Understanding The Emotional Impact Of Music On Advertising

Music influences mood and can play an important role in advertising; a new study quantifies the subconscious impact of music – and, crucially, how it differs from the conscious response.

Why it matters

The effectiveness of music in advertising to reinforce the mood or narrative of the message being delivered depends on emotional synchronisation with visual content to optimise the desired subconscious response.

Following a 12-month research project* by sonic branding company SoundOut, in partnership with the Music, Mind and Brain Research Group of Goldsmiths, University of London, brands can now begin to develop strategic plans for when and how to use music at both a conscious and subconscious level to produce the emotional impact they want to achieve. 

• video by up to 16.4%, depending on the emotional attribute being evaluated.
• Music is particularly powerful in changing the emotional response for some emotional attributes – like Peaceful, Intense and Defiant – but less so for others – like Technical, Spontaneous and Simple.

What next? 

SoundOut is launching a fully benchmarked suite of technology tools to enable brands to identify the best music choices for brand and marketing impact at both a conscious and subconscious level.