Why is it that when you're driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio? Ever stopped to think about it?
You can close your eyes, but you cannot close your ears. Sound is invasive, intrusive and irresistible. You hear and retain information even when you're not listening. You hear even when you're fast asleep. How else would you know there's a burglar in the house?
One of the greatest myths in the world today is that “we remember more of what we see than what we hear.” In fact, quite the opposite is true. That great scientist of the eye, Josef Albers, says it quite plainly in chapter one of his landmark book, Interaction of Color, “the visual memory is very poor in comparison with our auditory memory.”
The primary gift of humanity is our ability to attach meanings to sounds. This is accomplished in 3 highly specialized parts of your brain – Broca's area, Wernicke's area and the Auditory Association area. In fact, your physical ability to coordinate the movements of your diaphragm, larynx, tongue and lips so that you can produce human speech is also owed to Broca's Area, a specialized extension of Auditory Association into the Motor Association cortex.
Did you know that the written word has no meaning until the brain has translated it into the spoken word? Ever been lying in bed reading a book and suddenly realize that you've been scanning the same paragraph over and over for a very long time and you have no idea what it says? Yes, your eyes were sending the written symbols to your brain, but those symbols were no longer being translated into the sounds they represent.
Although the Wizard of Ads Inc. branch offices in the US, Canada and Australia use all the different forms of media, including television, direct mail, internet and outdoor, it's also true that we spend millions of dollars more on radio each year than on all the other media put together.That's why I didn't hesitate when the publisher of Radio Ink magazine, Eric Rhoads, asked me to assemble 20 exceptional radio ads produced at small marketradio stations and add my own commentary as to what made the ads effective.
If you would enjoy hearing 20 exceptional radio ads produced at no cost in the studios of little radio stations across the US and Canada, just go to http://wizardacademy.org and click “Special Promotions.” The 37-minute CD will be sent to you at no charge, courtesy of Wizard Academy, BenjaminFranklin the Punctual Plumber, and Radio Ink magazine. But hurry, only 2000copies were printed and when they're gone, they're gone.
Roy H. Williams
PS: FYI…The new book, Persuasive Online Copywriting, by Wizard Academy adjunct faculty Jeff and Bryan Eisenberg and Lisa Davis, is available now at amazon.com for just $18 and it's getting RAVE reviews.