Audio in Advertising: The Sound of Thought and Emotion – Part 1
In the womb, before we could see much of anything, and before we could ever see our mother’s face, we could hear sounds. The sound of her heartbeat, the sound of voices and the outside world. Sound preceded sight.
As we grew up, we learned quickly that without sound (music, voice, voice overs, sound design) a scary movie is simply not scary. A romantic scene has no romance without sound. To fully experience the emotion of creative product like a film or a commercial, we must experience the sound of it.
In our digital screen age, we’ve grown enamored of sight. Our eyes are glued to our various screens, and we squint our way through our days as we peer at our mobile screens and tablets. We look up at screens in elevators and in transit. Everywhere we go, screens are pulling our attention. Our eyes are over-used and over-taxed.
But more and more, as our eyes grow tired of constantly looking, we are looking to audio channels for not only the completion of the experience, but also to use other parts of our minds. Especially for the purpose of reflection and learning.
Radio has never gone away and is now used regularly by media planners in designing media plans. Many of our consumers are trapped for hours a day in cars where their eyes need to be on the road, but their ears and minds are open to receiving information and even inspiration.
We should also re-think the way we view radio as a creative format. There are a number of substantial advantages to radio as a medium. Maybe you have a small production budget (not enough to do video) but you want to tell a story. Maybe you need to communicate a real product USP or proof-point something that doesn’t quite come across in a 6-word headline. Or maybe you just see the value in having an audience held captive by traffic. There are many opportunities that radio can offer the creative mind.
In next week’s post, we’ll explore new audio-driven channels beyond radio, that add to the contemporary mix of channels available to us as we inform the mind and inspire the imagination.
– By Wahn Yoon and Dominique Bulmer