Hidden musical powers in advertising!

The University of Teesside’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Henderson, will present some intriguing insights into ‘Using music to influence mood and recall in advertising’ when he gives his Professorial Lecture in the University’s Europa Building, Woodlands Road, Middlesbrough, at 6.30pm on Wednesday 6 June.

Professor Henderson (pictured right) has spent many years analysing the effectiveness of music to reinforce advertising messages in the early 1990s, comparing his findings with data published in the United States, where more research has been done. He wanted to see if the US findings could be applied to the UK.

“I was surprised to discover that it was not unusual for companies to spend relatively large sums of money creating the visual images for advertisements, and then, often only very late in the design process, did they give any real consideration to the music to be used.

“If my findings, and those of others, are valid this carries a lot of risks and could result in the impact of an advertisement being fundamentally distorted or undermined,” said Professor Henderson, who is Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic & Development) at the University.

His talk will supplemented with film and sound clips from several well-known TV commercials and begins at 6.30pm on Wednesday 6 June. Light refreshments will be available from 6pm in the Europa Building/University Cinema.

“I hope my lecture will cause the audience to pause and reflect upon the potential influence of music in advertising. Amongst other things, I will look at whether there is any evidence to suggest that by using different types of music, or even by varying certain aspects of particular pieces of music, it is possible to influence audience reaction, and in particular message recall,” he said.

During his research, Professor Henderson recorded over 700 television commercials and also worked with students in creating some original material, which was used in various ways to see whether audiences respond differently when different types of music are played.

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