Is Your Brand Leveraging the Power of Immersive Sound?

In an increasingly digital and multi-sensory world, brands are seeking to create deeper, more engaging experiences. By using spatial sound—audio that mimics real-world acoustics—brands can craft immersive environments in physical spaces like stores and offices, as well as in digital spaces like VR, AR, MR, and the metaverse.

Spatial sound can transform how customers perceive a space, making interactions feel more natural, personal, and memorable.

For on-location experiences, such as in stores or events, spatial sound can enhance the atmosphere, guide customer behavior, and reinforce brand identity by surrounding the audience in an immersive soundscape. In the office, spatial sound can create a branded sonic presence that promotes relaxation, focus, or inspiration, aligning with the brand’s values.

In virtual environments like VR, AR, MR, and the metaverse, spatial sound is key to creating realistic, immersive experiences where users can explore and interact with the brand in a dynamic, three-dimensional way. By designing how sound moves through these spaces, brands can deepen emotional connections, making the experience more impactful.

Overall, a strategic use of spatial sound allows brands to move beyond traditional sonic branding and create multi-sensory experiences that leave a lasting impression, whether in physical locations or virtual worlds. This enhances brand engagement and sets them apart in a crowded market, offering new ways to connect with customers.

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Location-Based Spatial Sound

*Best for brands that want to create immersive, sensory-driven environments in physical spaces, influencing customer mood and behavior while reinforcing the brand’s identity

Brands can use location-based spatial sound to create immersive sonic environments tailored to specific spaces like retail stores or offices.

These soundscapes can change depending on where a person is within the space, offering a dynamic audio experience that aligns with the brand’s message or mood. For example, soothing soundscapes in stores can help customers feel more relaxed, while spatial audio in offices can enhance focus or well-being.

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When to Choose It:

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Creating Immersive Brand Environments: Spatial sound is ideal for brands enhancing sensory experiences in physical locations like retail stores, hotels, and event spaces. It creates a 360-degree soundscape that envelops customers, making the experience more engaging and memorable.

Influencing Customer Behavior and Mood: For brands aiming to subtly guide customer behavior or set an emotional tone, spatial sound can direct customers through spaces, enhance mood, and make the environment feel interactive.

Strengthening Brand Atmosphere: For brands with key physical touchpoints (e.g., luxury stores, museums), spatial sound reinforces brand identity by aligning the auditory environment with the visual and physical space, creating a cohesive, elevated atmosphere.

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Benefits:

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Spatial sound provides a three-dimensional experience, immersing customers and drawing them deeper into the brand.

It enables unique auditory zones within a space, focusing sound on specific displays or creating quiet zones for a tailored experience.

Beyond enhancing auditory experiences, spatial sound amplifies emotional responses—calming in a spa, energetic in retail—deepening customers’ connection to the brand.

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Considerations:

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Implementing spatial sound requires strategic planning and technology, including acoustics and layout considerations to ensure effective sound distribution without interference.

The chosen sounds must reflect the brand’s identity and tone, whether for ambient or dynamic soundscapes, aligning with customer expectations.

For brands with multiple locations, maintaining consistent spatial sound across sites is essential for a unified brand experience.

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Examples I Love:

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Zaha Hadid Architects featured spatial audio in two installations. At their 520 West 27th building near New York City’s High Line, the City of Dreams Pavilion used spatial audio to respond to visitor movement, urban noise, and environmental changes. The soundscapes shifted dynamically as visitors moved, creating a meditative, interactive audio experience that blended with the organic architecture. In another project, Loop Immersive, spatial audio was paired with bio-feedback, using heart rate and movement data to adapt the soundscapes in real-time. Sound shifted with 360-degree spatial audio, creating a personalized, interactive auditory experience. Both projects demonstrated how spatial audio enhances the connection between sound, space, and human interaction, making the environment more engaging and responsive.

Sonos heavily integrated spatial audio in its listening rooms and showcases at their former flagship store in New York. The space demonstrated how Sonos systems could reproduce 3D sound, with audio moving dynamically around the listener. Visitors experienced sound coming from different directions, simulating real-life environments. This showcased Sonos’ compatibility with Dolby Atmos, enhancing the experience of music, movies, or podcasts in 3D sound. The immersive environment gave customers a clear sense of how Sonos products perform in real-world home settings with surround sound.

Aesop uses spatial audio in their stores to create calming, immersive environments that match their minimalist and serene brand aesthetic. In some locations, the soundscapes subtly shift as customers move through the space, adding an immersive element to the shopping experience. This allows customers to hear different sounds as they explore products, enhancing the calming and luxurious feel. Aesop’s use of spatial audio helps create a multi-sensory experience, making the store environment feel both immersive and tranquil, perfectly aligning with their elegant product line.

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XR Spatial Sound

*Best for brands aiming to create fully immersive, interactive experiences in digital and mixed-reality environments, enhancing realism, engagement, and emotional connection

Brands can leverage spatial sound in VR, MR, and AR to create immersive, multi-sensory experiences that boost engagement and realism.

By mimicking how sound behaves in the real world, spatial audio helps users locate virtual objects, navigate environments, and interact with branded content in a more engaging way.

In marketing, spatial sound enhances product demos, virtual events, and storytelling by adding a sense of presence. This strengthens emotional connections, making users feel more involved in the brand’s story, which ultimately improves brand loyalty and recall.

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When to Choose It:

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Immersive Digital Experiences: Spatial sound is ideal for brands creating immersive virtual, augmented, or mixed reality experiences. In virtual stores, interactive events, or branded metaverse spaces, spatial audio enhances realism and emotional impact.

Interactive and Dynamic Environments: For brands aiming to develop interactive environments where sound adapts based on user actions, spatial sound can respond dynamically, making experiences feel lifelike. In VR, sound can move with the user, creating a strong sense of presence.

Enhancing Storytelling and Engagement: Spatial sound amplifies storytelling by guiding users through virtual experiences, highlighting key moments, and adding emotional depth—particularly valuable in branded metaverse experiences where engagement is crucial.

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Benefits:

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Spatial sound mimics real-world audio cues for distance, direction, and depth, making virtual environments feel more immersive and increasing user engagement.

In virtual or augmented environments, spatial sound can guide users through experiences using directional audio cues, enhancing navigation and interaction in complex VR worlds or AR settings.

Sound is a powerful emotional tool; spatial sound in VR, MR, AR, or metaverse experiences can evoke specific emotions, creating awe, excitement, or calmness, deepening sensory engagement and memorability.

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Considerations:

Implementing spatial sound requires attention to platform compatibility, as VR headsets, AR apps, and metaverse platforms may have different spatial audio capabilities.

Designing spatial sound for virtual environments calls for a sophisticated, balanced approach that aligns with the brand’s identity and responds realistically to user interactions.

The effectiveness of spatial sound depends on the user’s device, whether a VR headset or a mobile AR app. Brands should consider device compatibility to ensure a consistent audio experience across all user setups.

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Examples I Love:

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MyTheresa offers a VR shopping experience through an app designed for the Apple Vision Pro mixed-reality headset. Shoppers can explore virtual environments like a Capri beach with the sound of waves and seagulls or a Paris at night setting with a 3D Eiffel Tower. Alternatively, they can choose a less immersive experience by keeping the background transparent to see their surroundings. Users can browse curated pieces by using eye and hand controls, view product details, and make purchases via Apple Pay. The immersive visuals and realistic sounds create a lifelike shopping experience, fostering emotional connections with the products and inspiring shoppers.

Nissan’s VR Test Ride Experience allows potential customers to virtually explore the driving dynamics of their vehicles from home. What sets this apart is the use of spatial audio, enhancing the realism and emotional impact of the virtual drive. Users are immersed in realistic engine sounds, with the sound design dynamically adjusting to actions like accelerating, braking, and cornering. The 3D spatial audio creates an authentic driving environment, with sounds like passing vehicles, wind resistance, and tires on different surfaces. The soundscapes change based on the type of road, and in-cabin acoustics are emphasized, allowing users to experience the near-silent drive of electric models like the Nissan Leaf or the quiet interiors of premium models with advanced sound insulation. Throughout the experience, users interact with car features, accompanied by realistic sound cues like beeps or changes in audio when switching driving modes. To deepen the emotional connection, custom soundtracks are tailored to each vehicle’s personality—sporty models feature energetic music, while electric models have more ambient soundscapes. Nissan’s sonic branding is also integrated with a branded sonic logo and sound cues at key moments, reinforcing the brand identity and making the experience feel like a true test drive from home.

Immersive sound pushes the boundaries of how brands engage with customers, whether in physical spaces, on-site installations, or virtual worlds.

By using spatial audio in environments like VR, AR, MR, and the metaverse, brands can create unforgettable experiences that make users feel truly present and emotionally connected. On-site, immersive soundscapes can transform physical locations into branded sensory environments, deepening engagement and emotional resonance.

This new frontier allows brands to craft dynamic, multi-sensory experiences that are both engaging and memorable, helping to build brand loyalty in an evolving digital landscape.

As we’ve explored throughout this series, the power of sound is undeniable. Whether through music, sonic branding, or immersive audio, sound plays a pivotal role in creating deeper, more meaningful connections with your audience. By thoughtfully integrating sound into every touchpoint, brands can stand out, evoke emotion, and build lasting relationships.

If you missed any of the earlier posts on music or sound, I invite you to explore them and discover how each element of sound can elevate your brand’s identity and engagement.