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The Bureau of Psychoacoustic Messaging
"Love the Sound. Feel the System." Sonos' new campaign is badass. I got to ask the brands' Global Head of Creatives about making a campaign that gives a brand actual staying power.
Jack Westerkamp
September 16, 2026
I don’t even really remember the Sonos app update saga from 2024, but apparently it was quite a big deal if you read the news from the time. The TLDR is that Sonos released a software update on May 7, 2024 that was almost universally disliked by their fans. It led to service disruptions and ultimately landed them in a big kerfuffle that they are still trying to recover from.
But if we’re being honest I’m not much of a rearview mirror kinda guy. If you watch our live show I specifically mention this during our Tracksuit ad read (quick free plug for Tracksuit. That’s what we call “added value” in the sponsorships game).
In the last two years time they have hired a new CEO and then in November of 2025 they hired Colleen DeCourcy to tackle what might be the most difficult marketing challenge in the category. I would say it’s hard for me to sit here and write with a straight face that consumers “lost trust” in the brand as if it’s someone’s college boyfriend that cheated on them during syllabus week. But for all intents and purposes, Sonos needed to build a real brand that was associated with strong tech and a great audio experience.
So, they launched a new global brand campaign called “Love the Sound. Feel the System.”
love the idea of walking by a quick makeout sesh on my way into work
I asked Rob Schwartz, Former CEO+CCO at TBWA\Chiat\Day, about his thoughts on the campaign:
“I really like the look and feel of this campaign. The line ‘Love the Sound. Feel the System.’ is good and clear and certainly sets up the brand for adventurous work in the future.”
I also asked my buddy Mac, who works in Finance and lives in New York and doesn’t care about advertising, about his thoughts:
“I liked it. It was relaxing. I like Sonos.”
On our Live Show on Tuesday, we asked Colleen DeCourcy about the handwriting, and she told us that it was, in fact, real handwriting from the husband of the Global Creative Lead at Sonos, Rinee Shah.
We also brought up the fact that Colleen has elected to build her own in-house creative team. She said, “Why would I pay for that mark-up [for an agency] if that is the one thing I could do in my sleep.” Holy aura.
Why I think this campaign is good boils down to the fact that this is a well thought out beginning to a long journey for a brand that wants to have some staying power. In an age where marketers tend to overvalue the dopamine rush of an immediate conversion, this feels like a strategic play that sets up the in-house team to do a lot of cool stuff.
To press deeper on the plans for the brand and how this campaign came to life and why the team is so stoked about it, I asked Kendra Eash and Rinee Shah, the Global Heads of Creative at Sonos, a few questions (subscribe to see the rest. it’s $0) :