Music in advertising

Music in advertising refers to the integration of music into mass electronic media advertisements. The goal is to enhance the success of the commercial. Music affects how viewers perceive a specific brand through several different levels. It can significantly alter the emotional response a person has to a television commercial. This process also impacts the musicians whose work is featured in these ads.

David Huron is a professor at Ohio State University. He teaches at the Schools of Music and the Center for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. Huron proposes that music serves several promotional capacities. He identifies six primary categories for music in advertising. These include entertainment, structure and continuity, memorability, lyrical language, targeting, and authority establishment. These categories allow advertisers to appeal to a person's senses and emotions. By targeting emotions, advertisers aim to sway the audience toward a product.

One major function is entertainment, which adds aesthetic value to an advertisement. High aesthetic value helps capture more attention from the audience. Interestingly, music does not always need a special connection to the product to be effective. Music also provides structure and continuity by mediating between disjointed images. It can structure a narrative or tell a story itself. Music can even create a protagonist or an antagonist using specific melodies or harmonies. This helps emphasize dramatic moments within the commercial.

Music also acts as a powerful tool for emotional influence. Exciting music can increase a person's arousal in skin response and heart rate. This is a physical manifestation of emotion. Conversely, sad music can influence purchase intent more than happy music or no music at all. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) uses this technique.

They use sad music to help viewers empathize with suffering animals. This emotional connection helps drive viewers to donate money.

Memorability is perhaps the most common use of music in this field. It is a primary technique for aiding product recall, which is the ability to remember a product. A theory suggests that an initial sound activates a group of possible matches in the memory. As the melody progresses, this group of matches narrows down. Easily recognizable music creates a significant positive relationship with recall and comprehension. Information recall is further improved when a viewer is cued with a well-known song. This allows the content of the ad to linger in the listener's mind.

To achieve these results, companies invest heavily in their productions. Some companies spend up to half a million dollars to create commercials that stand out. They often use popular music to appeal to younger audiences. They may also feature celebrities, musical artists, or star athletes. Advertisers also use lyrical language to reach consumers. This allows them to provide rational facts through speech while offering poetic appeals through music. This can help overcome the skepticism that many modern consumers feel.

Targeting is another essential strategy in the advertising world. A target audience is a specific group of people an advertiser wants to reach. Advertisers use different musical genres, tempos, and pitches to attract these groups. Music can create an attachment to a product without the viewer's active cognitive involvement. It can also establish authority and credibility. Credibility involves two key components: trustworthiness and expertise. Trustworthiness is often based on subjective factors, while expertise involves credentials or information quality. Using a famous artist can strengthen the bond between a product and its consumer. However, this can be controversial for the artists. Some musicians may feel that using emotional songs for products like cars or mayonnaise is a sellout of their values.