Persuasive Sound
What makes something you hear persuasive? I believe there are 5 considerations by which we judge persuasiveness:
*Content
*Emotional Impact
*Cultural and Personal Memory
*Relevance/Timeliness
*Repetitiveness
Content.
Much of what we have discussed to date has dealt in some manner with content. But for this week, I want to focus more clearly on how content is provided via sound. This can happen in a number of ways–some overt and some extremely subtle! And I believe each of the succeeding sections of the chapter relate to how we receive content.
Read the following chapter from Secrets of the Wizard of Ads by Roy H. Williams.
You should be able to download the pdf from here–if not, go back to WebCT and download it from the Learning Module.
The tie I want to make to content is the use of action words and the generation of the mental images through description. I can tell you “The new Mustang GT is the fastest car in its class.” Or I can say, “The road is calling. I pick up speed. Wind whips around me, through your hair, and away. The wind can’t catch us today. I leave the wind in my dust.” If I have the right delivery (that’s coming up!), you will be in that driver’s seat mentally.
Our world is full of great examples of the use of content to persuade. Have you heard the speech Obama’s preacher got in so much trouble over? There are now so many examples of his hatred from the pulpit on the internet, it’s hard to find the original–hatred seems to be the regular content of his sermons, by the sheer number that have appeared on that topic. Their coming to light may have single-handedly killed Obaman’s campaign. And he does not use many action words, but he certainly paints a picture.
One phrase jumped out at me–he said that Hilary had never been a poor black boy raised by a single parent, but Obama had. Hey, wait a minute. Obama’s single parent was a white lady! That bit of content didn’t work for me, in part because I don’t buy in to hate and racism and in part because I know more of the facts than the preacher cared to divulge. You can’t assume your audience is stupid, or will remain so indefinitely. Provide “true” content, give it a polish with some of the master tropes, and then send it out into the world. Otherwise, you are bound to get into trouble.
The example I want you to listen to will illustrate what I mean when I put the word true above in quotes. What does your audience know and believe? That is what you must consider to be “true.” You can’t say a Suburban gets good gas mileage. The fact is, large SUVs get crappy gas mileage. But you might say it gets the best gas mileage of any large SUV. Now you have expressed a “truth.” That may be factually based. Good sermons are the same. In honor of Easter and this section of the topic, I have included a bit of a sermon. Listen more than you watch. Whether you believe in Jesus or not, this preacher is expressing a real “truth” of Christianity. And he is doing it using a great many descriptors and action words. (You don’t have to listen to the whole thing, but I would recommend that you get at least a couple minutes in)
Emotional Impact.
What you say can only go so far. How you say it (and often other elements, such as sound effects and music) will add to the emotional impact of and ad. Delivery of your content should induce some sort of emotional response in your listener. You already know what makes you respond to a message, a song, even a spoken lecture–so let’s make a list:
Intonation. Ever spent a long weekend alone with your mom after living on your own for several months? Believe me, tone of voice can make or break that weekend!
The example I had you listen to in the last section makes use of intonation in spades. For the drama of the content, the preacher uses dramatic, excited, sad, and even indignant tones of voice throughout the piece.
But any emotion can be informed through the use of intonation. Here is one of my favorite examples of intonation in a humorous setting:
Sincerity. Although this may be linked to tone of voice, the sincerity of the voice you hear is a judgement you, the hearer, make. You know how much I love the Echo commercials from Pedigree. But for this one, I want you to listen to a different commercial.
Besides the fact that David Duchovny, who voices these commercials, has a comfortable voice, what else makes this ad seem sincere? I think the production quality of the commercial and the reputation of the company and its products complement that voice.
Suspension of disbelief. As I attempt to dramatize the information I need to present, I must use every tool I possess to “suspend disbelief”–that is, to make the listener enter my world and believe what I am saying. As with any element of sound, content and elements of the later sections can impact the suspension of disbelief. But making an appeal to emotion can often help the listener suspend their disbelief–cynicism, lack of information–long enough to hear your message.
For more on this, read the second of the two chapters in this file. Echoic Memory-2 Chapters
Then you can read the first chapter before moving on.
Cultural and Personal Memory.
What is memorable? Well, let’s take a little quiz. Below are a couple of ads that use the same music. What is it?
If you said “Ode to Joy” and you know who wrote it, you get lots of brownie points. Another good answer is “Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee” which is the name of the hymn sung in many churches to the tune by Beethoven. But most of you probably thought (and this is equally valid) “It’s that song from Sister Act II.”
Our real and cultural memories are strong persuaders when it comes to sound. And ads are deeply embedded in our culture. So what tools do advertisers use to trigger your memory? Music is one of the most powerful, but there are others.
Celebrity voiceovers. Celebrity endorsements have always been popular but in the last few years I have seen a surge in celebrity voiceovers. The Pedigree commercials are a good example. We never see David Duchovny. Others include Appleby’s new “Neighbor” commercials voiced by John Corbett and the AOL ads Julia Roberts made while she was pregnant.
But just having a celebrity doesn’t make these ads persuasive. The AOL ads were panned, not because Julia Roberts did anything wrong–she was a hit!–but the ads were just poorly conceived, written and produced. No one could figure out exactly what Julia’s distinctive voice was selling!
Art imitating life. Or is it life imitating art? Referral to a sub-culture can be really useful in an ad. The recent series by Alltel is brilliant in this regard! Here are some examples:
Almost every Alltel commercial enters an established subculture in some way. In one, the guys are playing Dungeons and Dragons. In another, they are eating at a mall food court. The best, by far, are the “claymation” ads that spoof the great old Christmas shows of the 50s and 60s that we all grew up watching.
In other cases, though, commercials bring something to the culture. Can you think of an ad that has been so popular it has led to its own cultural memory? Here’s one from my generation:
This one worked in two ways–not only did everyone say “Where’s the beef?” for the next several years to refer to anything that came up wanting, but the phrase worked to position Wendy’s as well. We never forgot where we got the idea, and that had to help their business.
But is that always true? Can you think of examples when the cultural memory of an ad has completely lost its connection to the company or product?
Relevance and Timeliness.
These commercials get me:
Childhood is Calling (sorry, this one can’t be embedded)
Why? Because for once, the person getting the kids up and feeding them isn’t stereotyped as mom. My dad was very involved in my childhood, as are many dads. In middle to lower income homes, men report that they believe in more traditional roles for men and women, but in practice they are much more likely to get the kids out of bed and/or dressed for school, to cook meals, to drive kids to practices, etc.
Are you even aware of the stereotyped people in many ads? They drive me crazy. I, personally, don’t know very many people who fit into any stereotype. So why aren’t more advertisers doing what Rice Krispies and Appleby’s are doing–using video of real people or following real situations?
Well, for one thing, stereotyping seems easier. For those who don’t actually want to do their research, popping in a stereotyped character allows them to follow a stereotyping form of research (go back and check that lecture if you don’t understand what I’m talking about).
But following trends, embedding in the pop culture–these are not the only ways in which ads need to be relevant or timely in order to persuade. Production values change over time…and the quality of ads up until just a few years ago degraded because they were stored on VHS tape rather than DVD. Celebrities that will sell–David Beckham comes to mind right now–come and go. In ten years, we’ll be asking “David who?” And what about fashions? I watched an old episode of Charmed this morning and, while those women never wear anything that women in the real world would wear, I could tell that the episode was from several seasons ago by the fashions. That is a subtle difference, but our minds will notice an ad that stands out.
Repetitiveness.
Finally, our brains are going to remember something we hear more often. Repetition makes for a really strong echoic memory. Remember those awful “Head On” commercials? “Head on, apply directly to the forehead” was repeated something like 5 times. Now they are making commercials that pan their own commercials! But here’s the key–if you saw one of their commercials once, you remember.
Here’s why: research tells us that the brain won’t remember something until it has been repeated a minimum of 5 times. The Head On folks took that literally. And it worked–I know what the name of the product is, how to use it and what it does. The question is, did anyone here every try Head On? I couldn’t. Being irritated just didn’t persuade me to a purchase!
Here’s another example of a way in which a company employs repetitiveness (watch all three):
These ads do several things well. They enter the culture, they help us find ourselves in the story (although, seriously, if you had married your dream girl don’t you think you would have found out in advance about her credit? Come on), and they use some really great jingles.
These jingles are successful because in and of themselves they are repetitive–listen to the melodies to hear that–then they are meta-repetitive, meaning they all give the same information. And what is that information? Go to freecreditreport.com to find out if you can buy a house, buy a car, afford a better life. Keeping the same three guys has repetitive value as well–like the Geico gecko these guys have stuck with us for a while. There is something really comforting to our memories about that.
Alltel is getting a lot of grief right now because they suddenly replaced one of their guys with a new actor who doesn’t even resemble the old one. And while the final reading of the week talks about shaking things up, that kind of shakeup can’t help with repetitive memory building.
Finish with this chapter. Nitroglycerin Have a great week!
Sister Act II? I guess it would help if I’d actually SEEN it!