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Radiocentre launches new tool and research to help brands harness the power of music

Radiocentre has unveiled Brand Music Navigator, its new tool to give advertisers and agencies an objective framework and language to explore how music can be linked to brands more strategically.

The tool was unveiled today alongside the radio industry body’s new research, Strike a Chord, an in-depth study exploring how music enhances brand communication. The research showed that music is often neglected as a strategic brand tool and only considered as an afterthought at the execution stage of the advertising creative process. Radiocentre undertook the study to help advertisers consider music more actively as a strategic brand communication tool which would help radio to gain greater consideration as part of the media mix.

Advertisers and agencies already acknowledge the power of using music to enhance advertising but it is still an element that remains largely unexploited. This is due partly to a shortage of evidence about the effectiveness of music in brand communication and because advertisers lack a common language for objective music selection. The Brand Music Navigator tool is designed to help as early as the briefing stage of a campaign.

Radiocentre joined forces with research agency Push London, neuroscience specialists at Goldsmith University, and semiotic specialists in developing the research.

The resulting study used EEG data to conclude that brands that use music strategically in their ads score more highly across a range of measures than campaigns that do not feature any music and those that use music only tactically.*

Brand Music Navigator is a semiotics-based brand music tool for agency planners and creatives to explore brand music using semiotic analysis. It was revealed at London’s iconic Abbey Road studios.

Mark Barber, Radiocentre’s Planning Director says: “In the same way you’d think very carefully about not using images in a TV commercial, this research suggests that using music strategically should also be a default setting for radio advertisers. Those that use music in this way enjoy greater audience engagement and healthier results – and are better placed to take advantage of radio’s renowned multiplier effect.”

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