Episode 9: FROM ADS TO ARCHITECTURE - Steve Keller - Studio Resonate at Pandora

If clever audio branding can influence our behaviour and drive our purchase decisions, what impact can good acoustic architecture and sound design in the built environment have on our well being and mental health?

In Ep.9 of The Quiet Mark Podcast, Simon Gosling seeks answers to that question from one of the world’s leading experts in the field of sonic identity, Steve Keller, to find out, when it comes to sound in adverts, what makes people tick and why, and to explore the lessons this can teach us in our approach to the acoustic design of products and places.

Steve Keller is Sonic Strategy Director for Studio Resonate, Pandora’s audio-first creative consultancy. With a degree in psychology and over 30 years of experience in the music and advertising industries, Steve’s work explores the ways music and sound impact consumer perception and behaviour.

Recent experiments have examined the relationship between sound and taste, the existence of audio archetypes, the cost and benefits of music, soundscapes and noise in healthcare settings, and how bias impacts the aesthetic judgements of advertising professionals.

Steve raises the subject of ‘Alarm Fatigue’ in hospitals. The alarms, beeps and chatter of a hospital aren’t just uncomfortable for patients and staff: the noise can undermine safety and health.

One report by the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses found that from 72% to 99% of all hospital alarms were false. At just one hospital – Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland – there is an average of 350 alarms per patient per day.

Steve talks of ambient musician Yoko Sen who, after an unsettling hospital stay, founded a start-up that creates more pleasing sounds for medical devices and the work of famed composer and U2 Producer, Brian Eno who produced two pieces of light installation art designed to relax patients at The Montefiore Hospital in Hove.

Pandora is a leading music and podcast discovery platform, providing a highly-personalized listening experience to approximately 70 million users each month. As the largest streaming music provider in the U.S., with an industry-leading digital audio advertising platform, Pandora connects listeners with the audio entertainment they love. Pandora is a subsidiary of Sirius XM Holdings Inc.. Together, Pandora and SiriusXM have created the world's largest audio entertainment company.