The Emotional Power Of Audio

There’s one thing that is truly fascinating about human nature — our active relationship with emotions. Our world is speckled like a kaleidoscope with moods and emotions that change across moments and environments. The ability to effectively harness these emotions and turn it into an experience is fundamental to good advertising. Surprisingly, a majority of digital advertising platforms have missed the mark on appealing to human emotions. The exception? Digital Audio!

Music is the Shortest Path to Emotional Engagement

Music is a mobile audio medium that has a meta relationship with emotions. Emotion creates music, and music creates emotion; providing direct access to our emotional world in any given moment. For instance, we may play a song as a gratifying expression of joy, motivation or any other emotion. Similarly, we use music for momentary escape from our world — something we Indians know all too well!

At the root of it, digital audio is a companion medium i.e. with people throughout their day. Proliferation of smartphones, significant advances in our technology platform, and growth of digital audio content is changing consumer behaviour. Thankfully, brands are starting to notice.

Audio Complements Video

While digital video as a marketing medium is powerful in its ability to appeal to emotion, it’s not a hands-free experience. According to Nielsen, 79% of audio consumption happens when it’s physically impossible to consume video or view an image. People turn to streaming apps when they’re experiencing a sensory overload, or need a break from their screens. This behaviour paints a much clearer picture of a person’s emotional state.

Much of the visual ad clutter is a by-product of the sheer number of people in India combined with how many ads a person needs to see (and how often they need to see them) in order to garner an impression. Videos, billboards, articles and the like are often a one-time experience. People watch a video once, they watch a movie a handful of times. While engaged in an article, they are less likely to pay attention to an ad. This means advertisers in India are fighting to catch a billion eyes at least once; if they want to catch it again, they must create a new ad in a different environment.

Music = A Repeat Use Medium

On the flip side, music is a repeat use medium and an indispensable part of peoples’ lives. People listen to the songs they love over and over again, which brings us back to the power of human emotion. This is an important distinction because campaigns that create deep emotional connections and find a place in someone’s imaginations and memories are far more likely to succeed. The key is to reach people in an environment where they are experiencing positive emotional states. Music can take them there.

This, of course, means that when engaging with people through a medium like music, advertisers need to be more thoughtful and creative in how they present themselves. The deep emotional states of their customers should be handled with care. With this in mind, we believe advertising should be content. It should be gentle — a suggestion and an invitation, rather than an assault. Advertisers can deliver content in a way that feels natural to users, while capitalizing on crucial behavioural moments.

Opportunities for Brands

Audio is truly the platform that stands out as advertising’s most valuable growth frontier. With mobile data connections and smartphone ubiquity, the mobile audio experience is truly untethered. No other medium can deliver this quality extent of reach packed with deep engagement. This is especially true in a market like India wherein visual advertising has become cluttered.

With 1.3 billion people, almost 20 languages, and a colourful patchwork of cultures and customs, India is arguably the most diverse country on the planet. This means that advertisers will require awareness and on-demand analysis of Indians’ day-to-day behaviours, mood and emotions. They will need to engage with audiences as well as continue to look beyond the visually cluttered streets, instead reaching responsibly and intentionally into headphones and speakers — for these are environments where a brand’s voice can truly be heard.

Find out more on how JioSaavn can help you engage with your audience. Write to us at advertising@jiosaavn.com