Creating marketing is essential for every service and product, because it can lead consumers to memorize the goods; in addition, advertisement is one of the marketing tools which can make brands to be successful, because it can lead people to see and remember your product with many methods. With the advance of technology, business owners shift the platforms in promoting their product; for example, they used to mainly advertise goods through sound in radio then the owners switched to advert in television. In the present, audiences in TV become users in social media because these platforms become a part of everyone’s daily life, so most business owners use digital marketing to promote their brands. Using social media in digital marketing increases the number of people who see the ads, but how to make the users remember our products? How to make it viral? Applying music in advertisements might be the good answer for some brands.

Music has been an important thing for humans for centuries; music and us have been coming together since our ancestors live in caves. In prehistorical period, people produce music by clap their hands, tap the rock or tree, and whistling. They use music to communicate with god, their trust and believe, or supernatural things: making a wish, avoiding danger from nature, worship, or thank you for happiness. With the development of the world and the creativity of humans, music and instruments have been developing in every period, and humans start to produce music for both of religion and entertainment. But there are many impacts of music not only for entertaining but also for others benefit. Scientists said that music enhances the brain, makes people to be more active, and release Dopamine and Serotonin which is hormones that connect with happiness. Another study from Stanford University show that music could be medicine for some people: it improves both of our physical and mental health. For example, a Norwegian girl started to fight with depression after listening to Skyscraper from Demi Lovato; sometimes music is people’s best friend that human can trust and express their feelings.

Moreover, it can influence to our eating behaviors: according to a study by Brian Wansink and Koert van Ittersum, people who consume food in restaurant that open soft music eat 18% less than those in other restaurants, so music also affects our physical health and being another tool for anyone who want to lose some weight. Music also improves your memory process: listening to music will be better in remembering, a study found that students study better when they listen to positive music; People will keep a story behind each music, it also stimulates us to recall some memories in the past. Hence, the connection between music and humans is more than entertainment; it includes religion, medicine, tools for improving mood, and tools for improving daily life. Music can impact humans in various ways, so if the business owners use music in their advertisement for promoting their products and services, it might be easier to reach consumers and remember their goods than other ways to advertise.

Music actually has been used in ads since people are using old media, such as television and radio. There are many advertisements in the old media that usfed music and became popular. If we go back to the 90s era, there are some snack and drink advertising between some parts of cartoon on TV, and most of those ads used music for reaching the children to remember their products. So, using music is not a new technique to do marketing; however, this advertising way is common but also hard, because it need to make people to remember their song. And making the music stick in your head also makes the audiences remember your brands and products. There are 4 elements which can make music advertising to be earworm: rhythm, words, trend, and number that turn the music on. 

Rhythm: to create music in advertisement that can stick in the audience’s head, the rhythm is important. A study in 2016 showed that most music which sticks in listeners’ heads have 3 common points: upbeat song, high note in first verse, and using up and down notes together. Using fun music pattern and high note in the first verse are motivate the brain of audiences to create attention. And the difference of notes in the music can increase interest: the low note will make people to go along with the music, but the high note will wake people up to feel fun. However, this is just an explanation from science; there is no fixed form of music, people can change anything up to their creativity.

Words: using easy words for audiences to be more understanding is another point to make the earworm music. This is not only choosing the words but it is the music ads that need to use the words which relate to the products’ target audiences. Apart from knowing the target audience is using viral words: this is similar to creating video content, choosing trending words influence the music to go viral in order to increase the number of people who listen to this song. In addition, repeated words are also important for producing music because repeating easy words makes the brain to remember the feeling, similar to practicing or doing something often that our brain can remember and do without notice. The last tips for making music in ads popular by words is creating the short and unique word for the listeners to pay more attention to the music; this also can adjust to the rhythm by using uncommon rhythm.

Trend: trends can be separated into 2 points: using viral content in the music and music becoming viral after publishing. Using content that is viral in society makes people interested in music ads, because it is related to popular story in that time; when some people talk about the content, people will think about this music in ads or sing it which can make the music to be earworm. Apart from using viral content in music ads, people can talk about some ads then it become more popular. Humans always communicate together, so using peer-to-peer to make people listen to it and become stick in our ear. If people talk or sing about the music in advertisement, it could mean that others will go to watch it. For example, in the past, there was one restaurant advertisement that was very popular, but I never watch it; however, I can sing that song in the ad because my brothers and friends who talk about it.

Number that turn the music on: opening the music repeat many times also another reason that make the music to be earworm. Similarity to using same words many times in a song; it practice the brain to remember every words, rhythm, or notes in that ads. For example, when I study in grade 10, I heard one music ad from car’s radio every day before go to school;  it have been about 4 years which I did not hear the music, but now, I still remember and sing that song “ D G Dairy Goat, D G good goat milk from New Zealanddddd”. 

In present, to use new media as benefits for some brands, the business owners post the advertisement on social media or digital platforms to attract people from online. Brands also pay for the social media to promote their ads which is another way to gain engagement from audiences, and these platforms can make people to see the ads often. More people who see our advertisement mean more people who listen to the music advertising, and higher chance of music to be earworm.

Examples of music in advertisement

Old media- Lactasoy

Lactasoy 5 Baht,แลคตาซอยห้าบาท

The famous advertisement in the past which people can remember until this day: Lactasoy. Lactasoy is a Thai brand soy bean milk that published this advertisement in 2005. This ad was published since people use old media, but it is very popular and earworm. The rhythm in this song is upbeat, and this music advertising has some high notes which make people feel fun. And using words that are easy for people to remember, and repeating the price of the product many times for listeners to remember. At that time, this ad was opened by some malls, radio, and TV; so, this song was a trend, and everyone can sing it. This music advertising make Lactasoy to be known.

New media- Shopee

#ShopeeDanceTH เลิฟช้อปปิ้ง โหลด Shopee

Shopee’s song is a good example of using new media in music advertising. Shopee is an application for shopping, and they have a very good marketing strategy, such as free delivery code, shopee coins, and music ads. In 2018, shopee published their ads on their channel, and it became viral. This music also uses repeating words technique by repeating the name of the brand many times in the song. Another important part that make this music go viral is 

trend that apply in the ad: Baby Shark song. Producing this music by using the Baby Shark song’s rhythm makes the ad familiar with audiences. Baby Shark was craze during this ad releasing, so Shopee has been mentioned with that song for a while. Moreover, they use new media, such as YouTube and Facebook, to promote this music advertising, so many people see this ad because of social media.

In addition, music in advertisements can be songs that are not hard sell and look like normal music. For examples, the long music which is a kind of the native ads. 

TMRW for promote UOB credit card

LAZYLOXY X OG-ANIC X URBOYTJ – TMRW (Official Music Video) / Prod. by NINO | YUPP!

Fin tee sud loey (FINN) for advert mobile sim card from FINN MOBILE

URBOYTJ X OAT PRAMOTE – ฟินที่สุดเลย (FINN) – OFFICIAL MV

Using music in marketing has become another interesting choice for some business owners because music could make the product attract the consumers, and make the consumers remember the brands easier. In present, there are more producing the music that are used for advertising the products or brands, so it could be seen that music is playing an important role for the advertisement in marketing.