Hearing is believing

The magic of sound in advertising.

Ever wonder why you remember the words to hundreds of songs but couldn't get your study material to stick when you were in school? We can recall jingles we heard on the radio or in commercials from decades past. We can all belt out the Oscar Meyer wiener song, the Band-Aid brand song, and that somewhat annoying Meow Mix tune without hesitation. Why it that?

"The ear long remembers what the eye soon forgets"
- Roy H. Williams, The Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.

Music is infectious to our brains; especially when the tune is catchy, the lyrics rhyme and are easy to remember.

In 1926, General Mills put out a barbershop radio jingle for their Wheaties cereal and although jingles had been around for a few years already, this one became known in history for being the first to successfully root itself into people's minds.

"If it wasn't for a radio jingle sung on Christmas Eve in 1926 by a barbershop
quartet in Minneapolis, Wheaties cereal would have been long forgotten by now." - General Mills

Our brain seems to be wired to remember music lyrics... or is it something else entirely? The common denominator among radio ads and songs is repetition. One of the reasons we can easily recall songs or jingles from years past is because we've heard them over and over again. Over time, repetition cements the memory. And music helps to evoke feelings in the consumer that leads to a sale.

"Echoic intrusiveness: The tendency of unusual combinations of spoken words, notes, or rhythms to lodge themselves in the listener's memory and play over and over in the mind." 
- Roy H. Williams, The Secret Formulas of the Wizard of Ads.
 

Wouldn't you like a to be given a permanent seat in the mind and heart of consumers?

Morty Silber, CEO

Mad Strategies Inc.
a Wizard of Ads Partner