The Sound of Douglas
Challenge
Douglas welcomes people in their own individual beauty. That promise lived in imagery, language and stores, but not yet in sound. Every campaign started music from scratch, which cost time, created inconsistency and left no memory structure behind. The brief was to give inner beauty a musical form that feels premium without being cold, welcoming without being loud, and modern without chasing trends.
Approach
EightSix worked with experts in psychology on the interplay between emotion and skin sensation, and on how sound affects self worth and the feeling of being welcome. Those impulses were translated into concrete decisions about instrumentation, harmony, tempo and dynamics. The result is a purely instrumental world: a piano led foundation, warm consonant harmony, minimal supporting texture, controlled tempo, narrow steady dynamics and a short rising two note opener as the signature gesture. Shai Caleb Hirschson, Chief Creative Officer at EightSix: "The Sound of Beauty begins with an inner experience. Our task was to translate the experts impulses into concrete decisions about sound, harmony and dynamics. That is where the creative precision sits: making a personal feeling tangible in music and giving it an unmistakable brand character."
Brand mDNA Track
Sound Logo
Sonic Cue
Solution
From that composition grew a working system rather than a single track. The Brand mDNA Track unfolds the world across 60 to 90 seconds. The Sound Logo condenses it into the mnemonic core, always played in full, never cut, never layered with another melody. The Sonic Cue front loads recognition into the first second of short form content. Composed campaign tracks and curated on brand music extend the system from TV and online video to social, retail and events. Placement rules, touchpoint mapping, registration details and governance are documented in the Sonic Guidelines, with onboarding sessions for brand, campaign and agency teams.
Welcoming, not loud
Warm harmony and steady dynamics invite people in instead of demanding attention.
Premium, not cold
Refined restraint keeps the sound elegant while staying emotionally approachable.
Modern, not trendy
Contemporary texture without fashion cycles, so the system stays valid over years.
One system, many formats
From 90 seconds to one second, every asset carries the same recognisable core.
"With WELCOME TO BEAUTIFUL we create space for every person's very own beauty. Together with EightSix we gave that idea a musical expression: warm, confident and open. A sound that connects our premium claim with human closeness."
Rik Strubel
Chief Marketing Officer, Douglas Group
RESULTS
The core assets and application rules were developed between late 2025 and August 2026, and EightSix supports the ongoing rollout. The system covers campaign films, paid digital, paid social, owned channels, retail and internal formats, with the Sound Logo and Brand mDNA Track registered as distinct brand assets. EightSix is responsible for strategy, composition and integration testing, as well as sonic guidelines and training for teams and agencies. On the EightSix side the project is led by Shai Caleb Hirschson (Chief Creative Officer), Franziska Kuettner (Client Services Director), Joss Ifan Brightwell (Head of Production) and Gordian Gleiss (Managing Director).
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Core Assets
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Touchpoint Groups
v1.3
Sonic Guidelines