What makes a piece of branded content truly land? Too often we assume it’s primarily how it looks, but great directors and neuroscience suggest otherwise. George Lucas famously stated that sound is half of the entertainment; Orson Welles claims he judged takes with his back to the stage to better focus on sounds and rhythm; while research shows audio lingers in memory for 2-3 seconds (echoic memory) while image fades after a quarter second (iconic memory).

That gap matters. High quality, impactful posts don’t just look right — they also sound right. These extra 1-2 seconds in the echoic memory could well be what nudges on-the-fence viewers to visit comments, now one of the engines of virality.

The following selections from our library showcase 5 ways brands mastered sound to push posts into the top 1%.

This Coach post offers a sharp use of the “audio stitch” format, riding a creator’s viral sound before responding to it. The dual hook — on-screen text paired with that audio — sparks instant curiosity. The payoff feels intimate: Stuart Vevers, Creative Director, adds both face and voice. The tactic is simple but potent — borrow the community’s voice, then reply with your own human one.

In this italodisco clip for Campari, polyester shirts, mustaches, and tile-lined walls evoke a precise late-’70s mood. But when the beat drops, the scene becomes lived-in atmosphere: the music animates the look, while the look adds layers to the sound, until the two fuse into something larger.

Note also how sound also impacts us differently than images do: it unfolds over time, carrying rhythm and pace well after the post ends. Even if the visual can vanish in a blink; a sound echoes, repeats in the mind, and keeps shaping how the image felt long after the screen has gone black.

Arizona Seltzer’s melancholic “Hey, it’s me” proves how sound alone can drive emotional intensity. The voicemail-style audio conjures nostalgia and longing, while the visual — just a screen recording — fades to the background. What lingers is the voice, its pacing, its vulnerability and hesitation. The genius is restraint: letting audio carry the weight, inviting viewers to (re-)imagine relatable moments.

Never flashing the product, the brand positions itself as one that gets its audience, fluent in the moods and vibes that shape their psyche — an instinct that feels especially right for a hard seltzer brand selling refreshment, escape, and emotion more than just liquid in a can.

Brita’s lo-fi singing shark demonstrates episodic sound branding. Its repetitive refrain, “but I’m hydrated” (used across several posts), anchors the chaos of student life as an unforgettable earworm. The shark’s absurdity grabs attention, but what sustains engagement is the jingle itself — adaptable lyrics delivered with deadpan precision.

By tailoring lyrics to back-to-college anxieties and posting in late August, Brita turned sound into timely entertainment and persuasion, with students openly crediting the campaign for purchases.

Harry Styles’s lifestyle brand, Pleasing, weaponised a single audio cue: a ringing phone. In a crowded, visual-first feed, the sound cut through instantly, demanding attention. The suspense built until a flash of Harry’s hand sent the fanbase spiralling.

The brilliance lies not just in the ring but in the layered cues — the buzz, the sharp inhale, the half-heard gasp. These nonverbal human sounds trigger instinctive, right-brain reactions that words alone cannot, tapping directly into urgency and intimacy. They make the scene feel lived and immediate, pulling viewers out of passive watching and into detective mode.

These five posts, each a top 1% Owned gem, underline a core truth: sound is not accessory but architecture. It sets rhythm, prolongs memory, and shapes emotion more deeply than visuals alone. From the intimacy of a voicemail to the absurdity of a singing shark, these brands prove that when audio is treated as strategy rather than garnish, content hits harder and travels further. The opportunity is there for open-minded brands to seize: if you want to be remembered — and give your content better odds of taking off — create for the ear as deliberately as you do for the eye.