Melodic variations to stimulate your attention

Human Communication Research

This study explores the effect of different speaker intonation strategies in audio messages on attention, autonomic arousal, and memory. An experiment was conducted in which participants listened to 16 radio commercials produced to vary in pitch range across sentences. Dependent variables were self-reported effectiveness and adequacy, psychophysiological arousal and attention, immediate word recall and recognition of information. Results showed that messages conveyed with pitch variations achieved better scores compared to commercials with a homogenous pitch range across the sentences. This was especially the case when high pitch intonation was followed by low pitch within a sentence. Results increase our understanding of the influence of pitch range on processing by establishing a concrete strategy as a best practice for improving attention and memory.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2004

Research on musical "fit" suggests that listeners might recall more of a radio advertisement if it features musicalivoice content that corresponds with features of the advertised brand. This is because the musicivoice should prime certain aspects of listeners' knowledge. Two studies were carried out to test this, each involving 5 specially prepared radio ads. The first indicated that musical fit enhanced recall of the products advertised, the brands advertised, and specific claims made during the course of the ad copy; and also participants' ratings of liking for the ad and likelihood of purchasing the advertised product. A second similar study considered voice fit and found that this could also promote recall of specific product claims and lead to higher ratings of liking for the ad and likelihood of purchasing the advertised product. These results confirm that both musical and voice fit can prime certain aspects of listeners' knowledge and also increase liking for ads, such that it might improve knowledge-based and affective responses to advertising. The theoretical implications of this are discussed in terms of the concept of involvement and what precisely is meant by musicalivoice fit. 'The authors thank Capital Radio Advertising for providing financial and technical support for the two studies reported here.

This study explores the effect of different speaker intonation strategies in audio messages on attention, autonomic arousal, and memory. An experiment was conducted in which participants listened to 16 radio commercials produced to vary in pitch range across sentences as an independent variable. Dependent variables were self-reported effectiveness and adequacy, psychophysiological arousal and attention, immediate word recall and recognition of information. Results showed that commercials conveyed with pitch variations achieved better scores compared to commercials with a homogenous pitch range across the sentences. This was especially the case when high pitch intonation was followed by low pitch within a sentence.

Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics, 2017

Applied Cognitive Psychology, 2006

This study investigated whether the tempo and timbre of background music influenced responses to radio ads. In Experiment 1 (in addition to a no-music control condition), slow-or fast-tempo background music was superimposed over the same ad. The slow-tempo music treatment produced significantly higher levels of ad content recall compared to the fast-tempo music treatment. Musical presence (slow-and fast-tempo treatments combined vs. no-music) significantly reduced levels of ad content recall. In Experiment 2, when three versions of digitally produced background music timbres were superimposed over a no-music version of another ad, results revealed positive main effects of timbre congruity upon recall of ad content and affective responses to the ad.

Journal of Consumer Psychology, 2003

Virtually every broadcast advertisement uses the voice of an announcer, but due to lack of guidance from the marketing literature, managers must rely on gut feel when choosing a voice. Drawing on research from psycholinguistics, we identify 3 important voice characteristics-syllable speed, interphrase pausation, and pitch-and link these characteristics to key advertising response variables. By considering these 3 variables simultaneously, we test competing explanations previously offered to explain the process by which speech rate affects consumer response to advertising. Specifically, we assess whether an increase in speech rate enhances or reduces processing of the advertisement and whether this effect is driven primarily by syllable speed or interphrase pausation. Consideration of these 2 aspects of speech rate independently helps identify whether the changes in processing stem fromchanges in the opportunity to process andlor the motivation to process. Our results show that a voice with faster-than-normal syllable speed and low pitch produces less negative advertisement-directed cognitive responses and more favorable ad attitudes, as well as more favorable brand attitudes, lending support to a motivational process explanation. No significant effects were found for interphrase pausation, suggesting that the results cannot be accounted for by the reduced opportunity to process in the compressed conditions. Broadcast advertising is one of the most effective but costly even subtle improvements can translate into significant imforms of marketing communications. According to Advertis-provements to the bottom line. ing Age (Anonymous, 2000), U.S. advertisers spent $48 bil-A host of factors contribute to the effectiveness of a broadlion on airtime for radio and television commercials in 1999, cast advertisement; one important consideration is the voice representing nearly half of their total media expenditures. that delivers the advertising message. Whether employed on Add to that the billions of dollars spent producing commer-its own or used in tandem with sound effects andvisual images, cials, and the overall investment becomes larger still. Thus, the announcer's voice provides a focal point for the audience. Evidence from psychology suggests that voice plays an Requests for reprints should be sent to Amitava Chattopadhyay, in influencing the message INSEAD,

2016

This study investigated the effect of sounds in advertising toward consumers’ emotional response. The purpose of this study is to get better understanding about the role of emotions which come from the hearing of sounds, in marketing. Therefore, this study analyzed the relationships between consumers’ emotional response, familiarity, interest, and attention. The variables were examined by developing some hypotheses predicting emotional reaction and empirically test the hypotheses using data from 156 participants in computer laboratory. During the research, participants were asked to listen to 20 different sounds and answer questions regarding their emotional response towards each one. The results of this study show that emotional response to sounds is predicted by the level of interest generated and how well the sound captured the participant’s attention.

Music, Sound, and The Moving Image, 2007

Music may play several roles and have many effects in advertising; it may attract attention, carry the product message, act as a mnemonic device, and create excitement or a state of relaxation. In this paper, the role of music within advertising is evaluated during low-attention conditions. The current experiment was carried out whereby participants were exposed to an advert that

Musicae Scientiae, 2018

Over the past three decades, several studies have explored the concept of Musical Fit in audiovisual advertising. However, a central problem is the inconsistency of the results derived from these studies. The current level of knowledge does not make it possible to safely predict whether and how Musical Fit influences recipients' attention, brand and product recall, and positive attitudes toward commercials, including purchase intentions. One origin of this problem is the lack of a coherent definition and operationalization of Musical Fit. Therefore, this article describes the development of a transparent and applicable instrument to identify and determine Musical Fit in audiovisual advertising. Starting from music's function of transporting and inducing emotions and its ability to communicate referential meaning, we designed a classification system for relating music to the three most important reference points of a commercial: the narration, the product, and/or the target group. Accordingly, Single, Double, and Perfect Musical Fit can be distinguished and classified into different types. To test whether the developed instrument is applicable in practice, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of 594 German TV commercials. After two pilot tests, the inter-coder reliability of two different coders improved to an average of .80, providing an indication of the instrument's practicability. Surprisingly, the most common Musical Fit types were a Single Fit to Narration (50%), a matching largely unaddressed in studies to date, a Double Fit to Narration and Product (21%), and a Perfect Fit (15%), the type that is most difficult to create.

Journal of Radio Studies, 2000

This experiment tested the ability of a limited-capacity model of cognition to predict listener reactions to changes in the structural complexity of radio promotional announcements. Past research shows that certain auditory structural features cause listeners to automatically allocate cognitive resources to message encoding. This study shows that increasing the number of such features in promos leads to better recognition, free recall, delayed free recall, and more positive attitudes about promos and the stations that produce them. Despite decades of predictions to the contrary, radio continues to be a medium used by millions of Americans. There are more than 11,000 radio stations in this country, and more than five radios in every United States household (Mateliski, 1995). What's more, those radios are being listened to by a lot of people. Recent industry research indicates that as many as 80% of American adults listen to the radio daily compared to only 73% of adults who watch television (Merli, 1998). In fact, over the past decade the radio audience has continuously increased while the audience for both television and newspapers has declined (Ditingo, 1999). Whether we are tuning in to hear weather and traffic updates, a new hip-hop song, or the public debate surrounding the latest political scandal, there is little doubt that radio continues to be a vital ingredient in the daily media menu of many individuals, and that the number of people being reached by radio is increasing.