For a long time, advertising stuck mostly to facts. Ads would clearly and logically explain why their product or service was better than their competitors’. For example, check out this British phone ad from the 1920s. It’s basically a sales pitch on paper.

This all changed in the late 1920s and early 30s. Ads started to focus more on emotion. They targeted the heart instead of the brain.

And this made perfect sense.

We like to think we’re rational creatures, but we’re not. Purchase intent is anywhere from 70 to 90% emotionally driven. When you see a billboard, TV, or online ad, they don’t use plain text and graphs to make a case. They use the strengths of the medium to maximize attention and emotional impact.

Let’s look at a modern phone ad for contrast.

No pitch. No facts. It just uses the strengths of the medium for emotional impact. Colour, music, and movement all come together to create something that stimulates the senses, and retains brand recognition.

This all may sound obvious, but audio tends to be a different story. Many audio ads still lean more toward the logical approach of the 1920s. This is why you still hear ads talk about the convenient location or the friendly, knowledgeable staff.

Listen to that 1920s ad with modern delivery and production. Sadly, it passes very easily for a modern ad.

This is ironic because studies have shown that audio is actually more memorable and effective than visual media.

Quite often, visuals convey information, but sounds convey emotion. Sight is a very powerful-hungry part of the brain, but it stays localized to the visual cortex. The pathways of sound, on the other hand, are very broad. They intersect with language, memory, and of course, emotion. So why do so many ads amount to not much more than a voice reading facts?

Audio is not a print medium, and a script is not a spot. An audio ad needs to be produced sound first, and by extension, emotion-first. Audio is a powerful medium with largely untapped potential. Sonic branding is the difference between reaching the brain and reaching the heart. An audio ad from the 2020s shouldn’t sound like print ads from the 1920s.