BRAND WORK
THE THINGS WE DO FOR CONSUMERS ON BEHALF OF BRANDS
BRAND WORK
THE THINGS WE DO FOR CONSUMERS ON BEHALF OF BRANDS
Holla Sonic is a dynamic youth culture agency specializing in the Music & Entertainment industries.
Founded in 2013 by the duo behind Hollaphonic, Holla Sonic has made its mark globally, delivering high-profile music production projects for brands, businesses, and governments. Over time, the agency expanded its expertise into brand consultancy, strategic planning, experience design, and storytelling—while staying at the forefront of cutting-edge music production worldwide.
Here’s a glimpse of what we’ve accomplished and the incredible partners we’ve collaborated with…
LATEST WORK
Holla Sonic, partnering with Co-Exist in Saudi Arabia produced the original music for PUBG Mobile to launch Arabic content within their mobile game across Saudi Arabia. Working closely with a team of writers, Khaleeji session musicians and a talented creative unit Holla Sonic delivered an exiting piece of fresh, culturally connected content that sits both in game and across Tencent platforms worldwide. Search #DancePUBGM on TikTok to see the record breaking 50 BILLION + interactions as our music went viral across the world.
WE CREATE VISUAL CONTENT
It’s not only about the music the world we live in today is so visual that we pride ourselves in a range of creative direction on content led pieces driven by brands to reach certain audiences and build awareness around the different facets of their product and services. We are experts in youth so many brands approach us to take their ideas and develop new and exciting creative content to make each campaign impact properly and create an emotional link with consumers whilst staying relevant to their campaign message
Working closely with the team at Ithra, Saudi Aramco and Mac Global to deliver on their concept for intimate, masterclass style discussion adapted for the lockdown. Consistent, at home content, led by quality of discussion and experienced personalities from across a range of intellectual and arts disciplines
Holla Sonic we’re proud for the second year in a row to work with Expo 2020 on this truly international video, we brought talent from across the planet together to celebrate the 48th UAE National Day shooting in 9 countries around the planet in a matter of weeks. Working alongside production house Boomtown Productions to deliver a stunning video played across the nation.
Working alongside Vice Arabia, Pulse Films and Dubai Tourism Holla Sonic acted as music consultant on this amazing project tasked with deliver original music video content from major artists across the planet, shooting their music videos in the spectacular setting of Dubai. Rita Ora delivered the first video to much critical acclaim, we look forward to many more as we work with artists, labels and management as the conduit to draw in the best talent from around the globe.
One world, one beat, one year to go! Passengers danced to the unified rhythm of 17 global drummers in DXB's very own countdown to #Expo2020 🥁 - Holla Sonic created the story, directed the video and built the soundtrack for DXB.
La Perle launched in Dubai and the world famous creative mind Franco Dragone conceived and directed the story and show itself. He bought us onboard to engage with a younger creative audience from this territory and beyond. We worked with them to develop original music and remixes of their soundtrack which are still played upon entrance to the show today.
We were engaged by Expo 2020 to gather over 180 musicians and singers to perform the UAE National Anthem for the 47th UAE National Day 2018. It was the first time it was recorded with such a breadth of world instruments, showing the diversity of Expo 2020 and its ambition to connect the world and create the future. We had 3 weeks to complete the task.
WE MAKE HISTORY
Working alongside multiple governments, international festival brands, record label, streaming platforms and even the G20, we have created, developed and delivered some of the most thrilling events ever to take place in the Middle East. We are brought in from day one to build the international team and local support infrastructure that can cover everything from production to line ups, creative and communication. Our background in large public events enables us to get the best value and engage with the most professional players.
Ultra Abu Dhabi, taking place in 2020 will be the first global festival brand to come in it’s entirety to the Middle East and they mean business!! Working closely with Ultra Abu Dhabi, Ultra Asia (S.Korea) and Ultra Music Festivals HQ (USA) we joined the team from conception, advising about the music festivals market across the region, developing a communications and partnerships framework. We advised on artists line-ups, ticketing, venue, developed media relationships and connected potential sponsors from our wide network of brands. Watch this space, follow us on instagram @hollasonic to find out more leading up to March 5&6th 2020
WE MAKE MUSIC
We will reinvent and refresh your sound to suit your every target audience, developing a audio language to compliment and complete your design language. Whether its original music, arrangement, talent, voiceovers, songwriting, sound design, brand, TVC or radio campaigns, soundtracks, SFX, sonic identities or an original composition to make you stand out from the crowd, Holla!
Working alongside Government Games they wanted us to take a piece of music that was bought in 2018 and not only give them an original composition capturing the energy and grit of the Gov Games but build upon the soundtrack and evolve it into something that could become a Sonic ID for the Gov Games brand ongoing; that’s when we created ‘Boom Boom Boom II’
Durex wanted to create a soundtrack that was cool, contemporary for a younger market and would fit perfectly in their consumers Spotify playlist as well as on their advert itself. We did just that, creating the Soundtrack to Sex and releasing a version as Hollaphonic through our partners Sony Music Entertainment.
XDubai and Dubai FIlm approached us to create a a piece of music telling three separate stunt stories built around the thrilling experience of driving the new Mercedes range of vehicles. The end piece was a massive success and the music was a constantly commented upon highlight amongst the 28m viewers who watched it online.
Working closely with Emirates Airlines and Universal Music Group we created an original piece of music to welcome over 250m passengers travelling over a five year period on their airline. Emirates subsequently won ‘best original video’ in the prestigious 2017 Apex Passenger awards. Since release we’ve had over 50 requests to release the music as a full length track.
Holla Sonic were approached to developed an original music composition which would connect on a deeper level with the young, cool, global explorer market during the launch of their Zabeel House hotel brand.
Our relationship with Dragone continues as Franco Dragone builds a stunning show for the 2019 edition of Cirque Du Soleil’s charity event ‘One Drop for One Night’ - we created a finale music piece during which Hans Zimmer walked onstage to accept his applause for the main score of the night.
WE CREATE CAMPAIGNS
Many of our brands develop from simply creating soundtracks and visual content to wanting a deeper connection with music and entertainment. The success of connecting through music allows them to emotionally engage with their audiences and we work with a variety of clients to explore the possibilities of music within their brand or business marketing mix.
Working alongside JOOX & Tencent Music Entertainment we produced, wrote and featured in Five pieces of unique original pop music for their #JOOXSelection campaign to go out across Thailand as a flagship project for 2019. Projects included Thai superstars Violette Wautier, Da Endorphine & SYPS. The campaign will be featured and hosted on the JOOX platform hosting over 58m subscribers.
Our relationship with DXB all started with the music you hear in this video but since then we’ve gone on to develop the relationship with the airport to bring a monthly music program to all concourses, connect with the music industry to drive tour revenue, build in streaming partnership so music is ever present on/offline within the DXB world. They are ambitious and together we’re deliver spectacular content and experiences that also drive commercial benefits to their business.
WE CONNECT PEOPLE
The position of Hollaphonic in the region as one of the founding music groups to break out internationally has allowed Holla Sonic to have unique and personal access to some of the biggest players in the Middle East and globally bringing these forces together too create unique and interesting partnerships in commerce and content to further their connection to the region and beyond.
DXB x Anghami
Dubai Airports has announced a new partnership with Anghami, the biggest music streaming platform in the Arab world, that will allow access to free music streaming for the near 89 million customers per year that travel through world’s busiest international airport.
The announcement regarding Dubai International (DXB) was made at ON.DXB, the region's newest festival of creativity.
As an evolution of Dubai Airports’ musicDXB programme, customers will have uninterrupted free access to specially curated, travel-themed playlists through the airport’s super-fast Wi-Fi.
The curated playlists are the first phase of the collaboration with plans for future musicDXB performances to feature as video content on Anghami along with joint search for emerging new talent across the Middle East.
Matt Horobin, director of brand engagement at Dubai Airports, said: “When we launched the new DXB brand in early 2019, one of our main objectives was to bring a sense of place to the millions of customers who travel through the airport’s doors every month. Working with Anghami we can present our customers with the sounds of the Arab world, something they may not usually consider, alongside global hits as they travel.”
Elie Abou Saleh, vice president Anghami GCC said: “Travel and music go hand-in-hand, as you walk through the airport so many travellers have headphones on listening to music that inspires them, reminds them of a good time, or helps get them to their destination quicker.”
Oliver Wood, who is executive director at Holla Sonic, the firm selected earlier this year to curate musicDXB, played a pivotal role in bringing the two brands together. He also selected music for the playlists that will feature on the musicDXB page of the Anghami platform.
“This is a huge milestone for the regional music scene. Just think about it. As artists and performers, we all scramble to be on big playlists but suddenly we are able to support the local scene even more and get their music heard,” said Wood.