Welcome to the Sound in Marketing podcast. I'm your host, Jeanna Isham, owner and founder of Dreamr Productions and Sound in Marketing learning. I create, consult and educate individuals and brands on the power of sound in marketing. This season will be a culmination of thoughts and theories and musings that I’ve formed over my years of experience in sonic branding and sound marketing. If the content in these episodes inspire actionable ideas for your company, don't hesitate to give me a call.
This is what I do, and this is what I know. I make sound on purpose. All contact info will be provided in the show notes. Now on to the show. This episode we'll be talking about marketing past Covid. Marketing through sound was given its truest opportunity after the most negative thing could have happened to our global community. This is truly an unprecedented situation. This virus doesn't discriminate. It attacks everyone. I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead.
The coronavirus has changed life as we know it across America. Covid 19, the coronavirus did a lot of heavy hitting. In fact, the repercussions are most definitely still in effect and will be for many more years. I'm sure it's increased our anxiety for the future of our businesses and the economy of the world. Recession or no recession? We all know it could be better. What will our bottom line be when all of this blows over?
How much should we spend on advertising and marketing for our brands during this time of financial uncertainty? How do we keep our sales numbers up when people aren't spending like they used to? And in fact, changing what they spend their money on entirely. What once was normal is no more. We need to move on and build on a new normal. In the past, marketers have relied heavily on data.
They've drawn up their statistics on typical spends and routines of white male aged 34 or Hispanic female, age 56. They market to these well thought out, well-researched demographics of people that buy their goods and request their services. However, our buyer and consumer data is now outdated. What once was a spend is now a window shop. Routines have been altered and evolved. The buyer persona is new. All of us experienced 2020 differently.
But let me paint my perspective to assist with my point. On March 20th, 2020, California became the first state to officially be on lockdown. However, in Los Angeles County, where I was, the closures started about a week before. People who generally had an hour and a half to two hour one way commute from the Inland Empire to Santa Monica. (Seriously, you guys) were now at home. Massive conferences and festivals like NAB and SXSW were canceled.
Students who used to frequent dorm hallways and late night parties were not. Shopping malls were empty, and restaurants and breweries were closed. Suddenly, everyone was at home. Some were with their family. Some were by themselves. Normal routines stopped. Busy day to day life slowed to a crawl. No one was shopping or socializing like they used to. No one was or ever will wash their hands like they used to. 2020 wasn't the time for a sell. In fact, now isn't the time either.
Now is the time to relearn who our customer and consumers are, because they're not the same people anymore. In fact, even if they were the same people, those people are not the same people. They were pre 2020. If you get what I mean, our numbers and stats and personas are now completely obsolete. It will take us some time to build those back, but in the meantime we should be innovating our marketing strategies. We need to get to know our consumers in a brand new way. This is hard.
How can we market to someone without ending with a sales pitch, without being intrusive or offensive? How can we really, truly connect with our audience when we are a business as well and need to sell our goods and services? We have our bottom line to worry about too. We know that the ad written and shot in February 2020 about the amazing, luxurious experience you'll have driving a brand new Audi is no longer relevant. Marketing budgets shrunk, then ballooned, then changed again.
What do we do when the way we always did things has to change? What can we hold on to? What has had a proven track record of engagement and authenticity for over 100 years, and doesn't require nearly the same amount of gear and production and heavy lifting? Sound. Radio has been king since since it went commercial in 1900. As of late, it has dropped off in listenership, only to be reinvented and rebooted again. Same medium, different formats.
The concept of auditory storytelling is more relevant today than ever. Radio used to be our main source of communication. It connected us to the world as well as local community. Really, it was the main source of entertainment. If you haven't experienced any old radio land, radio shows and their brilliance, let me just give you a taste. (Playing Who’s On First Sketch) Let's see we have on the bags we have who's on first? What's on second? I don't know is on third. That's what I want to find out.
I say who's on first, what's on second, I don't know’s on third. Are you the manager? Yes. You're going to be the coach too. Yes. You know the fella’s name? Well, I should. Then, who's on first? Yes. I mean, the fella’s name. Who. The guy on first. Who. The first base man? Who. The guy playing first? Who is on first. I'm asking you. Who’s on first. That's the man's name. That's who's name? Yes Well, go ahead and tell me. That's him. That's who? Yes. Look,, you got a first baseman?
Certainly. Who's playing first? That's right. When you pay off the first baseman every month, who gets the money? Every dollar of it. All I’m trying to find out is the fella’s name on first name. Who. The guy that gets the money. That's it. Who gets the money. He does. Every dollar. Sometimes his wife comes down and collects it. Who's wife? Yes. From 1900 to 1922, the radio networks were scrambling to find a way to monetize their programing. Sound familiar? Hint, hint. YouTube.
It wasn't until Bell Telephone Company, a parent company of AT&T, produced the first radio advertisement in 1922 that radio figured out how to make money. This is long distance. I'd like to put in a call to my home in Brooklyn, New York. The number is Beachwood 2028. Certainly. I will try to get it for you. Flash forward 100 years and we've seen this pattern of where's the money? Repeat itself first in radio, then on TV, and then internet and streaming networks learned how to become profitable.
Now it's the evolution into voice first technology that has our attention. The beauty and power of voice first technology is that it takes on the primary principle of radio. However, the internal and external packaging of voice tech is much more advanced. So what is voice first? Technology? Voice first technology is the transmission of messages through sound.
Voice first is utilized through interfaces like smart speakers, voice assistants in cars and homes, wearables, hearables, and other smart technology. One of the reasons that these new voice first technologies haven't been fully adopted or realized is that marketers think that it's a replacement for video and other visual devices. They don't want to take the chance on something replacing phones or computers. They don't see sound marketing as a realistic replacement.
It is important to note that voice technology is not a replacement of visual modality. It is an enhancement to it. Phones are way too functional to go the way of Laserdisc. They are not going anywhere. Our phones serve too much functionality for any invention to realistically replace them. Sound in marketing creates the opportunity for a multimodal experience. For those not familiar with that word. Multimodal basically equates to being usable in more and more ways with voice and sound.
We have a unique opportunity to create an enhancement to the content that we already have established in our brand. Adding sound to sight experiences only strengthens the brand's sensory perception. What does that mean? Sound makes your brand one fifth more human minded. Marketing through sound is simply being creative with smart technology. For instance, what about that Alexa skill you stumbled on? It teaches you how to do a ten minute meditation before breakfast.
To set your mind right for the day ahead. What about the narrative radio show about a scientist who travels to Mars and discovers a colony of Martians that have been studying human beings by watching repeats of Seinfeld? (mouth popping intro to show) What about an app that changes the sound of your voice into a favorite Looney Tunes character? To leave silly and probably nonsensical messages for bored friends
a few states away. (silly music playing) These examples are only scraping the surface of how a brand could be marketing through sound. Seriously, the possibilities are endless. So here's literally the million dollar question. Where's the money? Why even spend the time exploring marketing through sound? Who created the meditation skill? Maybe a yoga studio that wanted to remain front of mind to you till you can make it down the street and sign up for some lessons. Who told the Martian story?
Maybe it was a network that had a script, but not the budget to produce it yet as a TV show. So they worked it into a radio show to get their content out. Who made the app? A brilliant company that markets to people working from home. Way more. When the consumer is hooked on the app itself, more products can be easily introduced. All of these examples could fit easily into a sales funnel. Attention, interest. Desire and action. Once marketing is done right, the money will come.
Look closely at what is out there in the sound space. There is more to sound than what initially meets the ear. Audio content is created for engagement, entertainment, and reliability. The result is for the customer to invite the brand into their living room. They're enjoying themselves, they're engaged, and if you're doing your job correctly, they're remembering who brought them. Those happy moments. And they'll call on you again.
Digital audio advertising revenue grew 58% to $4.9 billion in 2021. Podcast ads are the most recalled type of ad. According to a 2021 survey, 86% of respondents said they remember seeing or hearing a podcast ad. 56% of listeners said they would recommend a product or service to others after hearing an advertisement on a podcast they regularly listened to. And this is not surveying the more creative content end of things.
It just so happens that ad spends are just a tad easier to track and measure. Innovation, creativity, relating and engaging with our audience in a more hands on way. This is how I believe we should be marketing to our consumers now and after. Covid 19 is a distant memory. Within all this. Specifically, there is an opportunity to truly captivate an audience with sound in marketing. So how can we turn that audience into our brand champions?
We need to take full advantage of this time of rebuilding stats and buyer personas to focus on creativity and ingenuity. This is the time to act on and implement those projects (music playing) we've held off on in the past that we weren't totally sure about. Now is the time to learn and grow within new parameters and circumstances. Create new experiences for ourselves and our consumers and patrons. I came across this great quote from Anastasia Shcherbakova.
While in regular times, innovating is optional. During a crisis, the necessity of evolving is crucial, urgent and vital. Within this creative process. Please consider sound. Sound creation in marketing is groundbreaking. And the best part- not yet fully realized. There's a lot of opportunity to win and win big in sound. Thank you to Pixabay sound effects, oldradioworld.com and NPR for the great sound bites. If you liked the music and the sonic logos, those were mine.
Love the idea of sound in marketing, but don't know where to start. I've got you covered. Come on over to Sound in marketing.com. I've got tons of resources, courses, ebooks and connections. I also offer sound strategy consulting and sonic branding sound design through my company Dreamr Productions. All links will be provided in the show. Notes. Let's make this world of sound more intriguing, more unique, and more and more on brand.