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Daniel Powter

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Midlands People Less Likely To Skip Ads With Local Voice

Tuesday, 31 May 2022 09:57

A new study has been exploring the psychology behind accents.

It seems, when it comes to advertising, how you sound matters.

A new national experiment featuring 15,000 respondents has proven what many have suspected for years. Namely, that accent matters, especially in advertising where small percentage margins can mean big gains and cut through to consumers, particularly for brands selling products and services in hyper competitive markets.

Commissioned by radio and digital broadcast specialists IRS+, the new research sought to explore the psychology behind accent, its commercial impact and whether a local voice made a difference.

The answer is yes.

The test research was conducted via You Tube using its “True View” format (ads you can skip), in a controlled study that took Nissan’s current Qashqai TV commercial featuring a neutral “national” voiceover and pitted it against the same ad but this time featuring a local accent recorded by
IRS+ from its approved voice library.

These ran side by side for two weeks in four high population regions, featuring the national voice four specific local accents (representing high population areas). These were: the midlands (Laois, Offaly, Westmeath), Southeast (Wexford, Waterford, Carlow, Kilkenny), Kerry and
Donegal.

Results

Analysts found that geographically targeted copy with a local accent voiceover, outperformed the national accent. This was especially the case in Donegal and Kerry in particular, where respective differences of 5.13% and 3.91% were reported.

In the midlands, local outstripped national by 2.26% and by a factor of .76% for the SouthEast.

Critically, in terms of consumer engagement, 22 out of 24 age groups from 18-65+ also engaged more with the local accent version.

Peter Smyth, CEO, IRS+ says;

“This research proved the science of Local Accent Bias where we “Lean In” and become more engaged when we hear others speaking in the same way as ourselves.

"We have shown conclusively that there is a commercial advantage to running national and locally targeted executions – allowing brands to extract maximum value from each campaign and extend the length of activity by generating increased local engagement.

"Local Accent Bias also offers competitive advantage with the potential to deliver additional sales and market share especially for those operating in ultra-competitive sectors such as Finance, Insurance, Telecoms, Utilities, Motors and FMCG or brand planners this new research gives them persuasive and concrete data that backs decisions they may take to upweight local activity into national client campaigns."

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