There is no doubt that music changes the way we feel, and the way that we look at things. The beautiful girl on the tube looks 10 times more beautiful with Tarrus Riley – She’s Royal in your ears. So what effect does music in advertising have on consumers’ moods, attitudes, and behaviours?

My role as a New Business Manager has taught me a great deal about how we are marketed to. From research, to strategy, through to delivery of marketing campaigns, and more importantly the depths to which brands will go to tap into our emotions.

Over the past 5 years I have seen a growing interest in “emotional advertising” with recent trends in brands looking at things like behavioural economics at the research stage, which includes looking at the emotional factors in the consumer’s buying decisions.

Music has long been a huge factor in guiding emotional decisions in advertising, and these days it’s almost impossible to turn on the TV and not witness the marriage of music and commerce.

There have been many studies and theories on the emotional effect music has on our purchasing decisions, but perhaps one of the most popular papers on the the effects of music in advertising was Gerald J. Gorn’s experiment (Gorn, 1982). He paired a light blue or a beige coloured pen (neutral stimulus) with both well-liked and disliked music (unconditioned stimulus). 79% of the subjects chose the pen with music they liked – a conditioned reaction.

Music also enhances the recall for a product, even if the emotion evoked by the advert is hatred. Take Go Compare for example, it drives me insane but the brand is burned into my brain whether I like it or not.

Equally, a massive number of car advertisements we now see are 90% music. An inspiring piece of music is sometimes all it takes to stimulate us to feel something toward a car and associate it with a better way of life. An American advert for Honda Odyssey I came across does just that, and although I don’t have a driving license nor in fact any kids to need a people carrier, I can see how this ad would evoke a positive emotion with parents wanting life to be this serene when driving their kids about.

The emotional stimulus aside, products advertised are identified much quicker with a certain piece of music. In some cases it’s the music alone that makes the brand identifiable. Take Bach’s Air on a G String for example… Cigar?

Having worked as a New Business Manager at Alchemis for several years but also having an extensive background in the world of mobile marketing, I’ve heard the sweeping statement “xxxx is the year of mobile” bandied around more times than I care to remember. However, 2012 might just be the year that it actually turns out to be true.

The following statistics and many more like them are readily available on the web and point to the fact that we as consumers are using handheld devices more and more in order to do what we used to do on a PC or laptop; shop, compare prices, access social networks, view product reviews, book tickets, give opinions, the list goes on and on.

• The number of mobile subscribers is going to double in the next year
• Predictions suggest that mobile internet usage will outpace desktop by 2015 – Google believe that this could happen by the end of 2012
• 85% of the world’s population has wireless access
• There are currently 23 million UK mobile internet users
• 15% of the UK population only have a mobile phone at home
• 68% of mobile phone users use their mobile in retail stores
• 24% of mobile users intentionally carry their mobile phone for in-store price comparison
• 79% of online advertisers don’t have a mobile optimised site
• 28% of people who see a mobile ad take action
• Amazon has already recorded four billion mobile sales
• A third of flowers sold on Mother’s Day were through mobile devices
• Around 12% of traffic within the online travel and finance industries is through mobile devices
• Facebook pages drive 80% of newsletter sign-up’s through mobiles

 The key for brands and retailers who want to tap in to this huge opportunity is to realise that mobile shouldn’t be viewed as separate from other parts of their overall marketing plans. Instead, it should be integrated into a broader digital strategy that marries great user experience with fantastic visual design. An app that looks pretty but doesn’t allow you buy what you want to buy is as bad as walking into a bricks and mortar shop and finding out there’s no staff to serve you at the till.

As an agency, whether a mobile specialist or one that operates in the broader digital space, the key to winning new business is getting in front of the right people in the right companies and demonstrating that you understand how to make mobile part of the bigger picture.

We’ve been doing this successfully on behalf of agencies for several years now, so if you want the benefit of our experience in this ever-changing marketplace give us a call….

I hope you’re all fully rested after the long Xmas break and that you got everything you wanted from family and friends!

We had a great start to the year with 2 of our clients confirming decent sized wins in the first 2 days back, so long may that continue.

I’m personally looking forward to 2012; firstly, I’m one of the lucky few with tickets for the Olympics (the diving no less, so I’m getting ready to cheer Tom Daley and the rest of the team on) but I’m also going to keep my eyes open for more tickets – so if anyone knows anyone…

On a business level, I remain confident about this year. I know we’ve probably not seen the worst of it yet, there’s a double dip coming etc but this isn’t like the early 1990s recession when everyone stopped spending on Marketing. In this competitive marketplace, brands and companies will almost certainly die a death if they DON’T spend, albeit wisely and in a well researched and planned/ targeted manner and increasingly on digital and social media.

According to the latest research from the AAR the number of new business pitches in 2011 declined by 13% .

However, Kerry Glazer said that there are a few encouraging signs, that the decline in advertising appears to have bottomed out for example, which could be grounds for future optimism.

Also of note is the fact that the trend for large clients to hold integrated pitches disappeared in 2011.

Most of our clients prefer us to get them ‘under the radar’ to start a relationship rather than chase pitches, so these facts will not have much impact on our core business, but we do keep an eye on any trend in the marketplace as forewarned is always forearmed.