Herwig Kusatz

Sonic Governance Advisor
Founder, Sound Strategy ))), Author, Trust You Can Hear

I help organisations govern the sound people encounter across services, brands, interfaces, environments, and AI.

Most organisations govern what people see far more deliberately than what people hear.

I’m Herwig Kusatz, founder of Sound Strategy ))). For more than two decades, I have worked where strategy, sound, and organisational decision-making meet.

From adidas to Vienna’s public transport, millions encounter my work in everyday life. The strongest systems do not call attention to themselves. They help people understand what is happening, recognise who is speaking, and act with less friction.

My work is not about adding more sound.

It is about deciding what should lead, what should support, what should recede, and what should remain silent.

That discipline is Sonic Governance.

It brings voice, cues, music, atmosphere, and silence into one coherent system, with clear principles, responsibilities, and decision logic.

The aim is not to manufacture trust.

It is to support clearer action, stronger recognition, and deserved trust.

That is the thinking behind my book, Trust You Can Hear.

Focus

Sonic Governance Advisory

Location

Based inVienna,
working internationally.

Selected Clients

adidas
Wiener Linien
ÖBB

”If sound has consequence, who is accountable for it?“

Herwig Kusatz, Founder of Sound Strategy

Experience

3.4m

20+

People Hear My Work Daily

Years of Practice

Years of University-Level Teaching

International Sound Awards

3.4m

People Hear My Work Daily

Years of Industry Leadership

Years of University-Level Teaching

International Sound Awards

My Approach

Good sonic decisions do not happen by accident.

I work with organisations to understand where sound matters, define the principles that should govern it, and build the architecture and decision logic that allow those principles to hold across channels, teams, and time.

The work begins with judgement.

What should sound do here?
What deserves acoustic space?
What should lead, support, or recede?
And who is responsible for deciding?

Sonic Governance turns those questions into a coherent practice.

Not more sound. Better decisions about sound.

Clients

I have worked with organisations across public transport, consumer brands, media, tourism, insurance, and public services.

The contexts differ. The underlying challenge is often the same: sound has accumulated across touchpoints without one shared logic for what it should do, how it should relate, and who should govern it.