So what makes audio ads work volume three?
So this is the third one of these that I've done.
And I've seen some of you guys at the other two.
I got feedback that I like I need to make it more practical.
So have some actually specific stuff that's actionable that you can do immediately to make your audio ads work better,
which is the whole promise of it.
So I'm Stu Redwine,
Executive Creative Director at Oxford Road.
This to me is one of my
Highest achievements,
which was this endorsement from Scott Tannen,
the co-founder and founder and CEO of
Bowling Branch Sheets.
If he was a professional wrestler,
he'd want Stu Redwine as his tag team partner because I go all in.
So many of you guys that know me know.
So we're going to go all in on this together.
All right.
Sound good?
Yeah.
I need to just remember not to forget things.
Okay.
So I was thinking about it.
What?
What are the most immediate things that you could immediately put into practice to make audio ads work?
And so
I've read a book.
I actually have the proof here.
This is the book that I've read.
I have notes in the book,
dog-eared.
This is actually something I've been doing more is reading physical books.
I highly recommend it with all of the digital,
with all the digital stuff these days.
Anyway,
really getting into the history of radio and looking back on radio and what happened to radio.
What made it work for such a long time was the personality and the host,
right?
And then commercial interest came in.
You guys all know the story.
They broke it up into the different genres.
DJs got less flexibility.
You couldn't mix music formats.
You had a talk sheet.
It killed it.
What's cool is at the end of this book by Susan Douglas,
it's awesome because she wrote it in 99,
2000.
I just got to watch my time.
She wrote it in 1999,
2000,
it came out in 2000,
and she basically,
the very last paragraph,
which I'm not going to read,
Miranda,
I ran through this earlier,
and Miranda's like,
don't read from the book.
The very last point that she makes is,
literally,
it's like she predicted podcast.
She's like,
we got to get away from the suits,
we got to be punk rock again,
we've got to be independent.
It's like,
oh,
that's awesome.
And then what's wild is it took radio.
80 years to do that journey to get completely killed by,
you know,
commercial interest.
At podcasts,
it's funny,
it's like it's in warp speed.
It's at that same inflection point.
So one of the main things that's always made audio work,
because audio is inherently intimate and it's inefficient,
is the host reading the ad.
So my first piece of advice,
which is something we've been saying a lot,
beating this drum at Oxford Road,
is save the live reads.
But like,
that's...
That's something you have to put into practice and really think about because there's the other,
there's efficient ways or,
you know,
produce spots,
whatever.
We've got to fight for the host breeds,
but it's more than that.
So what is your guy's relationship to this dog,
right?
What do you think my relationship is to this dog?
It's my guy.
Yeah.
I spend hours with him every day.
That's Maverick.
I love him.
He's three years old.
If we wanted to ask Maverick to do something,
would you guys have a better chance at getting him to do it,
or would I have a better chance?
Yeah.
Yeah,
that's right,
Giles!
Thanks,
Leah!
That's the way I look at the podcast hosts and their audience.
You've got to let them use their words.
They know how to communicate.
I know how to communicate with Maverick.
And in fact,
I've even trained him a little.
I forgot to bring my dog clicker,
but...
I use a clicker with them.
I use treats.
I use positive affirmation.
And I was kind of trying to extend the metaphor like that.
Those are some of the tactics of an audio ad.
Sonic branding is the clicker.
It's Pavlovian.
The treat is something good.
You're giving them something good,
like maybe an offer,
a special offer.
Positive affirmation doesn't hurt for an ad to make somebody feel good.
But the host,
you know,
me as Maverick's wingman,
I'm the best one that's best suited.
to ask him to do something much better suited than a stranger.
So the host's voice hosts words,
and that takes a lot of discipline to pull yourself back on your copy points and allow them to speak like that.
Okay,
next up,
and we're doing okay on time.
So this is $14,280,000,000.
This is approximately,
by my calculations,
with the help of Sir Giles Martin.
the amount of money that is wasted in audio advertising every year in the United States of America.
So it's roughly $17 billion.
The Ehrenberg Bass Institute done a famous study,
the 40 by 40,
that shows 16%
of advertising is correctly remembered and attributed.
All right,
so that means 84%
of it's a complete waste.
That's the amount of money that's wasted.
So it's like,
what's one thing you could do,
super practical to make your ads work harder so you're not contributing to that number,
is from the Journal of Advertising Research,
which if you're ever looking for like,
what are the pointers for the things I need to do in my ads,
the Journal of Advertising Research is like the laws of nature or whatever.
Like that's the stuff that we know that we know.
It's foundational about advertising so we can trust it.
When it comes to audio advertising in the Journal of Advertising Research and what we've seen in our own experience at Oxford Road,
mention the brand name early,
mention it often,
and don't let a lot of time pass between brand mentions.
Like,
super basic,
but like I said,
feedback I've gotten on some of these other sessions is to give you practical,
so that is practical,
and I want to play a couple examples,
okay?
So I,
the names have been changed to protect the innocent,
and we are going to listen to two minutes of ads.
Oh,
there's no skip button.
But I didn't go with a host read.
I went with produce spots.
Same lesson applies because mentioning it early,
mentioning it often,
and not letting too much time pass still holds no matter how you're communicating.
So let's see if this works.
Oh,
you guys are going to have to tell me if you can hear it.
There's never going to be a better time to start cooking healthier,
and you can do it no matter what it takes or how long it takes.
Call your boss and tell him you're not going to make it anymore.
And then drive.
Drive like the wind until you find a bookstore.
Fill your car with cookbooks till your trunk scrapes the road.
Now head to the woods and forage for mushrooms and herbs.
Or head to a farm to harvest the greenest produce you can find.
Want dirt?
Stay in your hands and sweat on your brow.
You want to fight a goat to get it all and you want to win.
And the reward for that fight is the delicious meal you're going to cook.
And while you're sitting there eating it.
wondering about all the time you've lost,
ask yourself a question.
Why didn't you just order meal kit?
Cooking healthier doesn't have to be a full-time job.
With meal kit,
each week...
Okay,
so that was 42 seconds before we got a mention of the brand name.
Again,
I recreated that from some real creative.
That's the kind of stuff that you do here out there in commercial radio,
and then you're also hearing that kind of stuff in podcasting because we're trying to be creative or trying to appeal emotionally.
Like I said...
What's recommended is say the brand name early and often.
And when all else fails,
be clear.
Clarity has a cleverness all of its own.
So here's the next spot.
Does getting a flavorful,
balanced,
and convenient dinner on the table night after night feel like a chore?
Let Meal Kit take care of the weekly meal planning so you can save time and actually have fun cooking and eating amazing meals.
Visit MealKit.com and choose what meals you want from an ever-changing,
customizable,
and
always delicious menu.
Then let Meal Kit shop and deliver pre-measured ingredients with simple recipes that come with it.
Okay,
you guys get the picture.
All right,
so that was about every six or seven seconds there's a mention.
So that's the really specific advice.
Pierre Bouvard would tell you probably have your first mention even earlier than that.
I think somewhere in the first six seconds is okay,
and then every six seconds is a good way to be.
Another thought on the produce spot,
right,
where it was really rambling before it got to the brand mention.
There can be a,
like I'm saying,
use the host voice,
right?
Let the host say that,
use their words.
You've also got to be listening to it and engaged and giving them feedback.
And they thrive off of feedback.
That's what's nuts.
Like every,
you know,
hosts are people too.
They can make a segue and what we've seen even from a performance standpoint,
like you can make a segue into the ad and they can even tell like a really long story,
but way too much time has passed.
before we get any indication that's from the advertiser.
So still allow them to do their thing,
but sometimes you've got to nudge them with those brand mentions early on,
and then they keep talking.
Like,
before I talk to you about blah,
blah,
then they tell their story.
Okay,
so the hosts,
use the host voice.
Let the host use their words.
Another massive one is the answer to this question.
Can they recognize your brand with their eyes closed?
And this is going to become increasingly important because all of...
computing is becoming conversational,
right?
And I know it's so dangerous.
It's like focus group of one,
but whatever,
I'll do it anyway.
My daughters,
I have a senior in high school and a sophomore in high school,
and they talk to all their stuff,
right?
They won't even,
I'm like,
why don't you type that?
And they're like,
and they just talk to it,
which is cool because I like Star Trek.
With that said,
if you think about in that environment,
how are people going to be,
they're not going to be able to recognize the brand by sight.
They got to be able to recognize it by sound.
And what I've been saying to folks,
I've been talking about this a lot,
is just,
you just need the answer to that question.
Can they recognize your brand with their eyes closed or not?
Yes or no?
And if it's yes,
it's like,
great.
Like,
well,
tell me more about that.
How did they do that?
What have you been doing?
If it's no,
it's just something you need to make peace with.
I think every brand needs to have a little bit of something.
So I'm going to play.
Some of you heard this before.
I'm going to play this video with a,
it's got a number of different Sonic logos in it.
And I want to say something as well.
There's a lot of.
questions a lot of times when we start talking about Sonic branding like what's a Sonic logo or what's a Sonic identity or what's a jingle it's like look the way I kind of look at it is it can be a number of things it can be anything from a tagline to a UX sound to an intentionally designed emotive sound to a jingle to a song like
you think of Home Depot they've got the same they use Josh Lucas's voice and then they've got the same song that they use the Bum-been-oh-been-oh-been Bum-been-oh-been-oh-bum
which you can get you can download it's on my running playlist like it really is um so it can be i think of it as like what what allows you to recognize the brand with your eyes closed and then also like what's the smallest divisible sound
that you still instantly recognizes that brand that's one way that i think about it okay so here we go see how many you can count
805-888- I'm just so happy I got Lloyd.
Like a good neighbor.
Use your voice,
your sonic identity.
What do you think?
11?
Anybody want to go higher than 11?
12?
13?
No,
I got a 13.
13 here.
All right.
21.
There's 21 different.
And I had stuff in there from Lucinda,
is the founder of Moinkbox,
somebody we worked with a long time.
So her voice has a very distinct sound,
right?
And then she says,
I guarantee you're going to say,
oink,
I'm just so happy I got moinked.
I consider that sonic branding.
Then you also have the NBC chimes in there as well,
or Disney's song.
It's what are those things that allows them to recognize you with their eyes closed?
Speaking of Disney,
it's related to a bigger piece of persuasion and branding,
which you've got to,
this is one of these other things you've got to have an answer to,
is you've got to be distinct and you've got to be consistent.
And this is where I refer to my notes,
where my pen blew up on me like right before.
It was great.
Yeah,
okay.
So I've got a podcast called Ad Infinitum.
It's the only podcast about audio ads,
how they work,
and how to make them work better.
On one of the most recent episodes,
we broke down a bunch of ads.
Actually,
it's out right now,
Shelby from the Future.
We broke down a bunch of ads from IBM.
And it was really interesting because they were podcast ads.
There was a Kara Swisher host read.
There was a Guy Raz host read.
There was two produced spots.
Maybe one other host read.
Three different taglines used throughout.
One of them had a sound,
which I'll be honest,
I didn't even know IBM had a sound.
And it was like three notes.
At least
I think that's what it was.
And then Guy Raz and Kara Swisher didn't self-identify.
And they didn't personalize either.
They literally read the exact same copy.
So it was very inconsistent.
And there was no distinction.
So those two things are critical because you're creating these memory structures in people's minds and sometimes I think we can get obsessed with wanting to refresh or change things.
It's like,
look,
I want that to look like that in,
let's say,
15 years when I go there with my grandkids,
right?
You know what I'm saying?
We could probably put it off 18 years or so.
I mean,
she is a senior.
But we want it to be the same and it needs to be distinct.
And one other thing I want to make sure we touch on,
so we're talking about use the host voice,
let the host use their words,
utilize sonic branding.
And I actually,
I'll make one more point on sonic branding is that,
um,
the ones most likely that come to mind are like Netflix,
McDonald's,
um,
even though it's dated now,
which is like,
oh,
but I still like it as Intel inside.
They were all very intentionally designed.
All of those had a lot of intention.
Do you have a question?
Are you talking about the sound before and after the ad?
to do the sonic branding or are you talking about like the intro because i do like music yeah but then there's also some people that do like music before and after to like introduce the ads that are coming and then going back to the show so
i'm wondering if that's what you're talking about uh i'm primarily looking at it through the lens of an advertiser i think anything you can do that it's all pavlovian so anything you can do that's consistent that's setting them up for what
that we know this is going to happen every time and I'm supposed to feel a certain way about it so that I can know this thing is going to happen.
But I'm glad you actually said that.
Look,
two quick things.
My main point with this
Antoniolytics is we had this guy grading a bunch of our ads named
Antonio Coronado.
And we have a system we use for grading ads called Audiolytics.
So I would call him Antoniolytics.
And overnight with this AI stuff,
what used to take hundreds of hours is...
poof,
it's gone.
So this is a cool episode to listen to like,
oh,
what something a human used to do,
now robots are doing,
which we're using more AI tools at Oxford Road.
And in fact,
where you've got a partnership with WonderCraft,
where they provide the audio production tools,
their platform is awesome.
And this is for real.
You get one free month of WonderCraft on us.
Well,
it's a $700 plus value right now.
If you scan that promo code.
So you'll sign up,
you'll be put in our newsletter to find out more about Audiolytics.
As we're,
with a lot of care,
we're looking at how to incorporate AI into the creation of audio ads.
And we're doing that with WonderCraft for the actual produced audio.
So if you act right now,
you can get that.
Okay,
and yeah,
okay.
So I'll wrap up with that.
I'll wrap it up here.
These are the six things that I wanted to leave you guys with.
So use the host voice.
Let the host use their words.
Say your brand name early and often.
Sonic branding,
you know,
just can they recognize you with their eyes closed?
Okay.
That's the question.
You just got to answer that.
Yes or no.
And then what's your answer?
Be distinct and consistent in some way,
in some shape or form.
And then care.
This is my big point for AI.
Right?
Like,
look,
you can check your brain at the door.
We're all like,
I use chat GPT.
My name is Stu and I use chat GPT.
All right.
I know you all do that.
And you've seen the studies too of our brains.
Like this is your brain on chat GPT,
like very little activity,
Google search,
a little more activity,
way more activity.
If you actually think,
I think there's another component,
which is care.
You have to care because if you care,
it doesn't matter what tool you're using.
That's,
what's going to point you at your highest and best same.
is actually caring about the output.
And then it's like,
yeah,
use AI.
Don't use AI.
Like,
I don't know why you wouldn't.
The important part is somebody caring about the output.
And with that,
I want to invite you all to tonight at 6.30,
if you didn't know about this,
at the Sounds Profitable Lounge,
is Age of Audio.
It's an awesome documentary by Shawn Michael Colon.
So you can come see it.
It's really,
really cool because it's like the history.
It's a history of podcasting basically up until this point.
And then what's wild to me,
like I'm saying from talking about the history of radio,
it's like podcast has done what it took radio like almost a century.
Podcast did that same thing in like 10 years.
And we're at this inflection point.
Like we have podcasting if we can keep it.
And that's keeping it in the host voice and letting the host use their words.
And I think I'm about at time.
We'll leave it at that.
Thank you guys so much.