{"id":11151,"date":"2018-03-26T17:30:21","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T16:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&p=11151"},"modified":"2020-08-24T15:25:23","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T14:25:23","slug":"charles-vallance-saying-it-with-words-why-ads-are-getting-more-chatty","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2018\/mar\/charles-vallance-saying-it-with-words-why-ads-are-getting-more-chatty","title":{"rendered":"Saying it with words why ads are getting more chatty"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\r\n In much of the marquee advertising of the last 10 years or so, it is music or lyrics that carry the narrative where the lack of words might otherwise drag. <\/blockquote>\r\n \r\n \t\t\t <\/div>\r\n \r\n
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Perhaps the most old-fashioned thing to have happened in advertising in recent years is the return of the spoken word. Up until very recently, many of the most celebrated ads were almost, or completely, word-free.<\/p>\n

Words, at best, were used as a verbal pay off or an unspoken end-line, eg \u201cIsn\u2019t it nice when things just work?\u201d in Honda \u201cCogs\u201d, or \u201cWe\u2019re the Superhumans\u201d for Channel 4 and the Paralympics, or \u201cFor gifts that brighten their world\u201d in John Lewis\u2019 \u201cMoz the Monster\u201d. In much of the marquee advertising of the last 10 years or so, it is music or lyrics that carry the narrative where the lack of words might otherwise drag. The results have been and will continue to be stunning. I love the Sammy Davis Junior re-mix in the Channel 4 Paralympics ad.<\/p>\n

But the word is returning. It\u2019s there, throughout, in the latest Nike Lndr spot \u2013 and Nike is not normally the chattiest of brands. It\u2019s there in our Nationwide campaign and it\u2019s there in the closely observed dialogue of Dollar Shave Club. Without wishing to get too meta, it is also there in the superb Alexa spot for the Superbowl.<\/p> \t\t<\/div>\r\n \t\t\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n

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Does Alexa, and voice activation generally, take some of the credit for the return of the spoken word? It certainly hasn\u2019t hindered the verbal renaissance, and must to some extent have accelerated it. But there are two other factors that I would put ahead of VA in terms of their influence to date (then I will come back to Alexa and co).<\/h4>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n
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Trust superpowers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first is the renewed importance of authenticity. I have written before in this column about the vital importance of word of mouth in building trust. According to Edelman\u2019s Trust Barometer, we now trust the man or woman in the street more than any other source of authority, including priests. Given how hard it is to earn brand trust, it\u2019s perhaps unsurprising that brands might look to mirror the idiom and the phrasing of these new \u201cTrust Superpowers\u201d. And this, of course, means communicating a bit more like them. With words.<\/p>\n

The second reason for the rise of the spoken word is the importance of having something to say. Communication is becoming more substantial, more rooted and more considered. We may be at the end of an era, we may be witnessing the end of post-modernism and therefore much of the flippancy, frippery\u00a0and\u00a0frivolity that went with it.<\/p>\n

Titter\u00a0ye not. There is a new earnestness afoot, a new gravity. And this more mature, pensive outlook is inherently more word-friendly. Even so, I don\u2019t think the rise of brand talk should be taken as an excuse for brand garrulity. Wall to wall voiceover, especially when accompanied by vignettes, remains a sure sign of an idea-free ad.<\/p> \r\n \r\n \t\t\t <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is also a massive difference between a brand finding its voice and a brand banging on. Look at a lot of the bestword play\u00a0and copywriting, and you will see that it is generally based on dialogue, straight to camera monologue, or performance (see the three examples cited earlier).<\/p>\n

But each of these examples pre-supposes a one-way exchange; brand to customer, not brand with customer. The new rules of brand narrative, as alluded to above, change all this and are being written not by humans but by algorithmic robots lurking inside voice command devices.<\/p>\n

The rise of smart speakers, digital assistants and chatbots mean that the \u201cvoice output\u201d of brands will grow exponentially. Mediapos predicts that 30% of all searches will happen without screens by 2020, and Comscore reckons that 50% of UK adults will be using voice to interact with their devices (up from 15% last year).<\/p>\n

The balance of power in voice recognition is currently concentrated in a few hands, namely Alexa, Google Assistant, Cortana, Siri, Xiaoyu (Baidu), Tmall Genie (Alibaba) and Bixby (Samsung). But plenty of other brands are flexing the power of cognitive intelligence in their own ecosystems, including Hana from Honda and Aura from Telefonica.\u00a0<\/p> \t\t<\/div>\r\n \t\t\r\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n <\/div>\r\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n

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\n A new narrative discipline is upon us. And though it seems quite primitive now, it won\u2019t be for long given the speed at which AI is progressing. If your brand has not yet found its voice in this new world, it may need some vocal training quite soon. \n <\/blockquote>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/section><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":11,"template":"","categories":[193],"class_list":["post-11151","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-in-the-press"],"acf":{"news_id":"193","author":{"ID":930,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2020-07-02 12:04:34","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-02 11:04:34","post_content":"","post_title":"Charles Vallance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_modified_gmt":"2026-01-19 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