When An Audible Isn’t Necessary for a Successful Play
Photo Source: SportingNews.com
A buddy and I were watching football the other night at our favorite neighborhood hangout, a place that plays the jukebox during TV commercials instead of the broadcast audio. Over the course of the game, we saw umpteen new DirecTV ads featuring the alter egos of former and current NFL stars.
The visual representations of the “alter ego” Randy Moss, Tony Romo and others were generally pretty funny. However, without sound, we had no clue who the alternate Peyton Manning was supposed to be, and we were at least a little fuzzy on Andrew Luck and some others. BUT, that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Because we didn’t have the sound, we resorted to making our best guesses at the alternates’ identities, and then looking them up online. If we’d had sound, we might have had a quick chuckle at the ads, but probably would’ve forgotten about most of them seconds later. The bartender inadvertently kept DirecTV in our conversation just by turning off the sound.
I find this whole situation interesting for a couple of reasons:
- A little mystery can prompt a lot of engagement. Concealing a little information instead of presenting absolutely everything will sometimes actually promote more engagement.
- A picture IS worth a thousand words. Some people turn the audio off during commercial breaks, especially during sporting events, so your TV ads should be visually interesting enough to still grab the audience’s attention.
To see what I mean, watch the ad below with the sound OFF, and then again with the sound ON:
https://youtu.be/7M26UajWaXI
