About Emma
Emma Clarke is a leading female voiceover and comedy/drama writer. She voices all kinds of things from advertisements to radio identity packages – but is best known as the ‘voice of the London Underground’.
Previous postings
- Cutting edge discussion: how to say road names in a commercial
- Facing the nation on the telly – the key issues
- Unaccustomed as I am...
- Mind the Gap: The inside story of a very British fiasco
- Awkward Advertising: BT’s Adam and Jane ads
- Translate these phrases into actual English and you’ll win a prize!*
- Excuse me, would you like to rent my mouth?
- Awkward Advertising: John Prescott the boxer
- Awkward Advertising: JLS Wii Party
- Awkward Advertising: Nice ‘n’ Easy’s Dance class ad
- Awkward Advertising: The Boots ‘Not giving gifts this year’ ad
- Awkward Advertising: Halifax’s “ISA ISA Baby” TV ad
- Awkward Advertising: that bloody Match Affinity commercial
Archives
Music in radio ads
Thursday
Feb 21 2008
Today I recorded a radio commercial for a car dealership which is holding a Motability Open Day. There was no direction on the script but I knew it was to have accompanying music. (There was a tell-tale ‘Music in’ direction on it that gave the game away… I’m a policeman’s daughter, you know). There was no clue what style the music was to be though, so I asked the producer as obviously the style of music dictates the style of read required. He told me he hadn’t chosen it yet.
“I guess it’ll be something quite laid-back and lifestyley, instead of the usual hot ‘n’ pumpin’ car ad music…?” I said.
“Yeah, I reckon so,“ agreed the producer.
And then we had a chat about the assumptions we’d both just made about Motability customers.
We’d assumed that because the ad is aimed at disabled people, the ad would probably be best suited to something gentler, more ambient, more empathic than the grinding music of conventional motor industry ads. And why did we think that? Well, I confess I had an image in my mind – and I’m not proud of this, Reader – of a Motability customer who was at least middle aged, of a temperate disposition, a person who enjoys National Trust parks and wears a cardigan at weekends. Basically, the sort of person who wouldn’t enjoy or be moved by (in a consumerist sense) grinding music.
How patronising!
How crass!
How assumptive!
I’m ashamed, I won’t deny it.
Assumptions
But when we choose music for radio ads, we make these kind of assumptions all the time.
For college ads aimed at school leavers, the music will be ‘of the moment,‘ possibly a bit urban-sounding, but certainly fashionable. If the ad is aimed at mature students keen to retrain or change career path, it’ll be motivational, aspirational. For women returners, the ad might feature soft, acoustic guitars. And obviously the style of voiceover will match the music.
When classical music is used, we’re aiming at the high-end market; discerning consumers who we assume will appreciate the finer points of fugues and therefore be moved to put their hand in their big, deep, Mozart-loving pockets. For example, classical music is used in high-end housing development ads (rustic 5 bed barn conversions in a semi-rural setting close to a motorway network, that kind of thing), high class furniture stores that specialise in crafted wood and leather, and commercials for wedding fayres. Not only do we imbue these listeners with the level of class and intelligence we in the advertising world deem necessary to part with thousands of pounds to pay for a country house hotel wedding, we assume that because there’s a marriage in the offing the punters will be in a serious, classical-music-appreciating frame of mind. (It wouldn’t do to have a wedding fayre ad featuring a piece of library music called ‘Whips and Chains’ or ‘Mr Tumblewink’s Picnic’ would it?) And of course, we assume that people who like classical music are always wealthy and have impeccable taste; this is advertising FACT.
Now I know a lot of this is about matching the style of ad to the style of music, but I have a suspicion that the choice of music (and therefore voiceover style) is based on the sweeping generalisations we inevitably have to make about the Ideal Consumer for that ad we’re making.
Presenting the ad
When the producer / sales exec / copywriter presents the ad to the client, we have to be pretty confident that we’re presenting an ad the client will like. That means an ad the client assumes his customers will like…which may or may not be the same thing. To get the ad cleared and off the commercial producer’s desk, the music has to satisfy the client’s marketing objectives – and that means that the music has to be the sort of thing the client reckons the target market will respond to. And that’s when we get to the assumptions thing because without it, we’d be saddled with loads of remakes.
The upshot
So how did me and the producer resolve the issue of how I should read the Motability ad?
We played safe and went for the light, conversational assumptive read to match the light, lifestyle music with which it’ll be coupled.
Narrow-minded? Bigoted? Possibly. But I’m sure it won’t bounce back for a remake.
4 comments · add a comment · this blog is moderated
Emma Clarke takes no responsibility for any comments below, as these do not necessarily represent her views.
Stewart Twynham
04 May 2008 at
10:39
Great thoughts, Emma, as per usual!
Paul Stephenson
07 May 2008 at
02:15
I wonder if anybody (producer and client) would be brave enough to spend their money on air space and creative using an advert with "Happy Hard Core" music with a 17 year old "scream if you wanna go faster" voiceover for the motability market...? I'd be intrigued to see how successful it is ! ha ha!
Peter Labrow
12 May 2008 at
08:49
I think lots of creative people have to work in the same way - your client is, after all your client (and not your clients' client). You may think you know best, but so will they - and possibly they will!
fergus mcclelland
18 January 2009 at
09:31
Of course, you are right, Emma, you usually are:) I have a friend in the Professional Speakers Association who is wheelchair bound/freed. He has absailed, parascended, fire-walked, and is full of massive spirit. He raises money for charity all the time, speaks uncompromisingly, and doesn't fit any box we could try to stick him into. In America, another man I feel honored to call friend. W. Mitchell. Top international speaker, friend of kings and presidents. says "Before my accidents I could do 10,000 things, now I celebrate the 9000 I can still do. This man is a roaring lion, deep, powerful and wise. I learn from him all the time. Reminds me of the "Does he take sugar?" campaign years ago. A g/f of mine was in a car crash with me. Stuck in a wheelchair badly bruised. At Heathrow, the staff were asking me what she wanted. "Ask her!" was all I could say.