We’ve all heard them, but do they work? The one that will probably spring into most people’s minds is the ongoing opera singing car insurance one (in the UK).
I’ve spent all my (radio) life encouraging people not to go down the ‘sung jingle’ route, but do they actually work?
Don’t get me wrong, my feeling is that they do not, they are cheesy, corny and just sound tacky, even the ones that have been done professionally BUT they are memorable and people can easily identify the brands with them and surely this is part of what an advert/jingle is meant to achieve.
Going back to my first statement, my son, who was six at the time, told me how much he hated the car insurance advert, but could easily tell me which company the advert was for. So it works!
But does it work for the right reason? Surely advertising is meant to professionally convey your companies ‘mission statement’? Is having people mocking and laughing at your brand the right way to go about your advertising your business? Personally, I think not!
Advertising has always been a tricky one, you have a number of seconds to convey your message. Get it wrong and you have wasted a great deal of your advertising budget, get it right and it will pay for itself very quickly.
I personally remember a few clients advertising campaigns that worked very well. One of them started off on an audio cassette tape (remember them?!) and they kept the same advert for years and years, despite all attempts of getting them to change the advert (mainly because it was recorded in an analogue format) and they were having none of it! Listeners would actually complain about the advert and how long it had been running but the client refused to change it. Their argument was that it worked and they would not change it. I guess they had a valid point!
Another series of adverts that worked for a client set out to be annoying from the offset. Again, we had listeners call up and complain about them because they found them annoying BUT when we purposely asked them which advert they meant, they could easily remember the brand. Again, the adverts worked, but at what cost?
There is always that balance that is placed with the creative writers and advertising agencies… Part of their job is to get the clients brand awareness and another part is to get the mission statement across in what should be a professional manner. The advert HAS to work for the client, but where to draw the line.
So we get back to sung jingles and adverts… I would never encourage a client to have one. I personally think they sound cheesy and corny and most of the time they are really difficult to understand anyway, especially if they sing the telephone number at you!
What would I recommend? A rich clear voice-only advert that calmly and clearly gives the listener your message, no background music (or very low) with MAYBE a music jingle at the end which identifies you (like a designed logo). Your advert must obviously include your company name, your key points (what you do, what services you offer, etc…) a contact telephone number and website. That’s it…
If you have a large advertising budget you could dabble in some alternatives for brand awareness, look at the success of the meerkat