Do not sound like an announcer. The emphasis strategy in commercials

Abstract

Most consumers do not like the speech style that announcers use in marketing messages. The main reason is an exaggerated way of speaking with a strong emphasis. Indeed, announcers tend to stress too many words in commercials, producing an overly emphatic speech style, which sounds choppy and stuttering. This study analyzes how different strategies of emphasizing words in commercials affect the listeners' cognitive processing. Four different strategies (no emphasis, moderate‐low, moderate‐high, and over‐emphasis) were applied to 16 commercials. Participants (N = 52) had their physiological response (heart rate and skin conductance) measured during ad presentation. Afterward they assessed the commercials' effectiveness and adequacy and performed an immediate recall and a recognition test. The results indicated that the commercials presenting a moderate emphasis (low and high) improved the listeners' cognitive processing compared to messages with no emphasis strategy and the standard industry practice of using over‐emphasis.

Preference of voice and performance style in radio advertising

“…Considering voice likability separately from speaking style in the choice of a spokesperson can lead to undesired results. Our conclusions support the studies which have found connections between speaking style and voice likability (e.g., Altrov et al 2018, Pajupuu et al 2019, Rodero, Potter 2021.…”

“…The connections between voice likability and speaking style was also evidenced by Pajupuu et al (2019), in which different ratings of likability were given to voices reciting poetry and being interviewed. In the context of radio advertising, Rodero and Potter (2021) have shown that most consumers do not like the performance style of radio advertisements -an exaggerated way of speaking with a strong emphasis. This style is caused by the tendency of spokespersons to overemphasise too many words.…”

“…As listeners have learned to associate this style automatically with advertising, and as it is annoying and unpleasant, they are likely to tune it out. Rodero and Potter (2021) concluded that a moderate style, where only key words are emphasised, would be beneficial: this would create acoustic contrast to attract attention, and the advert would then sound unaffected and more natural. A study by Pajupuu et al (2023) on Estonianlanguage advertisements performed by synthesised voices in various styles has shown that listeners prefer a more neutral style over an emotional performance, one with a lower and quieter sonorous voice without rapid changes in loudness.…”

Robot reads ads: likability of calm and energetic audio advertising styles transferred to synthesized voices

“…Earlier studies on the human voice conducted in Estonia have shown that for other speech styles, Estonians also prefer a quieter and more neutral voice (Altrov et al, 2018). As far as we know, different speech styles in advertisement performances have not been compared in other cultures; rather, the advertising style described in studies seems to correspond to the energetic style that studies found is both unnatural in speech tempo and excessive emphaticism (Chattopadhyay et al, 2003;Rodero, 2020;Rodero and Potter, 2021). Therefore, it is not known whether advertisements performed in the calm style may be a better fit for listeners in other cultures as well, regardless of the sales strategy.…”

“…The speech style of advertisements is clearly recognizable due to sounding unnatural in both speech tempo and its exaggerated way of speaking with strong emphases (Chattopadhyay et al, 2003;Rodero, 2020;Rodero and Potter, 2021). Listeners have learned to automatically associate this speech style with advertisements and in order to resist the influence of the advert, have learned to tune it out (Michelon et al, 2020).…”