Making Radio Ads Stick

A recent edition of Radio Ink contained a very interesting article discussing the “Science of What Makes Radio Ads Stick.”  The article references a new book by Richard Shotten entitled “Hacking the Human Mind" along with Oxford Road Chief Creative Officer Stu Redwine on the Ad Infinitum podcast.  Referring to social media research, the article noted:

“The discussion turns to language, specifically, why so much advertising fails to stick.  The culprit, Shotton remarks, is abstraction.  Marketers lean on vague descriptors like “premium,” “trusted,” or “innovative,” but the human brain doesn’t store abstractions.  It remembers what it can see.

“The original studies were done back in 1972 by Ian Begg,” Shotton notes.  “What Begg finds is that on average people remember 9% of the abstractions, but they remember 36% of the concrete phrases.  So you’ve got this massive fourfold difference in memorability.  According to Begg, vision is the most powerful of our senses.”

The article goes on to state that audio advertisements should avoid abstractions and focus on concrete terms that evoke visual images. 

“Red Bull didn’t say Red Bull gives you energy.  That would have been abstract.  What they say instead is Red Bull gives you wings.  And because you can picture wings, you can picture someone flapping.  That is a message that is far more likely to stick in someone’s mind.”

For radio writers, that’s the difference between forgettable and unforgettable copy.  Words like “better,” “stronger,” and “smarter” dissolve on-air.  But specific, image-driven phrases lodge in memory, lighting up the same visual pathways as sight.”

For those writing radio ads, the article is well worth reading.  You can see the article in Radio Ink here.