MassiveMusic Uses Science to Develop New Mindful Sonic Brand for Legal & General

The Legal & General Group has launched its first sonic brand identity. Produced by global creative music agency MassiveMusic, the Music, Mind and Brain Group at Goldsmiths University and tested by SoundOut, the new audio identity aligns with the company’s wider purpose of delivering the economic and social benefits of ‘inclusive capitalism’ to improve the lives of its customers. The launch of the sonic brand follows Legal & General’s global brand refresh last year by WPP brand agency Superunion, who continue to work with the company on brand development.

Established in 1836 and one of Europe’s largest insurance and asset management groups, Legal & General’s purpose has always been at the heart of everything it does. As a company, it has invested more than £30bn in direct investments including homes, urban regeneration across the UK’s towns and cities, clean energy and small business finance. Therefore, MassiveMusic, who are renowned for helping global brands become more effective with the power of sound, developed an asset that could further extend this sentiment, enabling the brand to live across an audio ecosystem, work consistently across the brands’ vertical business, and reflect its desire to offer something more meaningful to customers. 

Inclusive Capitalism - backed by science 

Inspired by Legal & General’s umbrella as the symbol of protection, and its ‘inclusive capitalism’ ethos that ‘aims to improve the lives of customers and build a better society for the long term,’ Legal & General’s sonic identity aims to give back to society and enhance lives through the power of sound. 

MassiveMusic crafted a unique sonic logo that brings to life the sound of the brand’s iconic umbrella and a feeling of reassurance, alongside a sonic DNA track and adaptations to cater to all of Legal & General’s content and brand communications.

By working directly with the specialist team at the Goldsmiths Music Mind and Brain Group and implicit testing with SoundOut research, the MassiveMusic team took the idea further and created empirically-tested music designed to effectively promote a sense of calm and improve wellbeing, aid with sleep and promote better focus. Grounded in science, MassiveMusic mapped sound against the colours of its highly recognised umbrella logo, creating four different functional music tracks which are supported visually by album artwork created by Superunion, to target four different emotional scenarios:

• Red: Functional music to aid focus (eg. Work, study)

• Blue: Functional music to aid sleep (eg. At night or 4am scenario)

• Yellow: Functional music for a moment of pause (eg. On commute, coffee break)

• Green: Functional music to calm down emotionally (eg. Feeling stressed, irritable)

The tracks are accessible on Spotify and YouTube without restriction, alongside a limited run vinyl release.

Roscoe Williamson, global creative strategy director and partner at MassiveMusic, said: “The Legal & General umbrella is one of the most recognisable brand visuals in the sector and something many of us have grown up seeing over and over again. It was important that this iconic symbol of protection was embedded at the heart of the Legal & General sonic experience. Our passion for the healing power of music has shone in the past through our Music x Mind initiative, so when we realised that Legal & General shared this passion, developing a sonic brand empirically tested to help people made perfect sense. The resulting sonic brand is rooted in who Legal & General are as a company and what they stand for - giving back to society.”

Tamara Bates, group brand director at Legal & General, said: “It really was an incredible experience developing the sound of Legal & General with both MassiveMusic and the scientific minds at Goldsmiths. We’re known for how we look but not how we sound, so the process and collaboration of finding something that is rooted in our brand values and offering something more to our customers means we have another hugely valuable asset that can play a part across our global communications.”

Want to learn more about how the new Legal & General sonic brand was created? Head to the MassiveMusic website by clicking here.