SmileDirectClub Case Study

Objective

While SmileDirectClub is the world’s largest telehealth clear aligner company, their brand promises something bigger. It's about giving people confidence and a new perspective on the world. Their challenge lies in getting that feeling across, and making it stick, through their marketing.

The company turned to audio, understanding that "sound and song are among the most powerful memory triggers we have." In a unique move for this particular sector, SDC built and tested an audio logo to be the centerpiece of a “full experience” of audio for their consumers.

Approach

SDC worked with leading sonic branding agency Man Made Music to develop a set of mnemonics that would reflect their brand personality and promise. In tandem, they leveraged the Veritonic Audio Intelligence Platform to assess effectiveness.

• Six different logo treatments, benchmarked against other logos in the Veritonic database for attributes such as confidence, optimism, and happiness, as well as recall
• Tested on the general population and families with children
• Variations include instrumental-only, acappella, and inclusion of brand name

Results

Each of the six SmileDirectClub audio logos scored above various benchmarks across the Veritonic platform. Play Winner.

• 21% above norm for the CPG vertical
• 17% above norm for attributes like happiness
• 25% higher recall among families with kids

While the “whistle-only” version of the mnemonic scored the highest, the SDC team decided to leverage some industry best practices, going to market first with a treatment that uses the brand name in the melody (logos that do are five times more recognizable on average). The team is considering a transition to the instrumental-only version in the future.

SmileDirectClub launched their winning audio logo as part of their Choose Smile campaign in January 2021.