Sound and Vision

I was recently browsing the internet and came across a site highlighting the “Top 100 Adverts of All Time” as voted for by viewers of Channel 4 and Sunday Times Readers (www.uktvadverts.com).

A quick look through and many were familiar but what struck me was that a large majority (and many of the top ads) featured music. This got me wondering; along with imagery and subliminal messaging, how does music actually function in advertisements? It is obviously a powerful aid as many top brands use well known musicians and artists as well as top film directors to produce their prestigious adverts.

Historically, music has been an important component in advertising. Jingles, background music, popular tunes, and classical arrangements have always been used to convey selling points, set an emotional tone for an advertisement, and to influence listener’s moods.

Many advertising practitioners and experts in the field think that music performs a variety of useful communication functions. These include attracting attention, putting the viewer in a positive mood, making them more receptive to message arguments, and even communicating meanings about advertised products.

One of the main functions of music in adverts is to make them memorable by using a really catchy melody. Early advertising in particular, used music as a sort of mnemonic device with rhyme and repetition enlisted to keep a brand name in mind. But music can also be used to entertain making an advert more appealing and attractive to the viewer. It can have several other important functions: it can emhasise dramatic moments within the advert, create coherence and support an advert’s structure and continuity (David Huron 1989).

Interestingly, music doesn’t particularly need to have a special affinity with the product or service it is being allied with, to play an effective and useful part in it’s success. The best advertising campaigns always communicate a message that is effortlessly remembered though. That tune that gets stuck in your head and will not budge is a testament to the power of music when used as a tool to enhance the spoken word.

Music can help set the mood, inspiring human emotion, thought and act. Even if you watch a foreign film (or even a partially silent movie like “The Artist”) and don’t understand what the actors are saying, through the music chosen, you can usually make out what the sentiment of the scene is.

Music has the power to evoke desirable triggers of brand recognition, for example: trust, reliability, great service, friendliness…all these can be represented by a carefully chosen piece of music that fits the emotion the advertiser wants the viewer to feel about them.
So, music can be extremely powerful when used in advertising even when we are not aware of all the hard work it’s doing. But I guess that’s the whole point isn’t it?

A couple of my favourite adverts which use music effectively are: John Lewis, Never Knowingly Undersold who used “She’s always a woman to me” by Billy Joel and Twinings Tea advert.

Twinings produced both a visually stunning advert and married this with haunting, ethereal music by Charlene Soraia, “Wherever you will go” to promote the brand.

What are your favourites?

Debbie Lewis is a Customer Support Executive at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk

Ad of the Week

There’s nothing like a hot bowl of soup in the cold weather…

Ideas maketh the designer

It’s the argument that has always been the center of debate amongst designers.

Has the arrival and constant updating of design software made the average designer more creative or more lazy.

Having started my design course during Adobe’s CS2 reign I must agree with the former opinion. I believe in embracing the hard work some software put into making an otherwise difficult job more simple. It’s this shortcut method however that irks traditional designers. The fact that the younger generation don’t appreciate the hard work their predecessors put into making typography work. Or how in their time transparency meant sticking a sheet of tracing paper over their drawings (which they drew BY HAND!) Some go as far as calling the process an easy way out. This is obviously far from the truth since being accomplished in any given application takes years of practice and hard work just like any other medium. There is also the strong correlation between those who produce great designs on computer and those who have a good understanding of design principles.

However I’m of the belief that the computer is simply a tool that when used correctly could work wonders. Giving someone a top-of-the-range iMac pre-installed with Adobe Creative Suite doesn’t necessarily make them the best designer in the world. To me ideas are what matter the most in design. It doesn’t matter what techniques you know on a mac if you have no understanding of colour theory, composition or typography.

Over the years there have been very few who have managed to excel in both worlds. The most notable being the late Steve Jobs of Apple computers. Having recently finished reading Steve Jobs’ Biography by Walter Isaacson I came to wonder whether we’d ever see another pioneer like him again. Here was a man who embraced both technology and the important role that product design played alongside it. Anyone can make products, but for Apple it was all about making the best products that would benefit the user’s experience. He was by no means perfect when it came to his attitude or his lack of empathy toward his employees but it was this strict no nonsense attitude that contributed to some of Apple’s best years.  This was because Apple constantly chose to evolve with the times and embrace (sometimes create) change.

I like to believe that design based technology has come a long way since it’s humble beginnings. Ideas that could only be imagined before can now easily be put to action within hours or days.  In a business where time and quality means everything we should welcome the improvements the world of design development brings.

Hakim Shujaee is a Designer at Happy Creative, a full service marketing and creative agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk

Ad of the Week

We love the bouncing and changing colours… and the fact that there’s nothing else needed but the product and brand’s name at the end.

Why brand perception means everything ….

Creating a powerful brand that customers relate to is about building the strongest positive perception you can in the minds of your customers. It is here, in the minds and the hearts of customers, that your brand lives.

That’s why companies who not only focus on how their brand is selling, but  also on the perception of their brand, prosper. Understanding brand perception is vital for everything from product/service development to positioning, market segmentation and driving the marketing mix.

Perception is formed as a result of our experiences of the company, product or service and generally falls into two main areas. The actual experience of the product such as quality, reliability and speed. And from emotion – how it makes the customer feel.

Developed over time from a variety of interactions and experiences a person has with the brand perception is a true gauge of how that person connects with the brand. Every single interaction with a brand goes to forming the perception we hold. Every phone call, every package received, every checkout interaction, every piece of collateral received all reinforce the perception.

Measuring brand perception is relevant for companies of all sizes, ages, and stages of the brand lifecycle.

For  mature companies understanding the brand perception with customers old, new and future will help  maintain the strength of the brand or indicate that it is time for a refresh. Newer businesses use results to differentiate their brand and formulate a strong market positioning. Companies extending product ranges must be clear on whether customers will accept a new product or service before they introduce it.

Here are 6 tips you should consider when you are measuring brand perception:

1. Use existing customers, lapsed customers and prospects

2. Measure awareness and preference

3. Include both behavioural and attitudinal measures

4. Include competitive comparisons

5. Determine what the brand communicates immediately, its value and loyalty

6. Measure the brand’s individuality

The information from brand perception studies help form powerful marketing strategies that can inform and empower marketers and business owners alike. When companies are clear about how customers and prospects perceive their brand, it can help drive marketing success. So, take some time now to consider

1.  Where your brand is in the lifecycle

2.  How positive/negative, strong/weak your brand is

3.  How you can conduct regular perception studies – we live in a fast paced world

4.  How understanding your brand perception will guide your marketing strategy

Successfully measuring brand perception and awareness helps companies tailor their marketing in the most cost-effective way. It also helps guide strategy in the longer term.

Karen Lambert is an experienced strategic marketer and Managing Director at Happy Creative, a full service marketing agency based in Blackpool, Lancashire. To learn more or contact us please go to www.happy-creative.co.uk