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Marketing

Effective Political TV Ads Need Narrators!

2020-03-18
Silumtaneous Usage TV and Digital and TV and Audio

How often do you watch tv and work on your computer at the same time? I’m doing it right now. According to Nielsen’s 1918 Q2 Total Audience Report, 45% of viewers are always or very often using another digital device while watching tv. Only 6% of tv watchers are using an audio device while watching tv.

Why? Because we LISTEN to our tvs as well as WATCH them!

TV commercials NEED SOUND! We consumers don’t just watch tv, we listen to tv; we HEAR a message. As the old adage goes:

YOU CAN’T SHUT YOUR EARS!

Seldom does the TV screen have our 100% attention visually. In addition to the 45% that is not 100% engaged, another 28% are also looking at a second screen. And, many of us are also on our cell phones! Are you getting the stats?!

We are not WATCHING TV, so every time a commercial comes on and THERE IS NO SOUND, WE DO NOT GET THE MESSAGE. TV ads that flash words on the screen without a narrator reading them OUT LOUD are wasting money and an opportunity! Politicians—can you hear me?!

Almost ALL of the political ads right now have video clips of Donald Trump telling lies. They play his words over and over again and on the screen image they flash the world “lies.” BUT NO ONE IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE WORDS ON THE SCREEN. If you are listening but not watching, the ad reinforces Trump’s message. There should be a narrator saying the words OUT LOUD!

Narrator: DONALD TRUMP IS LYING.

Then the narrator gives the CORRECT INFORMATION OUT LOUD! So people can hear it if they happen NOT to be watching. Which is the majority of us.   

Conduct your own experiment. You watch tv, right? Contrast these two videos:

Eleven Films does it right. Although they don’t use a narrator, each clip includes AUDIO that tells the story. This 2:00 video calling Trump out for his Coronavirus incompetence is easy to understand even if you aren’t watching but only listening.

“You can’t trust this President to do the right thing,” says a person in a voice-over of a picture of EMTs rolling away a body. Then next clip shows Trump calling Coronavirus “the new Democratic hoax.” On comes another visual of people being screened by emergency personnel with the voice-over, “not for the sake of our country.” EVERY important point is emphasized with visuals AND AUDIO.  

WATCH AND LISTEN to this video from Eleven Films. They are on a mission to save Democracy. Subscribe to their Youtube channel and #Resist! And Democratic candidates—please hire Eleven Films to get your message out!!

BREAKING: the American Virus: We Will Prevail

Contrast that with this commercial from The New York Times: The Truth Can Change How We See the World

New York Times: The Truth Can Change How We See the World

The commercial begins with ocean scenery and Janelle Moonaea, a beautiful African-American woman, telling the story of 20 enslaved Africans being delivered to the shores of Virginia and sold to the Colonists. “America was not yet America,” she says, “but this is the moment it began.”

THEN, NO MORE SOUND BUT THESE WORDS COME ON THE SCREEN

“Words from

The 1619 Project: How Slavery Shaped America

The truth can change how we see the world.

Truth is worth it.”

Then the New York Times’ logo appears.

LIKE WE SAW OR HEARD THAT!! A beautiful ad by the New York Times, apparently one in their “Truth can change how we see the world” campaign. Great campaign, but here’s the BAD NEWS.

NO ONE IS GETTING YOUR MESSAGE. YOU GOTTA SAY THE WORDS OUT LOUD!

According to a random ppt presentation I found on LinkedIn, people remember:

10% of what they read

20% of what they hear

30% of what they see

50% of what they see and hear

80% of what they say

90% of what they say and do

So, if you want people to remember what your tv commercial “says,” you’ve got to help your audience SEE and HEAR your message. If you can get them up doing the hokey-pokey and singing along, even better.

#LoquaciousLindee

Feeling Like Spring

2011-02-27

Spring

Me: I feel like a spring.

BF: You mean like water?

Me: No.

BF: Like the season?

Me: No.

BF:  Like a twisty metal one?

Me: THAT’s the one.

It was late, my boyfriend and I were driving home from the airport. He’d picked me up after a short two-day jaunt to Kansas City to visit one of my clients. I was wired all right–twisted up tight with excitement. I’d just been through orientation with National Seminars–the premier training company for corporate employees, government workers, and individual entrepreneurs. I trained a number of topics for them from 2003 through 2006: How to be a Great Communicator, Effective Business Writing, The Grammar Guide, Creative Marketing Conference, The Women’s Conferences.

Beginning early April, I’ll be training National Seminars’ newest seminar, Social Media Marketing. Communication has taken a technological turn and the world has been united. Social Networks (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, You Tube, and countless other sites) are changing how we talk to each other, our customers, and the world.

According to Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, “Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”  Given my soc and psych background, it’s a revolution I want to be part of–and National Seminars is on the cutting edge, letting me lead the way.

Match My Friends: What not to say

2007-12-29

Start a love story. Match your friends.

A new ad and website appeared this week–Matchmyfriend.com Brilliant marketing! What you won’t do for yourself you’ll do for your friends—and secretly hope they do it for you. Like a surprise party! Does anyone really appreciate a match-maker? Of course, when they’re not blatant about it. Why not silently arrange a rendezvous? It’s easy to have both people show up in the same location. It’s the darned announcing of “said meeting” that makes everyone uncomfortable. Don’t even start a conversation with “you’ve gotta meet Bob, he’s blah, blah, blah, and perfect for you.” Just leave that in your head, unspoken, and arrange a meeting. If they are “perfect” for each other, then fate will step in and what happens next is unstoppable—because that’s what happens in true love. Something primordial takes over. Call it chemistry; call it passion, but a force all consuming steps in and you’re on a shooting star heading out to heaven. Who doesn’t appreciate a hook-up, no matter where it comes from or who sets it up? It’s just a lot easier to let happen. Love throws its own surprise party.
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