Where television and online advertising offer layers of stimulus – colour, sound, movement, logos – a telephone advert engages with fewer senses, but is no less complex.
In this post we’re looking at the impact of an on-brand audio voiceover; one that embodies your business and its beliefs perfectly. 
Companies spend a lot on symbols. On symbols that people associate with their name.
It’s kind of reductive, but in the simplest terms, advertising is about making an effective symbol that carries a full brand message. That’s why the Nike ‘Swoosh’ logo equals athletics. Equals running. Equals gold medals. Equals you running faster.
Advertising is about making a large concept into a picture. Reducing sentences and paragraphs into lines and squiggles.
It’s been about that for hundreds of years. About graphic identities carrying brands.
Now, of course, we’re producing much more than logos. We’ve got the internet, for one – we’ve got the viral videos and the microsites; the discussions across social media and becoming a company’s fan on Facebook. Now, businesses are creating fully branded ‘user experiences’.
But in the last century, we also got ways to produce better sounds, and faster. We have studios and microphones. And as this medium has grown and gone digital, so too have the agencies (we’re one!) who specialise almost exclusively in audio branding – not graphic-based branding. And on commercial radio, telly, the internet, businesses are using these agencies to compete for the most memorable sound.
You’ve heard it all before:
We need blue-sky thinking. I’m talking about pushing the envelope, going forward, let’s touch base soon.
Translation: corporate waffle that, in reality, could be said in half the words. Just another way to say, “We need big ideas, so give me a call”.
Anyone who watched Heston Blumenthal’s attempt to resurrect Little Chef last year will no doubt remember the chief executive’s constant wittering about ‘blue-sky thinking’. The phrase alone is irritating, but when used in the context of menus and motorway services, it simply became absurd. You can watch the evidence here.
Finished cringeing?
Well, in this post, we’re looking at why these kind of phrases have no place in external communications.
That’s what Google asked themselves and Google Wave is their answer. Their point is that email has been around for forty years, and even though it’s still the primary form of electronic communication today, it’s certainly not the only one. So, they set about creating a way to merge the best of email, social networking and instant messaging to create a super communication tool, namely Wave.
Wave is still a prototype. It’s currently available by invitation only so its usage is limited to a lucky few until all the bugs have been ironed out. Google Wave is perhaps most well known for being at best baffling, and at worst, completely unfathomable. We’re not one of the lucky Wave account holders at PH Audio Blog, but we’re taking on the challenge of demystifying the Wave using that fine resource – t’internet.
On the 1st of September 2009, the Federal Trade Commission of America banned automated sales calls.
An amendment to their Telemarket Sales Rules requires telemarketers to obtain written permission from American consumers to receive Robocalls.
If you’ve ever received a Fonejacker-style cold-call claiming you have won a holiday on a cruise ship, you’re probably received a Robocall at home before.
Don’t worry though, this form of direct marketing is already illegal in the UK if the calls are made without the implicit consent of consumers.
What are your thoughts on this use of audio technology?
Are Robocalls ever welcome?
Total Voters: 15
Loading ...
Image credit: Gruntzooki @ Flickr
You’d be hard-pressed to miss the rise of free media content. In general, we’re expecting more for less – reading more free news online, downloading more free music online, enjoying more texts, more call-time minutes, watching telly on the internet, and getting the latest news through our phones. There are so many ways we can get so much stuff — and we’re not really paying for any of it.
But what we are doing is watching, seeing, hearing and consuming a lot more advertising.