If You Don't Care If Your Promos And Commercials Are Effective, Don't Read This Post

Robert F. Potter is a research prof at Indiana University, Bloomington, who says:

"My work builds upon Lang's general theory of motivated mediated processing (read about the general theory here), by expanding it into the area of auditory characteristics, the mechanisms associated with human auditory processing, and media message production. On a more applied level, I'm interested in taking what is known in the area of cognitive science, telecommunication theory, and psychology and applying it to practical questions in the radio and audio industries. "

His areas of interest (set aside some quality time when you click on the links):

1. How do the structural features in audio/radio messages impact attention & memory? If you're interested in this too, click here.

2. How does commercial clutter on radio stations impact attention to commercials, memory for them, and attitudes toward the stations. If you're interested in this too, click here.

i.e., He has found that 'audio complexity,' story-telling, narratives, multi-layering effects with music changes and sound effects do generally capture attention and often improve memorability of messages which follow these things by a few seconds. Exceptions: a sound of a record scratch and the sound of a change in the radio dial. Your production director may love those sounds in promos, but they don't seem to improve the effectiveness of the message which follows them. Could be that, in a digital era, they are audio artifacts of a past culture of several generations ago!