

According to the information on a Finland / Japan YouTube page, the boarding mu- sic is a track called “Vista Beauty.”

Comment by Juanito Pascual

The Finnair music is a lovely piece of balance in that they succeed beauti- music that has what could be charac- fully in not overstimulating or creating terized as a placid and perhaps very any sense of tension, but this goes the nostalgic quality. opposite direction perhaps a bit too far, creating an almost melancholic air at The composition blends lush passages of times. strings, chorus and piano with an inter- mittent drum beat and shaker. The piece is also notable for the high quality of the audio production, convey- The overall effect however is that of a ing a very lush experience when listened very spacious piece with a lullaby-like to though good headphones, but also gentleness. giving the best chance to have its sooth- ing impact when played through an This music points to the idea of fnding overhead speaker system.

14 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 A theme tune or sound-track?

While these airlines have a ‘signature’ barding tune, Delta takes a very different ap- proach. Delta has a rotating series of popular music tracks.

For example, writing about a flight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, StarTribune journalist Kerri Westenburg commented “A twangy rendition of Prince’s iconic “Pur- ple Rain” hit my ears. I was sitting in my seat at the start of a Delta fight from Los Angeles to Minneapolis, waiting for passengers to settle in.”

Previously you could fnd Delta’s playlist on Spotify, but that seems to have stopped. Instead, Delta now publishes the monthly line-up on its website, but without links. You can see the latest line-up here.

15 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018 Comment by Juanito Pascual

The idea of a theme song versus a play- that some percentage of people are go- list like anything, has pluses and minuses. ing to quickly get tired of, is something to be mindful of. Some obvious pluses with a unique theme song include the fact that is your A good balance can of course be a sig- own emblematic piece of music, which nature theme song, and perhaps a short can be as much a part of the experience playlist, if the situation calls for music to as the company’s visual logo and other be playing for a while. Another approach branded materials. when considering whether to have a the theme song is to have an extended com- The music in many ways completes position, so the length is not an issue. this set of what are otherwise regarded as standard and essential elements of In the case of boarding a plane people branding, whereas use of pre-existing are of course focused on getting in and song(s) can give the effect simply that settled and probably not listening too the radio is on. closely to the music, and therefore the music is a more subliminal element, The process of creating a theme song, setting the mood. It seems the primary should involve a conscious effort to cap- considerations are to make people feel ture and celebrate some essential ele- some combination of comfortable, safe, ments of a company’s character, brand relaxed, and generally positive. promise and/or mission. You don’t get that kind of specifcity with pre-existing Delta Airlines uses the approach of a cu- music. And like with visual branding rated playlist and does a good job of set- elements, ideally the music is something ting a relaxing mood through a selection that will become immediately recogniz- of medium tempo songs, that are more able creating an immediate association or less contemporary and generally in the with the company anytime it is heard. inde-rock and singer/songwriter realms.

A playlist on the other hand has the ad- Music, whether a unique theme song, vantages of variety and length without or playlist can go a long way in helping repetition. By having various songs, you achieve these things, though the theme come closer to the idea of “something song is going to have the advantage of for everyone” which has its advantages adding to a unique and memorable ele- as well. Indeed, the idea of a single song ment specifc to your brand.

16 | Airline Marketing Monthly - October 2018