Bang & Olufsen’s latest branding effort is not a new, finely designed audio hardware product. Instead, the Danish high-end audio company has launched a web app that lets users express themselves by creating a 3D Avatar based on their Spotify listening preferences.

“Music isn’t something we just listen to, it’s something we feel”, said Bang & Olufsen’s Creative Director Paul Collins. “It expresses who we are and who we connect with. The feeling of listening to music that you truly love can transport you to another world, and we wanted to visualize that world”. 

To generate their avatar, users must visit the See Yourself in Sound website, connect their Spotify account, and wait for the software to do its magic. People without Spotify accounts can fill out a short form on the website to access their bespoke avatar. The results are quirky, colorful, and unique figures representing the mix of each user’s musical tastes.

“The landscape for avatars and hyper-reality forms has grown in recent years, and work in the digital space is only becoming more prevalent,” said Anders Jessen, co-Found of Hello Monday/DEPT®, the Agency that supported Band & Olufsen in this campaign. “We worked closely with the brand to design something that not only was unique to each participant of the campaign but something that felt unique in the world of avatars of the present day.” 

With the new campaign, Bang & Olufsen is probably targeting a younger demographic than its usual cohort of distinguished and affluent design connoisseurs. While the intent and outreach can certainly be appreciated, we can’t help but notice a disconnect between the minimal aesthetics of the Danish brand and the bubbly, complex avatars generated by the See Yourself in Sound website. In other words, while the campaign might attract a new audience, we’re unsure where to place it within the much more contained and polished Bang & Olufsen design and branding universe.