Key Takeaways
- Music is underutilised in advertising, and certainly under-tested.
- Music gets past attention and gets to emotion, which is where buying decisions are made.
- Getting more attention on social content doesn't always give you more brand awareness.
- Optimising visuals for the first seconds gets a foot in the door. Emotional creative is where brands find outsized impact.
- If music matters this much, it deserves to be tested like any other creative choice.
Ask a team to optimise a social ad and most of the energy goes into the visuals. The first frame, the hook, the first few seconds. That makes sense in a race for attention.
But it leaves one of the most powerful tools in advertising on the table. Music.
Why does music matter in advertising?
Because it works on emotion, not just attention. As I said on stage at What's Next Live with Dentsu Creative, alongside artist and storyteller Jordan Stephens: "I really believe that music is underutilised and certainly under tested. Music gets through to people, it gets past attention and gets to emotion. Which is where we make our buying decisions, whether we believe it or not."
- AttentionThe first frame, the hook, the first seconds.
- EmotionMusic gets past attention and opens people up.
- DecisionWhere buying decisions are made.
More attention on social content doesn't always mean more brand awareness.
A particular song can build positive associations with a brand and help create memories. That link between music and memory is something most people have felt for themselves.
Is more attention the same as more brand awareness?
No. As our data at Element Human shows, getting more attention on social content doesn't always give you more brand awareness.
Optimising visuals for the first five seconds is a good foot in the door. But quality creative that opens people up emotionally is where brands can find outsized impact. Music is one of the fastest routes there. More on why attention metrics aren't the whole story.
How should brands test music in their ads?
- Treat music as a creative variable. Choose it as deliberately as the script or the casting.
- Test more than one track. Run the same edit with different music and compare emotional response and brand memory.
- Watch the emotional peaks. Second-by-second facial coding shows whether the music lifts the moment where the brand appears.
- Measure memory, not just attention. A track that holds people longer isn't necessarily the one that builds the brand.
How we measured this
Element Human measures emotional response to video ads with webcam-based facial coding, second by second, alongside in-feed attention and implicit association testing of brand memory against a control group. Music is tested as part of the video: two cuts with different tracks can be compared side by side. Element Human also tests brand ads as well as creator content, across social feeds (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube Shorts), CTV pre-rolls and sponsorships in simulated Netflix and Prime Video environments, and standalone video such as TV ads. Every test compares an exposed group with a control group of people who did not see the content.
About the author
Hamish McPharlin is Chief Customer Officer at Element Human, where he helps brands prove and optimise the impact of their advertising. He previously worked at the BBC and CNN. Follow Hamish on LinkedIn.
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