TwentyThree Summit - Karsten Kjems, CEO Sonic Minds

You've established yourself as a leading figure in sonic branding shaping sound for award-winning projects. What's the most surprising or unconventional place you found inspiration for audio branding work? Well, I would say one of the biggest sounds that stood out for me is the Danish Rejsekort, the travel card. Yes. That for many years have used the same sound for checking in and checking out. And I keep wondering why was it I was forgetting to check out this one. It's very simple. You go on a train, you check in, you leave the train, you check out. Done. But they use the same sound for the same, for the different functions. So the brain cannot hear the difference. So when I posted once on LinkedIn saying, I know why you also forget to check out, it went viral. And I mean, everybody is one of the most played sounds in Denmark because thousands of, 100,000 people are checking daily. So this is what I call public audio pollution. You need to take care of what sounds are we playing in the public rooms and what's the purpose of it. And here was, now they're a client to us and getting some help. That's genius. It makes perfect sense. It makes sense. But that's just one area where sound can make a difference in public spaces, but also for brands and products, et cetera. I love it. And you often say that audio has a unique ability to create emotions and connections, right? As shared by now. And sometimes in ways that visual alone cannot achieve. In your experience, what is the role of audio in the video brand? And what are the key ingredients for making audio truly memorable in brand storytelling? Audio and video are like salt and pepper, man and wife, sun and moon. You cannot have the one without the other. That's also, as a track call that. So it's so important. Yes, we can do video, but what about the sound? So it's so crucial for the emotional connection. So for brands to start using video, they also need to know what emotions do I want the consumer or the audience to think, feel, or do when I have seen or listened to this. And more and more medias are non-visual, podcasts, TV commercials. I mean, 80% of the people only listen to TV commercials because they always do second screening and other stuff when it goes on. So it's so important that you actually communicate your brand in sound. It could be with vocals or logo or just the right good track there. Because music is the strongest, really strong identifier for who you are also as a person or as a brand. Thinking about some of your most interesting and successful projects, what creative or strategic challenges did you face when developing the sonic identity that truly reflects a brand's value? Well, that's where we can get synergy, I would say. So they might have a name or they might have some logos and suddenly we can see, oh, this name could be expressed with some musical notations here or they might have some musical elements in their logo or in their brand values. So if we can really get this cohesiveness, like ASUS, the Taiwan community company, why don't we use an ASUS cord? Because the name is actually the music cord. It's pretty banal, but still, ah, so if you're a musician, you can hear, ah, ASUS, they use ASUS cord. Just like DSB, also D, E flat and BB. So if there's something we can create some synergy, that's where they really get beauty. Rather than just having our guitar playing something, why do you play this? I don't know, it just felt good. No, there's a story behind it. There's a thinking behind it that makes it meaningful. So that meaningfulness is something we always strive for. I love it. You talked about how audiovisual, right, how video is about having the audiovisual working together. But still, many companies underestimate the importance of sound in their digital presence. What are some practical advice that you could give for brands who want to improve this quality and strategy, especially if they're just getting started or if they are on a limited budget? Really good question. I always say, okay, at least appoint one person in the company to be in charge of your sound. You have probably a finance account or you have a client director or whatever, a project manager, but who of that person you have in your company or group should be audio responsible. So when we do use sound, we need to know what is it you want to communicate. Should be, what emotions do you want to create? Which platforms are we in? And also look into the whole ecosystem. Do we have an on hold music in our company? And the biggest problem is that many companies are not aware of that they have used sound in so many different parts of the organization. So, but we have come to a place today in terms of visual. I mean, look at this place here. It says TwentyThree all over the place. And I see a green t-shirt. I know who is part of the company. The same with sound. Where do we use our audio elements? Where do we get this audio architecture around our customer journey so you can hear? It's us. As well, as you can see, it's us. It sounds so satisfying. Yeah, but start simple, you know. And if the sound doesn't add value, remove it. Don't have a sound. Just have the people talking. Or if you do it, if you are going to have music or sound, what's the purpose of it? What emotions do you want to create? Do we want to be feeling experienced or do we feel happy or bold or innovative? If you can't figure that out, get some help. I mean, I always go to photographer if I need to get a good picture taken. Yes, I have a camera in my phone, but I'm not a photographer. So I'll definitely use that creating my next videos. So, of course, I could not avoid the hottest topic in any conference or honestly anywhere nowadays, which is AI. In 2025, about 400 million terabytes of data are created every day with video and music making up to a large part of this data, right? And on top of that, platforms like Deezer say that, for example, 80% of daily uploads are fully AI-generated music. So my question for you is, what is your take on how brands can use sound to keep a human connection with their customers? And yeah, what is your take on using AI in general? That's a really big question. Do we have an hour? Music is about emotions and AI doesn't have emotions. I've listened to a lot of AI platforms where you are prompted to make some music, but I still, I can hear it still isn't there yet. Perhaps it's just about time. In five years, it can make wonderful music. But if you don't hear any flaws or any human into it, you kind of miss that connection. And I do think that we are going to look into a time where it's made by a real human, just like we see with photos. This is a real person picture, not an AI photo or whatever, or made by real musicians. Just like we have organic or stamps, or we have made by wind, or we have farmed by whatever, or this organic eggs, whatever, real made music. Because at the end, I think people want to have human connections. So we use AI as a tool. Yes, we can feed the AI with our own tracks and then say, make a heavy rock version of this. That's a good idea. Or make a funky beat out of this beat. So it can be a helpful tool, just like we have drum machines as a drummer. But the drummer today plays with the drum machine and then he plays on top of it to give it some groove. So we don't see it as a replacement. We see it as a tool. But right now, there's so much hype about AI, is it going to replace everything? Am I really a person you're talking to? But in the future, I think we're going to find a way to use AI in a more organic way. So where does it create meaning? And again, as my philosophy is, just because we can make a sound or film doesn't mean we have to. Does it really create value? Does the world need this film or this sound? Or are we just polluting the world surrounding us with more numbness content that nobody wants to watch? On that note, this year's topic of the TwentyThree Summit is the human side of digital. What does that mean to you? That's very important because we are humans at the end of the day. And we talk about B2B and B2C. Well, I'm talking about human to human. I'm talking to a human now. And, you know, when I'm not, if we're talking from a B2B company, do I then go into a B2C? Five o'clock, because then I'm private casting. And then, oh, it's eight o'clock in the morning. Now I'm corporate casting. No, it's human to humans. So I think we should learn to, you know, encompass all these texts, these platforms, and use it where it creates emotional engagement. And not just post a feed with AI or something, because we can say, yeah, wow, but it doesn't connect with me. So it's all about the human connections. And that's where the music is the most important thing in my world. Thank you so much. It was lovely to hear you. Likewise. Thank you for joining here and being your wonderful summer hero.