Arla – Feed Life™

Overview

Arla has been a leading dairy co-operative for over 130 years. In the late 19th century, Arla was formed by farmers in the Swedish countryside who invested in common dairy production facilities.

Since then, Arla has grown to become a multi-national giant within the dairy industry, whilst still remaining a farmer-owned co-operative.

We were tasked with reimagining the Arla sound to fit with their new, more vibrant brand direction, ‘Feed Life’™.

The challenge

In 2019, we created Arla’s very first audio logo – a process grounded in Nordic roots and heritage.

In 2025, Arla underwent a rebrand that required a new sound world to match with their renewed aesthetics.

This required preserving key elements of the initial 2019 sonic identity while rebranding the soundscape to align with Arla’s new visual and strategic direction.

The solution

Audio logo – From cool to warm

The previous audio logo took inspiration from the Nordic singing tradition ‘Kulning’, used by herders to call out on their grazing cattle.

The original audio logo had a sense of airy ‘freshness’ to it, resembling an ice cold glass of Arla milk, matching their visual brand at the time.

With a rebrand to a more vivid and captivating aesthetic; the new audio logo had to reflect this, whilst staying true to the core sonic principles already established.

Hear the full audio logo:

The logo combines:

A melody that is easy to sing and remember.

A cinematic ‘impact’ combined with an acoustic bass, grounding the sound.

Airy layers of male and female vocals.

Harmony in the key E♭ Major, an optimistic and natural sound.

These elements combined create a unique blend of the key Arla attributes, translated into sound.

Brand track – ‘Growing Goodness’

As with all brand tracks, we wanted to transfer the sonic palette from the refreshed audio logo into a longer form composition. Keeping key themes, instruments and timbres allows for a more cohesive and effective sonic brand.

‘Growing Goodness’ was created to inspire and strengthen brand pride. It’s structured with distinct sections, allowing flexibility in its application. This is further supported by various length iterations of the full track, meaning every format it is applied to feels natural and cohesive.

The music begins with warm acoustic guitars and gentle humming, evoking a comforting and familiar atmosphere. It builds into an upbeat, engaging groove, featuring whistling and vocals that blend nostalgia with fresh energy. Instruments evolve throughout the track; this versatility ensures the music can adapt to various media while reinforcing Arla’s established brand.

The result

Verifying success

Our partnership with Arla didn’t end there. Our decades of experience within the sonic branding industry allows us to gauge what works and what doesn’t. However, some clients want to go the extra step and verify their views through testing.

We believe if you have the capacity for this service, it can give you a product that is truly unmatched. Audio testing is the only way to have complete confidence in your sonic identity. It can also give you insights beyond the world of sound, providing a deeper understanding of your brand in multiple dimensions.

We set out with three goals for our testing, assessing recall, attributes (brand fit) and likeability. The test would be performed during the creative process on several variations of an Arla audio logo. Working with trusted partners we performed sonic testing, resulting in a best-fit sound across all categories. This aligned with Arla’s vision for their sonic identity, giving us the audio logo we know today.

We would like to thank the Arla team for their continued trust as we refreshed their sonic identity for this exciting new brand direction.

Origin & evolution

The ‘Feed Life’™ sound identity is built directly upon the foundational sonic mark we crafted for Arla in 2019, which drew inspiration from the ancient Nordic herding call, Kulning. Learn how we originally established Arla’s sonic roots and developed their dual masculine and feminine audio logo expressions.

Arla “Kulning”

Words from client

Katie Reed

Vice President

Arla Brand Europe