ENGAGING THE NEW AUDIENCE

Audience Engagement Begins With Discovery And Participation
Nick Michaels
Copyright American Voice Corp.2013 All Rights Reserved.

The over communicated world has created a unique and very hostile environment for our messages. The audience is now our newest and biggest competitor.  Does your message allow the audience to discover and participate. Are you revealing yourself too early? The way to engage the audience is to make sure your message causes the them to ask this question: "What is this and who is bringing me this message?" Then make sure that the message is about their deepest needs, wants or fears. Do not make it about your product or service, make it about something that matters to them. Then somehow attach yourself to that feeling. That is how you make the connection.

Click for video:   A new audience and a new relationship

IT MAY BE YOUR MONEY BUT IT IS THEIR TIME.

Nick Michaels
Copyright American Voice Corp. 2013 All Rights Reserved

In The Over Communicated World, Time Becomes More Valuable Than Money.

There are two sides to every message, the sending and receiving side. In the over communicated world the only side that matters is the receiving side. I know it is your money that is spent to create and deliver the message, however, because of the new environment, created by the over communicated world,.the audience pays for it with something far more valuable to them.They pay for your message with their time.

Is your message worth it to them? Was it a good deal for them? How did they feel when the deal was over? These are the questions, that when answered correctly ensure that the audience/consumer feels the the trade was a good one.

DELIVERED OR RECEIVED?

Nick Michaels

Copyright American Voice Corp. 2013 All Rights reserved

Your message may have been delivered but was it received?

There is a big difference between a message being delivered and it being received. Junk mail and spam emails are delivered every day but not received. 

We live in an over communicated world. The amount of information is overwhelming and that creates an extremely hostile environment for all messages. In this environment we retreat into a defensive position and unless the message is vital and personal and emotionally engaging or extremely entertaining, it will not be received.

All messages come with a price. The currency with which we pay for all this information is time. As more and more information is tugging at our sleeve, time becomes more valuable. Where it is spent is based on a compelling reason for the spender. If your message is not about that compelling reason, it will probably be delivered but not received.

MOVING FASTER WHILE SITTING STILL

Nick Michaels

Copyright American Voice Corp. 2013 All Rights Reserved

The over communicated world We are now living in it, and are quickly moving beyond that, to the hyper communicated world.

 It can be a very uncomfortable place.

The downside of too many messages is the inability to focus on any one thing long enough to enjoy it.  One of the effects of the over communicated world is the feeling that life is moving faster, even though we are sitting still.  An occasional ride on a roller coaster is fun, but living on one is a nightmare.

Media, and especially advertising and promotion, can take advantage of this by making their messages slower and lower.  In audio messages, speak softly and use the power of the pause. In the over communicated world, messages that subliminally make you feel more comfortable have an advantage over those that do not. That advantage can be the difference between your message being received or rejected.

HOW MUCH TALK SHOULD THERE BE ON A MUSIC STATION IN THE PPM WORLD?

Nick Michaels
Copyright American Voice Corp. 2013 All Rights Reserved

There has been much concern about how much talk should be allowed on a music station in the PPM world.
I have seen numbers that range from 4 seconds to 12 seconds, all designed to minimize the perceived damage that talk causes. After much thought, I think I have come up with the real number.
The real number, however, is not a fixed point.
The real number is: never more than a half second past interesting.

DO PEOPLE REALLY DISLIKE TALK ON MUSIC RADIO

By Nick Michaels
Copyright 2013 American Voice Corp.

People don't dislike talk. They dislike silly talk that wastes their time. They dislike condescending talk spoken in an insincere manner about things in which they have no interest. They dislike boring slogans that waste their time. On the other hand, if you give them useful, interesting, engaging information, that makes their relationship with the music deeper and more meaningful, they not only like it, they love it. By creating a richer environment for the music, you make their listening experience a richer one. The stories behind the songs, about the songs, underneath the songs, and the voices of the artists explaining their music, cement the relationship between the listener and the content for which they came and that cements the relationship between the listener and the radio station/program.

USING SOUND TO OVERCOME AUDIENCE DISBELIEF

By Nick Michaels
Copyright 2013 American Voice Corp.

I have always believed that one of the main purposes of sound in an audio message is to help the audience suspend their disbelief. They have so many messages coming at them today; it is getting harder and harder to get through to them.  My producer, Terry Gangstad, is a genius at creating what I like to call audio cinema. The best way to describe it is to say “it’s like going to the movies with a blindfold on.” The sound is very authentic. The kind of sound you hear in films. The other thing we try to do is to use character voices to augment the announcer. If the audience believes the sound, they tend to believe the words more. I love the way he used sound in this promo to make it feel like it was recorded it in a real Diner. Click here to listen to it.