You Say It Best

My friend Leila and I were sitting in the back of an open top 4x4 in Tenerife. Her Mum was singing The Tremeloes Silence is Golden… over and over. Unfortunately, Linda hadn’t learnt any of the lyrics, so sung the title line on repeat… repeatedly. Before Leila lost her mind, Linda was politely* asked to stop. Funny what you remember, isn’t it??

My first job in sales taught me about the power of silence. Leaving a long pause in your conversation can make people feel uneasy; desperate to fill a void. Others are curious to know what’s happened - in today’s world there’s always noise - without it, our senses are heightened.

It’s something we all know, too. Remember being given the silent treatment from someone at school? Made me more emotionally sensitive than being shouted at. And deep down, we’re all people that put a film on, look at their phones, walk off, then fall asleep. But I can hand on heart say I sat still and actually watched a decent chunk of A Quiet Place.

Used well, silence can shout because it provides a sharp contrast between what follows and precedes it. Studies have shown the effectiveness of silence as a cue in enhancing ad response when it’s relevant to the ad message, latterly dubbed a pause for a cause. Depending on the setting, other investigations have shown silence can alter the perception of time and the orientation toward the present moment, making people think, and see things differently.

Part of a series of ads launched during the Rio Paralympics, AMV BBDO’s Theo’s Dog was a masterclass in the use of silent advertising with a meaning. Similarly, the more recent Sisters ad promoting the Facebook Portal reminds us how lovely it is to sit and watch a story unfold. Our brains are working things out for themselves through silent humour, empathising with the characters and, importantly, watching till the end. And ITVs Silent Ad Break was praised when it disrupted a family show to harness the silence around mental health, asking viewers to start a dialogue, rather than listening to the TV’s.

And today, making ads that work well silently isn’t just an idea - it’s a necessity. Producing video content for online use means we’re often told ‘design for sound off, delight with sound on’, something Hotels.com achieved nicely in a stream of Silent Ads that flicked the V Facebook’s silent autoplay whilst boasting 5x the consumer engagement when compared to their previous ads.

For some, total silence is either too bold, or doesn’t quite fit the brief - totally fine - remember, there needs to be a reason for it. In these instances, you can always consider no dialogue or SFX instead, like Southern Comfort. Yes, this was just a paragraph I wrote to squeeze this ad in because I like it, and would argue it still ticks the box of providing a contrast that might make you more engaged. And it’s my blog, so there.

On reflection, I think silence has been silently easter-egging me my whole life - trying to make the quiet point about how great it is. Hush is one of my favorite Buffy episodes, the Pinter Pause is the only real thing I remember from GCSE drama, and You say it best (when you say nothing at all) is the first thing I ever learned to play on piano - yes, seriously.

So, 18 years ago, was Linda actually trying to tell me something? If only she’d learned the second line of the chorus, perhaps I wouldn’t have gone through life thinking sound is all that.

Silence is golden...

...But my eyes still see

??

#BeFierce

*Level of politeness may not be accurate.