Spring Cleaning and The Sound of Q-Tips

What else do you use Q-Tips for? You know, other than for…makeup. Or cleaning small spaces. Or crafts. 

When Q-Tips sought to launch a fun, informative audio campaign about the many uses of its product, they put the audio experts at Studio Resonate on a mission: the quest for the sound of America’s favorite cotton swab. 

“Before working on this campaign, we really didn’t expect there to be so many uses for a Q-Tip, and that unexpectedness is exactly what we wanted to bring to life for listeners,” says Ryan Wardell, Associate Creative Director and copywriter for this campaign. “We could simply tell them that Q-Tips are perfect for cleaning, but we thought it’d be more fun to show them—with sound.”

Elevating Brand Stories with Audio 

Audio has the ability to not just communicate brand messages, but create an entire experience that captivates listeners. So when Q-Tips asked to share their many use cases with 30-second audio ads, the Studio Resonate team got to work on some spring-cleaning-focused spots, using capabilities that brought the brand messaging to the next level.

3D Audio

For an optimal 3D audio experience, grab your best headphones.

Imagine listening to your favorite song or show, when suddenly everything sounds muffled and distorted. We’ve all been there—and this ad recreates the experience. With 3D audio, it actually feels like we’re experiencing the audio first hand. Studio Resonate brings the ad to life by distorting sound, and solving the issue with a Q-Tip. 

“The 3D audio idea fits music streaming perfectly and is relatable to the kind of listener who constantly wears their headphones,” says Miya Kanzaki, Studio Resonate’s Associate Creative Director & Creative Lead for the Unilever account. “It’s a great, audio-specific way to get consumers to use Q-Tips more often, in a way they may not have thought about.” 

Connected Home

When it comes to reaching consumers in the right place at the right time, it doesn’t get better than house-cleaning sounds when they’re listening at home. This ad demonstrates several uses for Q-Tips that listeners may not have known about before, inspiring them to break open a pack to get to work in their own space.

Capturing Real Sound in the Wild (Home Office)

Show, don’t tell. (Or, whatever the audio version of that is.) 

The Studio Resonate team didn’t want to just tell listeners how well the product works. The goal was to showcase its many uses—with truly immersive audio. To get her creative juices flowing, Tanvi Phadke, Associate Creative Director, set out on a mission to demonstrate the cleaning power of Q-Tips with sound.

There are a lot of tools out there to capture 3D audio, most in the form of computer software. But to make this ad as immersive as possible, the team opted to use a binaural microphone from 3DIO. These microphones have human-like ears that are spaced six inches apart to mimic the average human head and replicate how we hear in the natural world. As Tanvi put Q-Tips to work cleaning her headphones, a 3DIO mic was used to capture the sounds. 

“Since the idea was about simulating the muffled effect, we wanted listeners to actually feel the muffled sound in their own ears. That was only possible with binaural audio,” Tanvi explains. “It made the problem of dirty headphones stand out clearly in the minds of listeners. If they could feel its realness, they could relate to the problem, which nicely led them to the solution of using Q-Tips.”

Tanvi went on to put the product to work on everything from her computer keyboard to a guitar, capturing real sound as she cleaned. 

The Sound of Success

“Q-Tips was an ideal client to work with right from the start because they came in with clear ideas, but they were also very open to our input,” says Marnie Peterson, Project Manager for Studio Resonate. “Overall it was one of the smoothest 3D audio campaigns we’ve ever worked on, and it yielded one of our best 3D audio spots.”

If you’re ready to work with the audiophiles at Studio Resonate on your next campaign, let us know.

Campaign Credits

Associate Creative Director: Miya Kanzaki

Audio Producer: Tanvi Phadke

Copywriter: Ryan Wardell

Project Manager: Marnie Peterson