Read any good books lately?
By Kim Vasey, Senior Partner/Director of Radio, mediaedge:cia
Understanding the functions of the brain and how our brains respond to advertising has become an area of fascination for me and I continually try to find new studies or articles on the topic.
It may sound like an odd obsession to have but I've seen how, in gaining a better understanding in this area, it has really helped me "sell in" radio to many clients. I call it radio through the power of the brain. I have pulled together an entire presentation on it which I have been sharing with the industry, as often as I can.
I shared it last year with all of the Managers and Account Executives at Jones Media America, one of the largest radio syndicators in the country with whom we do business with for many of our national radio clients. And everyone, from the very junior to the very senior level A/E was open to hearing about new ways to approach selling in the power of radio. I enjoy presenting to an audience that is receptive to learning new things. I believe when we share information with each other we lay the groundwork for better communication and better selling practices. I truly believe it is our industry, a partnership-both buyer and seller, and working together we can help move it forward. Their receptiveness, as sellers, to the material in the presentation demonstrates their belief in that partnership.
Several months ago, at a RAEL committee meeting, while chatting with Jerry Lee, Chairman of the RAEL Committee and owner of WBEB-FM radio in Philadelphia - one of the most successful independently owned radio stations in the county-I discovered he had the same fascination with the topic and he was kind enough to recommend a book to read on the subject. The book is entitled
"The Advertised Mind" by Erik Du Plessis. Given my fascination on the topic I immediately ordered the book and delved right it.
Not only did the book give me further insights into the functions of the brain it also affirms many of the key finds that were released from the second RAEL study: Personal Relevance II.
Today, I'd like to share with you some insights from that book that I have found to be helpful in positioning radio as a powerful medium-because through the power of words we can touch people emotionally and move them to action without ever having to show them the product visually. As you know, the "lack of visual" is often given as a reason why a client won't use radio. I have found that if you can get a client to understand this premise we can, sometimes, get past the "lack of visual" argument.
The basic premise of the book is understanding how advertising is processed in our minds. Some of the key points that I took away from the book are:
One of the critical elements of advertising is emotion.
Emotion is critical to all human thought.
It helps determine the depth of the processing that takes place.
How much people like an ad will determine their degree of attention and shape the response to what is in the ad.
The degree to which an ad influences a response is related to the degree to which it is liked.
That emotion governs all behavior and determines what becomes "conscious"-thus the ads should evoke emotion in the consumer.
Advertisements we see are interpreted against our own experiences (memories) and may be very different from what someone else interprets from the same ad at the same time.
When you read the findings in this book it will comes as no surprise to you to, then, the read the results from the second RAEL study - Personal Relevance II. One of the key conclusions to that study was this:
That radio listeners have a unique relationship with radio as a medium. And that relationship is more emotionally connected than for either newspapers or the Internet. And this relationship is much more personal than for television or the Internet. This suggests that radio provides a pathway to the consumer's mind that can provide better emotional connections to brands and products when the advertising is designed and placed properly.
Are you beginning to see connections? I hope these few short insights spark enough interest in you to dig deeper into this area. There is so much more rich information in the book and the RAEL study. I lack the space to provide any more details so I hope you'll take the time to read the book and the RAEL study and use them to your advantage in selling.
