case study:
totino's pizza rolls
the big picture
General Mills identified the development of distinctive audio assets as critical to futureproofing their brand portfolio as consumers make the shift to audio-first channels. So after partnering with Made Music Studio on sonic branding for Nature Valley and Yoplait, General Mills turned their attention to more of their snack brands, including Totino’s Pizza Rolls.
Specializing in a tasty combination of pizza sauce, cheese, and a dash of absurdity, Totino’s is known for bending the rules. The brand transformed the humble slice of pizza into a poppable, bite-sized snack, and have been fueling after school hangouts and late-night gaming sessions ever since.
As the brand with the highest social media engagement in the General Mills portfolio, Totino’s sonic identity needed to reach Gen Z fans where they’re at: sound-on social & gaming platforms. The result is a gamified brand sound that boosts recall & attribution, cuts through the noise of other after school snacks, and is an epic, flavorful brand sound for the era of the screenager.
As Totino’s continues to grow, we realized we needed a fresh signature that would resonate with our audience. It needed to connect back to our brand while being a sound that is familiar to teens. We were excited to pull in Made Music Studio who are the experts in the audio space to help Totino’s unlock a sound that we could use across our multiple connection points.”
Taylor Roseberry, Brand Experience Manager
the challenge
Totino’s Pizza Rolls needed a sonic identity that reflected their brand values of friendly, familiar, and absurdly funny. Their sonic identity would be the key to futureproofing the Totino’s brand, and to ensuring their audience of screenagers (of all ages) felt seen as they escape to their happy place of screens, games — and pizza rolls.
“Totino’s has this amazing, hilarious, surreal brand multiverse called Area 425 that they use in ads, packaging, and social media,” says MMS' Lucas Murray (Supervising Music Producer). “So our task was to create a theme and sonic logo that could credibly live in that world, while also popping out of it and instantly calling to mind the brand and product.”
the approach
Inspired by Totino’s absurdist humor and bold personality, we created a sonic identity that could speak directly to Gen Z and the games and platforms they love.
The Totino’s brand theme, “Area 425,” is a strategically designed system of musical elements. Through a mix of musical genres and turn-on-a-dime transitions, we created an irreverent, genre-jumping multiverse of music and sound that flexes social media, gaming, and beyond. Each musical section is a distinct world that captures the Totino’s brand personality, including a head-bobbing synth and bass section that’ll create a party in your mouth, a tranquil moment of zen evoking the heavenly flavor of Totino’s, and more.
The composition is built around the scale tones 4-2-5 — the perfect temperature for baking pizza rolls — and the chirpy oven button sonic logo is a memory trigger designed to make you think “To-Ti-No’s.” Take a listen below:
Taking a cue from the gaming community, we also incorporated audio easter eggs to encourage fan interaction and create a gamified brand experience. Only the biggest Totino’s fans will catch the back-looped subliminal messages, recognize the musical motifs as classic gaming tropes, or discover what happens when the theme is played backwards. And with the inclusion of all-new and ownable gaming sounds, Totino’s can easily create new sonic expressions to fit new commercials, apps, games, and IRL experiences.
the results
Totino’s was the first of 5 General Mills brands to launch a sonic identity in 2022-2023 — a list that includes Old El Paso, Gushers, Fruit By the Foot, and Fruit Roll-Ups — demonstrating the global impact and value of sonic assets for modern brands.
The “Area 425” sonic identity can be heard across every Totino’s touchpoint, including TikToks featuring mascot Pete Zaroll, digital campaigns incorporating their trademark absurdist humor, and Totino’s first-ever Super Bowl spot featuring comedians Tim Robinson & Sam Richardson.
With the musical flexibility to introduce with new easter eggs, memes, and messages, the Totino’s sonic identity is designed to be iterated upon, and to evolve with the culture as the best modern brands do.
awards
The sound of Totino’s Pizza Rolls has earned major awards recognition for accomplishment in sonic branding, including:
Clio Music - Best Use of Sonic Branding (Shortlist)
Transform Awards North America - Best audio brand (Silver)
Design Week Awards - Sonic Identities
creative team
Lucas Murray – Executive Music Producer
Casey Trela – Composer + Music Co-Producer
Mickey Alexander – Music Co-Producer
Stephanie Hunt – Group Account Director
Zorah Hall – Account Executive
Ben Arons – Mix Engineer
Joel Beckerman – Founder + Executive Music Producer