People in the United States come across an estimate of sixty
billion video advertisements on broadcast each year, and about
three-fourths of those video commercials use music to some degree. True
enough, there are two things that you might have thought of when you
watched some video advertisement without music: that it made use of
silence effectively, thereby creating a positive impact on your mind,
or that it was quite a bore and unappealing, thereby making the ad
easier to forget. Most of the time, the second one happens, as music is
able to create emotions and moods in video media advertising.
Music in Television Commercials
A
research published in the Journal of Advertising Research in September
2008 showed a content analysis of music in prime-time television
advertising. The research, entitled A Content Analysis of Music
Placement in Prime-Time Television Advertising showed that 94% of the
total 3,456 advertisements and 86% of the 715 unique ads contained
music. About 14% of those contained popular music, and 5% used jingles.
The
figures show that more and more advertisements use music in video
advertising because of many advantages that it could bring about.
Advertisers nowadays include music to create mood in video advertising,
as opposed to the usual print advertisements which are very subjective.
In addition, there are lots of uses of music in
advertising. David Huron of Musical Quarterly in 1989 had stated about
6 of its uses, namely:
1. Entertainment – good music makes a video advertisement
more attractive, therefore engaging the audience’s attention.
2. Structure/Continuity – music effectively builds up the
advertisement’s story in just a matter of thirty seconds.
3.
Memorability – music increases recall of a product’s or company’s name
because music lingers in the mind as opposed to a simple voiceover.
4.
Lyrical Language – it conveys a message in a non-spoken way, as logical
language is actually less powerful than this emotional and poetic
language found in vocal music.
5. Targeting – music makes sure
that messages are directed to the advertisers’ particular target
audience, eliminating wasted & misdirected messages.
6.
Authority Establishment – music enhances the video advertisement’s
credibility because it creates a genuine appeal to its audience.
Sonic Branding: Establishing Brands through Sounds
In
the January 2009 issue of Admap, Peter Matthews has written about the
use of sounds in brands in an article titled Sonic Branding: said that
it has been proven that Sonic branding can be advantageous over visual
branding because of the emotional triggering it causes.
Admittedly,
most video advertising use music because of its tendency to create an
emotional connection to their desired audience. Music has the power to
create a certain mood, therefore evoking more emotions and connecting
that particular emotion to your company or product.
Such
different uses of music in video productions are now being utilized by
marketers and video advertisers. Not only does it help them carry their
desired message, but it also makes sure that such advertisements carry
the right messages. It would be a waste of money to spend on
misunderstood advertisements.
Because of music’s powers, it
is widely used not only in video advertising, but also in film and
movies because it can convey a lot of emotions and moods without even
needing too many verbal words. Scenes’ emotions can be heightened or
intensified without the need for extravagant editing or effects – just
with the use of music.
Video advertisements should never
only be focused on the advertisements visuals; there should be a
harmonious balance between the use of audio and video in such
advertisements. Music is a part of audio, and it should seamlessly work
together with the video to effectively relay the marketers’ desired
messages to their particular audiences.
Of course, some
video advertisements are better off without music, but these always
depend from case to case. Most of the time, the best video commercials
which leave lasting impressions in the minds of their target audiences
are those ads with perfect mixtures of audio and video.
So
the next time you watch a video advertisement, try to mute the audio –
you would see a different message and effect as compared to watching it
with the music on.
Remember, Castlewood Studios is the #1 name in Missouri
Videography and Video Production.
Call
417-532-2329
and let's get going on your next video project TODAY!
Open Monday through Thursday 7 am to 5 pm central
time.
Castlewood
Studios - P.O. Box 1637 Lebanon, MO USA 65536