ARN Neurolab Workshop

Earlier this month we were treated to a highly informative workshop with Justin Stone, Director of Business Intelligence at ARN Neurolab.

ARN’s NeuroLab is the first in-house media research initiative of its kind in Australia.​

Throughout the presentation, Justin uncovered some fascinating truths about the human brain and its ability to process audio information. Mind blowing stats such as, ¹25% of people can correctly identify a song in just 400 milliseconds. Meaning, when it comes to advertising a brand has the potential to be able to build a connection with their audience via audio in less than half a second. Further to this, when compared to visual attention, audio still achieves ²30% attention rates, even if the audience is not actively listening. This is pretty powerful stuff – considering the busy and cluttered worlds we all live in. And the fact, you’re likely to achieve 0% attention rates, when your ad is being viewed by someone with their eyes closed.

Not only does audio deliver unrivalled cut-through, it has evidence of building trust. Even more so, when the voice we are listening to is known to us. The human voice creates intimacy, and we will lean into those and trust who we already know. ³80% of people think “the human voice can establish trust like nothing else”.

But don’t worry, we are not about to turn our backs on all other channels and cut visual mediums out of our marketing budgets anytime soon. Audio will deliver incredible results, when planned in conjunction with other channels. When we hear more, we see more. Audio can actually enhance the impact of other mediums. For example, ⁴radio increases OOH memory by +23% and it can increase TV advertising recall by +35%

It all has to do with the makeup of our brains and how we process information. ​The neuroscientists behind ARNs Neurolab each have a PhD in Consumer Neuroscience and have authored more than 22 Academic and peer reviewed papers between them. It really is a fascinating topic and got us thinking, how can we ensure our brands are leveraging the power of audio and connecting with their audiences in each and every campaign.

¹Source ​

Prof. Carol Krumhansl, 2010, ​

Cornell University​

‘Plink: Thin Slices of Music’

²Source: ARN NeuroLab

³ARN Neurolab; August, 2020; n = 55, 25-54 years

⁴Source: Nuro Brand, n=120, eye tracking and neuro EEG, Source: Millward Brown Radio Multiplier Study, n=5,500