Dolby Turning sound into something you can feel.

Scope
Global Campaign, Social Activation, Influencer Strategy, Event Experience
Industries
Entertainment, Gaming, Audio Technology
Year
2018
Dolby Atmos redefined what sound could be, but most people hadn’t experienced it yet. The technology was brilliant, but the story behind it was buried in jargon.
Our challenge was to make that innovation feel emotional and accessible. We built a campaign that helped people feel Atmos before they ever heard it, transforming a technical feature into something deeply human. Engineers understood the science, gamers felt the rush, and audiences everywhere wanted to listen for themselves.
Metrics
66%
Above Overall
Campaign Targets
17%
Average
Social CTR
32K
Dolby App
Downloads

The Challenge

Cool Tech, Flat Story.

Dolby Atmos had been out for a while, but awareness was fragmented. Audio pros understood the specs. Gamers and streamers heard the buzz. But to most people, Atmos still sounded like an optional feature, not a transformative experience. Competitors were shouting louder, with less substance.
Through audience mapping, from mid-core gamers to broadcast engineers, we found a gap: people weren’t buying Dolby Atmos, they were buying what it made possible. The ability to feel closer to the action, the music, the moment. We repositioned Atmos around that feeling, showing what happens when sound becomes part of the story rather than the background.

Content Hub Launch: A central platform featuring tutorials, creator stories, and campaign assets that translated complex audio science into simple storytelling.

The Idea

Turn Up the Emotion

We shifted the focus from tech specs to emotional storytelling. For audio pros, we developed a thought-leadership hub with case studies, side-by-side sound comparisons, and ROI-driven insights. For gamers and content creators, we brought Atmos to life through dynamic visuals and sensory-driven campaigns that showed how it feels to play, create, and experience in three dimensions.
Influencers and streamers became the campaign’s amplifiers, sharing authentic reactions and first-hand experiences that helped humanize the tech. The result was a social ecosystem that invited people to feel the upgrade instead of just reading about it.

The Approach

Designed for Creators. Built for Conversion.

This campaign was built from the inside out. Our strategy began with insight from Dolby engineers and sales teams, then layered in creative input from pro gamers, content creators, and platform partners like Xbox.
For industry audiences, we created tools that proved Atmos meant better ROI: custom demos, format explainers, and proof-driven stories from early adopters. We made sure every asset delivered value, whether you were a decision-maker in a broadcast suite or an audio engineer testing workflows.
On the consumer side, we kept things sharp and scroll-friendly. Animated sound visuals turned up the energy across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Campaign headlines made a promise, and every link pointed back to Dolby Access, the app that made it real.
We also showed up in person. From GDC to PAX, CES to Gamescom, Dolby made a splash with live demos, exclusive events, and hands-on walkthroughs that turned curiosity into conversion.

Social Activation Series: Dynamic visuals showed Atmos in motion, transforming game clips into immersive, sound-driven stories.

Results

66%
Above Overall
Campaign Targets
17%
Average
Social CTR
32K
Dolby App
Downloads
Over a focused three-week campaign, we saw results that beat benchmarks across the board. Click-through rates hit 17 percent, more than doubling industry norms. Downloads of Dolby Access topped 3,200, blowing past our campaign goal by 60 percent. Videos earned over 50,000 views and social activations drove a wave of engagement, from retweets to real conversations.
Atmos didn’t just launch. It landed. And with every click, stream, and sound wave, it became the new standard for what immersive audio should feel like.

Takeaways

Turning Sound into Emotion

Working with Dolby showed that emotion is the most powerful form of technology. When you connect sensory experience to story, even the most technical innovation becomes something people can feel. These are the lessons that turned immersive sound into a global experience.
Building a successful brand campaign for entertainment technology
Every breakthrough needs a bridge between science and story. Dolby Atmos succeeded when we stopped talking about sound quality and started showing what it feels like to be inside the sound. A campaign that began with data and specs evolved into a narrative about presence, emotion, and possibility — inviting gamers, engineers, and audiences alike to experience sound as storytelling.
Marketing immersive audio experiences emotionally
The emotional hook isn’t in the hardware, it’s in the human reaction. By focusing on real creators, authentic reactions, and sensory-rich design, Dolby transformed awareness into advocacy. The campaign asked people to feel first, understand later, creating a pathway from curiosity to conversion that metrics alone couldn’t achieve.
Driving tech adoption through influencer marketing
In a category defined by specs, influencers became translators. Streamers and sound pros turned Atmos into a movement by showing what it means in action: from the intensity of a game to the intimacy of a concert. Their authenticity made technology tangible, proving that peer credibility drives adoption faster than any feature list ever could.

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