Clio Music 2025: Sonic Branding Award Wins for Burger King® and General Mills
Following one of our most creatively fulfilling years yet, we're thrilled to share that Made Music Studio has been recognized at the Clio Music Awards 2025 for our work in Sonic Branding. We are humbled to be honored by and amongst our peers again as part of one of the most distinguished awards in our industry.
For our work with our longtime clients at General Mills, we earned Bronze for the bold, disruptive sound of Cinnamon Toast Crunch™. And we were shortlisted for our fun and funky work with Burger King®, an international sonic identity crafted for one of the world’s most beloved brands.
You can view the rest of the winners for Clio Music 2025 in their Winners Gallery.
Get a taste of Made Music Studio’s Clio Award-winning sonic identities below!
Winner: Cinnamon Toast Crunch™ Sonic Identity
Client: General Mills
Category: Best Use of Music in Advertising - Sonic Branding
Award: Bronze
Cinnamon Toast Crunch™ is instantly recognizable because of distinct brand assets like their iconic wordmark, cinnamon swirl, Cinnamoji characters and their delicious blast of Cinnadust flavor. Looking to build on the brand’s success with Gen Z teens, General Mills looked to dimensionalize their brand world with ownable sound. The main objectives for their new musical brand expression? Drive brand recognition, disrupt culture and supercharge Gen Z appeal.
Following successful collaborations on sonic branding for brands including Totino’s Pizza Rolls, Nature Valley and their Fruit Snacks portfolio, General MIlls turned to Made Music Studio once again. We delivered with a CTC sonic identity including a flavorful brand theme, an expansive sonic toolkit and an iconic blast of “Cinnadust!,” a sonic logo you’ll swear has been in culture for years. It’s a cohesive, digital-first sonic identity system that delivers at every consumer touchpoint — from broadcast advertising to TikTok remixes, influencer memes to sports sponsorships.
You can dive deeper into the sound of Cinnamon Toast Crunch on our blog, where our producers offer a behind the scenes look at the work.
Winner: Burger King®’s Global Sound
Brand: Burger King® International
Category: Best Use of Music in Advertising - Sonic Branding
Award: Shortlist
Burger King® already owns some of the world’s most iconic brand assets like the Whopper, the Crown and the bold visual logo, giving them many of the ingredients for success. But one ingredient was missing: an ownable musical expression that could unite BK’s messaging across markets and unlock the power of their “Have It Your Way™” promise.
Strategically crafted by Made Music Studio, we designed a sound that makes life tastier for every guest. The Burger King International brand theme is an empowering fanfare fit for modern-day royalty, complete with a funky saxophone hook and the sounds of flame grills and soda machines.
When it comes to the final results, our client at RBI said it best: “The new Burger King International sonic identity sizzles, already resonating with guests all over the world. It’s an important evolution for our brand platform, and another valuable asset for our continued growth.” - Gregg Heard, VP, Global Head of Design
In fact, the new sonic identity how shown high scores for emotional appeal across global markets including China, Brazil, France and Spain. And according to research by Sentient Decision Science, the new Burger King brand theme is scoring higher for appeal than 86% of all sonic logos in market, including McDonald’s, Netflix and Mastercard.
Read more about the global success of BK’s new sound on our case study page.
Clio Music, introduced in 2014 as part of the Clios’ prestigious awards program, celebrates the visceral power of music to connect consumers and brands around the world.
In lieu of an awards ceremony in Los Angeles this year, the Clios will be donating a portion of the proceeds from 2025's Clio Music program to MusiCares and It’s Bigger Than Us L.A., two organizations providing immediate and direct relief to people impacted by the ongoing natural disasters in Southern California.
