The Undervalued Salesman

With the exception of a tiny minority of visual media content producers who understand the value and vital role that audio plays in driving sales and revenue - Which is generally the point of producing content anyway. Most perceive audio as something that should be given the short end of the budget stick and without needing much emphasis. I mean, it’s just “sound” right? How important can it be compared to the beautiful actors, superb set designs and CGI? While some would explain that they understand the impact audio can deliver, but simply lack the time, manpower and financial resources to commit, an alarming majority aren’t even aware of the true power of audio.

“The Undervalued Salesman”

I’ve titled this “The Undervalued Salesman” because of the enormous impact audio and its professionals play in engaging consumers like a real life salesperson do but lacks the recognition it deserves. Audio often becomes the subliminal deciding factor in driving sales and purchases...also like what a real life salesperson would do. In fact way more than most people would know or believe to be true. 

Businesses would often invest heavily on what they’d consider the highest revenue drivers, and usually these would fall upon things like sales and marketing, and it’s not hard to understand why. In the world of visual media content, much of the emphasis is placed on the visual aspects. Turn on any digital media content and you’ll find the visuals incredibly captivating. Spend time with any visual department and you’ll see just how much effort and resources are being poured into getting all the details as precisely pristine as they can make it. But when it comes to audio which is the other half of the visual media content, more often than not, you’ll find that it is compressed to the absolute minimum.

Even as an audio specialist myself, like most people, I started out equating the role of audio to just….sound - A “thing” that’s needed to fill in the silent void in visual media. It could be the sound of rain, the passing of a car, a tear jerking melody for a heartbreak scene or a high energy music track for a battle sequence etc. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, when I really started noticing how audio has “sold” me the product again and again by way of captivating my emotions. It’s not really something that you’ll be consciously aware of, but rather subconsciously and subliminally. Most audio designers, be it composers, sound designers, foley artist, mixing/mastering and recording engineers see themselves as just artist or creatives, it wouldn’t come to them as a natural realization that they are in fact part of an important salesforce!  

Emotions: The Power Of Feeling

The general idea for both content creators and audio creatives is that audio is an inseparable part of visual media content because it’s needed to “bring the visuals to life”. For example, you need to hear the high heels pacing frantically in a haunted mansion’s creaky wooden floors to feel the vibe of the scene. Or, you need to hear the sexy revving sound of the latest Bentley ad to feel the power and classiness that would make irresistible to those who can afford its enormous price tag.

Notice in both examples, I put extra emphasis on “hear” and “feel”. What you hear, causes you to feel. The intensity and quality of how you “feel” is directly correlated to the quality and detail of the source, which is the “hear” part.

Does the above ring a bell of familiarity? That’s essentially what salespeople apply on people to buy whatever they are selling. A good salesman knows how to use his pitch to ignite the feeling of want in his sales prospects to make them self-convinced that buying that whatever is a great idea. The better he can push the right buttons to ignite the right “feel” factor, the easier it is for him to close a sale.

Now that I’ve explained it this plainly, does it start to make sense how audio plays the role of a salesperson? I’m sure as smart people yourselves, you’ve got this.

Sonic Salesmanship: Music

Let’s talk about some successful examples of how certain products have hired great “salespeople” to do the work. By products, I’m referring mainly to visual media content in the realm of Films, TV, Video Games, Advertising etc. Let’s take a classic blockbuster hit for example: Titanic by James Cameron. What’s the first thing that comes to mind apart from the big ship, the lead actors and...the painting scene? It’s the melody of “My heart will go on” by the amazing late James Horner right?

Some of you might find this cheesy, I get it, but the point is the impact it has made to millions of people worldwide. The feeling it gives that reminds people vividly of the scenes in the movie….and the car, if you know what I mean. This helps bridge the distance between the audience and the product with an emotional attachment, through what I’d like to call in commercial terms: “Sonic Salesmanship”.

Sonic Salesmanship: Sound Design

What I’ve just discussed above was sonic salesmanship in the form of music, but we can also find it in other forms of audio. Let’s use another one as an example: Sound Design. A good example to highlight the sonic salesmanship of sound design would be the Star Wars movie franchise. Let do this again. What’s some of the more iconic elements that comes to mind when thinking about Star Wars? Let’s see..we’ve got the badass Darth Vader, Yoda, the Death Star and the lightsabers right? Remember how cool those lightsabers sounded? I sure did.

When the movie first came out in 1977, the iconic sound created by the legendary sound designer Ben Burtt literally rocked the world because of how unique it was and most importantly how it made people feel. Till this day, we could still feel the power of the lightsaber being wielded in the hands of the jedi, and possibly imagined ourselves owning one of those. So cool it was that the lightsaber merchandise sold like hot cakes! And it had stuck in the minds of generations of movie goers and sound designers that came after that. The sound design for the lightsaber became the iconic sound for the franchise and can still be heard until today more than 40 years, 12 films and $4.5 billion later.

Unleashing The Potential: Be The 1%

I’m sure by now all of you understand and recognize the hidden salesmanship in audio and your audio providers. It’s good enough just to be aware of the importance of audio, but by seeing audio for the potential it can unleash elevates you to the 1% category, outplaying almost all competition from the playing field. Now, who wouldn’t want this right?

It really is just as simple as this. Just by having the knowledge and awareness of whatever I’ve shared in this article and applying it will instantly give you an unprecedented edge. Just do a quick survey and take a look at any media content that’s out there. I’ll bet there’s a high chance that’s it’s going to be absolutely bland and mediocre. The music and the general audio treatment sounds like the 99%, indistinguishable from one another.

Ok, you might think that it still works or argue that it’s a competitive market, budgets are tight and schedules are crazy. But the question I want you, if you’re a content producer to ask yourself is: “Are you willing to accept mediocrity for your work?” Like I said, to truly utilize the sonic salesmanship concept is absolutely easy, all it takes is a level of awareness and a commitment to realizing it. Once you’ve internalized this, you can achieve this in any situation, even with the most meager of budgets.

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If you need any professional help, feel free to get in touch with me and I’d be more than happy to give you a FREE first time consultation. Do get in touch with me at [email protected] and you may learn more about me and my services over at my website www.kianhow.com. Thank you and I’ll see you in the next one.

** For The Podcast Version, Please Go Here: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/yoaster/episodes/2018-12-31T00_27_33-08_00