The archive · Marketing & Growth · Marketing decision · 2023
Bang & Olufsen turns listening history into dancing 3D avatars to court Gen Z
A digital platform turns your listening history into a bespoke, dancing 3D avatar in seconds — music taste as self-expression for a century-old Danish brand.
Bang & Olufsen
What it had to solve
Bang & Olufsen, a Danish audio pioneer nearing its hundredth year, needed to stay relevant to Gen Z — a generation that wants to be heard and seen, loudly — with a digital-first experience mixing music, personalisation, expression and craft.
How it works
Bang & Olufsen, the Danish audio pioneer, faced the question every long-lived brand eventually meets: how do you keep a near-100-year-old company relevant? Its answer, See Yourself in Sound, was a digital-first experience built to draw in Gen Z with music, personalisation, expression and craft.
The idea treated music taste as identity. A digital platform transforms a listener's history into a bespoke, dancing 3D avatar in seconds, so each person's sound becomes a character that moves to their own listening.
The experience was aimed at a generation that wants to be heard and seen — loudly. Instead of telling young audiences what the brand stood for, it invited them to perform themselves through their music.
D&AD's awards archive lists the work under Digital Experience Design. The archive page reports no engagement figures; the entry's case rests on the idea of listening history as visible, personal identity.
Why it lands
- Personalization makes the brand message about the user's identity rather than the product.
- A 3D avatar compresses a lifetime of listening into one instantly readable, expressive form.
- Digital-first puts a century-old audio house in a medium where Gen Z already lives.
- Turning taste into movement answers a generation that wants to be heard and seen, loudly.
What it did
The platform turned the brand's idea of sound into a mirror of each user's identity; D&AD's awards archive lists the work under Digital Experience Design, and the page reports no engagement numbers.
What you can take
A legacy brand can court a new generation by making the experience about them: convert the user's own data into self-expression, and the product's heritage becomes the user's mirror.
Since then
See Yourself in Sound launched in 2023 as part of Bang & Olufsen's push to court younger audiences, and D&AD's awards archive lists the work under Digital Experience Design. No engagement or sales figures appear on the archive page; the entry stands on the idea of listening history as a visible, personal identity.
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