Music in advertising

Rosi Ware and Alan Branthwaite

This paper examines the creativity of music and its effectiveness in advertising using information from a large database of ad pre-testing as well as case histories to illustrate the effects in more detail.

Music in advertising.

Alan Branthwaite and Rosi Ware, Millward Brown International, United States

INTRODUCTION

Theories abound about the role and usefulness of music in advertising. One theory, reportedly developed by Bob Payton while at JWT, was that music in commercials should be tailored to the brand's target group by selecting pop music that was in the charts when they were in their teens, as this was the most music–conscious lifestage, and therefore likely to lead to the strongest emotional ties to the brand. Music also acts as a public statement of the brand's intentions by making...

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