I love radio. I got my first clock radio (the legendary Sony Cube) when I was about 11 years old and it formed an instant, symbiotic relationship with my insomnia. Can't sleep? Listen to talk radio.
Growing up in London, I had the best of the best to ease me through the night. Between the BBC and local commercial stations, I could flip easily through talk genres – sport, music or politics – and experience the joy that comes with changing the station in response to an annoying caller. There is no greater empowerment than turning off the idiot.
And turning off the idiot is exactly how I use audio today. The difference is that I am now a busy father, husband, consultant and writer. Now, the idiot voices I need to turn off are in my own head.
Radio was my constant companion; now it has been replaced by its younger, cooler successor, podcasts. But the primary purpose for me is still to stop the noises in my own brain – to replace the internal dialogue that invariably becomes stressful and unproductive with more positive, more neutral and more enjoyable conversations with the world's leading journalists, politicians, artists and musicians.
Podcasts don't just bring these figures into my house, they feed them straight into my brain; even when I'm not looking, even when I'm not listening. Podcasts create pictures in my head and I willingly give them access to my conscious and unconscious mind at almost any time of day.
In the moments when I am not listening to podcasts, I am a sonic branding consultant. What does that mean? It means I work between the audio and advertising industries. I help brands to understand how to use music and sound as essential parts of their corporate identity and the broader experiences they deliver. My work takes in everything a brand gets involved with, from TV ads to retail music, from conversational AI to audio UX.
Audio accounts for about 100% of my working life, but traditionally it has commanded about 5% of a brand's media and production spend in most markets. This means that most brands are not prepared for the challenges of next-generation audio: podcasts, smart headphones and other wearables, and the rise of audio commerce, where a whole new internet is being created without visual context.
Ears, not eyes
There's a fundamental challenge that audio – radio, podcasts or Alexa skills – presents. We live in what has become, since the dawn of print and television, a largely visual world. We all have the inherent ability to listen and hear, but our once-keen ability to remember and recall what we hear has been eroded. Why do you need to remember anything when you can just write it down, bookmark a website or tear out a page?
For a brand, memorability is fundamental. Few consumers act immediately on commercial messages. Instead, messages build up in the memory over time and lead ultimately to an understanding, or a sense of knowing, that makes the consumer more willing to spend at a premium.
I like to think of memorability as owning a piece of real estate in the listener's mind. That real estate is valuable and important. It's what you invest in and it's where you build your business.
So what makes something memorable? I call them the three ‘C's, and I learned them from the late, great David Bernstein, author of Creative Advertising.
- Frequency — the more you hear something, the more memorable it becomes.
- Recency — the more recently you heard something, the more memorable it becomes.
- Relevancy — the more relevant the message is to you, the more memorable it becomes.
Do you remember that I love podcasts? I hope you do, because I'll reinforce that point now by stating that, from a brand's perspective, every one of the three ‘C's is fantastically served by podcasts as an advertising medium.
For a start, relative to other media, it's still inexpensive on a cost-per-thousand basis. That means a brand can afford to buy more of it and hammer home its messages at high frequency. And of course, the more frequently the message is heard, the more chance there is that the last hearing will be recent. That ticks two boxes.
And as if that wasn't good enough news, podcast creators are so prolific and segmented that anyone can find a podcast to fit their personal tastes. Add a brand's ability to inexpensively tailor its messages to different pods and you have maximum relevancy.
So that's the good news. Podcasts must be the go-to medium for memorable communications.
But there's bad news too
What little marketers know about audio has mainly come from experience with radio. And unfortunately, there are some bad habits to be broken.
- Inconsistency. Changing the sound of your message every time you are on air confuses the listener. Most brands are guilty of this on podcasts and almost all are on radio.
- Inhumanity. Shouting, talking too fast, rambling. Any brand that fails to recognise that a podcast is like a one-to-one conversation, not a political rally, is missing the point of the medium. You don't lean in as if to whisper in someone's ear and then SHOUT AS LOUDLY AS YOU CAN.
- Ignorance. The whole world of branding and communications is dominated by the visual. Very few people have received any real training in how to get a point across without the help of pictures or PowerPoint.
Making the most of the opportunity means making a few quick changes. Everyone needs to learn and understand the value of consistency. An influencer doesn't change their voice every week if they want to build a loyal following, and nor should a brand change its audio. That means choosing music, voice and sound design, and sticking with them.
Secondly, we need more creative people in the industry who understand the value of intimacy and learn how to write and produce content that whispers and talks rather than shouts and bellows. Marketers are shouters. We need more storytellers with dramatic training.
Do you remember that I love podcasts? Well, that's true. But what I really love are great podcasts supported by sympathetic brands: a consistently run feed with fantastic talent, a consistent image and a healthy load of advertisers who know how to talk, not shout. Give me that over the crazy voices in my head any time.