Accent Color

accents in advertising

Image courtesy of yoplait.

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Accent Color Here’s how to use accents and cultural perceptions to your TV ad’s advantage.

By Christine Birkner | senior staff writer

 cbirkner@ama.org

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here’s a reason why actors who sound like British nobility have been recruited to help sell everything from luxury

cars to grainy mustard. Accents in TV ads are an intrinsic part of the message.

They can add substance to your pitch or give it personality, or better define your

brand’s positioning. “There are many different studies that indicate that the audio accompaniment of what you see is even more important than the visual,” says Bruno Frankel, a strategist at New York-based advertising agency Mother New York, whose clients include Virgin Mobile and Target. “The audio sparks places you might want to go, and things you might want to buy.”

There also is plenty of research on how various accents are perceived, and what effect they therefore might have on a brand’s target audience. To

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accents in advertising

many listeners, a British accent conveys gravitas, intellect or even sex appeal, while American accents are far less compelling. Thirty-five percent of Americans say that British accents are appealing, while only 11% of British people say that American accents are appealing, according to a 2014 study

by YouGov, a London-based market research firm. The British accent is most popular among 18- to 29-year-old Americans, says Sarah Murphy, director of YouGov BrandIndex. “It may well be time for advertisers to utilize this good feeling in their future campaigns … and perhaps target this specific group with campaigns featuring British voiceovers,” she says.

“A U.S. audience will hear a British accent, and immediately there’s the perception that the brand is somehow more sophisticated and worldly,” says Susan Cantor, president of New Yorkbased marketing agency Red Peak Group, who previously worked for advertising agency Lowe (now Mullen Lowe Group) when it developed ads in the late ’90s and early 2000s that used a French accent for Stella Artois. “A French voiceover might convey a certain status. An Australian accent might convey wanderlust or a hearty, masculine explorer, based on stereotypes like Crocodile Dundee.

Travel brands and beer brands have capitalized on that.”

Adds Frankel: “Australians are known to be incredibly social and friendly, so when you hear an Australian accent … it triggers in your brain all of the cultural associations you have with that country and region.”

Voiceover accents create subconscious links between the brand and consumers’ memories, he says. “The voiceover triggers all of those cultural associations, from everything you’ve read, and books and movies you’ve seen, and they can be used in positive and negative ways. … For French [accents], on the downside, you might think they might be judgmental, but, on the other hand, you think, Wow, I bet they know a lot about culture.”

Yoplait, owned by Minneapolisbased General Mills Inc., launched a series of TV spots in June with a lilting, singsong-y French voiceover that proclaims that the yogurt now is made with 25% less sugar. The accent refers to the brand’s roots, as Yoplait was founded in France through the union of two French dairy co-ops, says Susan Pitt, marketing manager for Yoplait. “Because of the accent, it feels a little more earnest than if it was just an American voice.”

The use of the accent also is an effort to help set the advertising apart, says Eric Baldwin, creative director at Portland, Ore.-based Wieden+Kennedy, the agency that helped create the ads. “A lot of current advertising is relying on overly earnest male voiceovers, so using a female voiceover with an accent … helps it stand out and feel fresh.”

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personalities, such as Mad Men’s Jon Hamm vocalizing the messaging and taglines for Mercedes-Benz and American Airlines on U.S. television, also lend a certain cachet, Frankel says.

“Jon Hamm’s entire career is built on one character, Don Draper: He’s cool, he’s sexy, he’s a guy’s guy. Guys want to be him and women want to be seen with him. It’s absolutely from the Mad Men Don Draper world, and those brands are now associated with that.”

The same goes for Rescue Me actor Denis Leary’s voiceover work for Ford trucks, Cantor says. “He was perfect casting because he has a blue-collar halo. He has played a firefighter on TV; he’s associated with Americana. He embodied the values of the working man, and he’s hardworking and tough— all of the values that Ford trucks want to communicate.”

“A U.S. audience will hear a British accent and immediately there’s the perception that the brand is somehow more sophisticated and worldly. A French voiceover might convey a certain status. An Australian accent might convey wanderlust or a hearty, masculine explorer, based on stereotypes like Crocodile Dundee. Travel brands and beer brands have capitalized on that.”

— Susan Cantor, Red Peak Group

Brands don’t have to venture too far from their home bases to find accents and inflections that will resonate with their audiences, Frankel notes. In fact, it’s often better to use a local accent when appealing to local consumers.

Voiceovers by recognizable local

A voiceover is a critical part of how consumers engage with audio content, Pitt says. “The use of the accent is, across the board, a pretty strategic way of giving that unexpected cue so people will pay attention. It helps you tell your message in a really engaging way.” m

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