A Jingle A Day

15/04/2017

Radio Jingles: When to Use them and What Makes them Effective by Matt Sager

We’ve all heard them. Those catchy little tunes that get stuck in your head all day that you start singing for no reason whatsoever. Jingles have always been an effective way to get your brand locked into a consumer’s brain. Throughout the day, they may sing or hum these tunes without ever realizing it.

In fact, a 2012 study conducted by the University of Vienna found that 89 percent of the study’s participants said they considered jingles to be a highly effective advertising method. The same study also concluded that, “the usage of jingles in advertisements is more effective than the use of slogans [by themselves].” But many of the business owners and brands we talk to express uncertainty as to when and how radio jingles should be used to ensure their effectiveness.

Radio jingles have been around as long as radio itself. Ever since advertisers first realized the ability of mass media to reach thousands of potential customers, radio was destined to become a powerful tool to advertise their products.

Historians cite the very first jingle, or “singing commercial,” as one that was aired on Christmas Eve in 1926. General Mills had experienced a decline in sales of the popular breakfast cereal and decided to try a little something different. The product in question — a little breakfast cereal called “Wheaties” (you may have heard of it) — has been a staple in American homes ever since.

A full 90 years later, you can still find Wheaties on store shelves all across the country. Since then, jingles have been used to sell everything from antacids to deodorant.

When is a Jingle Right for You?

There are a ton of catchy jingles out in the market. And though they sometimes seem so effortless, there’s a lot of thought and actual science that goes into putting together the right jingle. This can be a double-edged sword if the jingle hits the wrong notes. Some consumers may react negatively to your brand if the jingle is annoying or unpleasant.

When thinking about getting a jingle produced, you also have to consider the cost. We live in a digital world, but it still takes real-life team of musicians, singers and audio engineers to get your jingle to completion.

Some jingles can easily run upwards of $50,000. It’s an investment many companies probably can’t afford at first, but the returns can be huge if done right.

Making an Effective Radio Jingle

Should it rhyme? Should it include your slogan or tagline? What about your phone number? There are so many different ways a jingle could go.

The main goal is to make it recognizable and memorable. Some jingles can take a full 30 seconds to make this happen; others can do this in a mere six notes. Broadly speaking, though, these are the traits of an effective jingle:

Brevity/Simplicity: In the world of jingles, being clear and concise is everything. Listeners shouldn’t have to think too much about the meaning or purpose. If a toddler can recite it back to you, then you’re in business.

Catchiness: Effective jingles leave an imprint on the listener’s mind in that “earbug” sort of way. Even if the jingle is ostensibly annoying, it’s goal has been accomplished if listeners can’t get it out of their heads.

Strong Message: A good jingle can communicate your brand’s basic value proposition in a few words. Often, these jingles will leverage some kind of slogan to accomplish this as well.

Pathos: Effective jingles have an element of what the Greeks called “pathos.” They connect on a positive emotional level with the listener. This is achieved by carefully selecting your music and verbiage.

A recent trend has seen a rise in the use of very short jingles comprised of only a few tones. For example, Nationwide Insurance launched its campaign featuring Peyton Manning. The result had everyone singing about chicken parm sandwiches:

To Jingle or Not to Jingle?

Only you can determine whether a jingle is right for you and worth the investment. When done right, this can launch your brand into the stratosphere of marketing and get people all over knowing your business.

Solidifying a jingle for your brand can be a long and expensive process, but in the end, it could pay off. The latest trend of shorter jingles is certainly more cost effective but can be tricky trying to nail down your businesses message in only a few tones.

P.S. Need a jingle? Call +233 240 299 122 today.

23/03/2014

Great tune, possibly my all-time favourite jingle.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9cLZQ_2ITLI

A TV ad with a catchy jingle like this will always be a sure hit. Shown on Philippine TV and made thousands of Filipinos sing a long with the Coca-cola tune.

22/03/2013

The MC – Master over Chaos or Manager of Customers?


You accepted to be the MC at your best friend’s wedding reception but is this what you signed up for? The music is so loud that guests have to virtually scream to chat with one another. The buffet queue reminds you of the line at a busy polling station on voting day - winding and ever growing. The event itself feels like a movie shot entirely in slow motion – it started one hour late and there are still two more songs to go before the cake is cut. As if this isn’t enough, an irate guest calls you over to ask why she’s had to wait all this time without being served even a drop of water. “Don’t you know I’m the bride’s colleague? What’s the meaning of this koraa?”

Welcome to the wonderful world of the MC. Sometimes you may feel overwhelmed by the many things that are going on simultaneously. You may wonder whether your real role is to be a master over chaos instead of what your title says in the brochure: master of ceremonies. But is it your fault that the couple packed the programme with so many performances? And why should anyone blame you for the slowness of the waiters? The truth is that you the MC are responsible for the smooth running of every aspect of the show. That means you need to see your role primarily as Event Manager tasked with satisfying your customers. So who are these customers anyway and what exactly are you managing?

Know Your Customers

At a wedding reception, your number one customers are the brand new Mr. and Mrs. Your job is to keep them relaxed and radiating happiness all the time. This means not giving them a running commentary of all the things that are going wrong like a shortage of drinks or delays from the caterer. Another set of important customers are the service providers – the DJ, ushers, caterer, waiters and security. You have to coordinate their activities to make the event a success so your job is to keep them informed about the inevitable twists and turns in the programme. Your final group of customers are the wedding guests. Without their involvement, the reception will lack real atmosphere. They, like the couple, also need to be relaxed and engaged with the event. Now you know who your customers are, let’s turn our attention to what you should manage to enhance their total experience.

Manage the Noise

DJs can make or break any event. The best way to handle such a key person is with respect. Get to the venue early, introduce yourself as the MC and continue by saying “And your name is…” He will give you his name and from then on you should use it. Anytime he turns up the volume to assault levels, approach him and politely ask him to turn it down to a specific setting. Never abuse your power as the MC by ordering the DJ to lower the volume. He will resent your public criticism of his work and may even turn up the music in protest. Then you’ll have a hard time satisfying your audience and the couple. Feel free however to openly compliment the DJ on his choice of music. He will return the favour by cooperating with you.

Manage the Queue

Getting people to queue in an orderly fashion to serve themselves can be a daunting challenge. By the time food is ready, guests who also attended the religious or traditional service may have already have been sitting down for 3 or 4 hours and would have been very hungry. If you make the mistake of starting with guests at the back, those closest to the food tables will invite themselves into the queue, just like drivers who use the shoulder of our roads to beat traffic but rather end up creating even more congestion. The best way to manage a buffet queue is this: get the wedding party and VIPs to serve themselves first and then continue with those closest to the mouthwatering aromas. End with those at the back. I learned this trick from the Food and Beverage Manager at Golden Tulip Accra and it is foolproof. Use it.

Manage the Time

This aspect of a reception is entirely in your hands as the MC. Remember that the items on a printed brochure are just a guide for you. They are not cast in concrete. You shouldn’t have to wait 30 minutes to get started just because the designated person to for the opening prayer is caught up in traffic. Consult with the event planner, get a replacement and move on. Respect your customers by valuing their time. You shouldn’t punish those who arrived early by making them wait for the latecomers. To save time, you can run some items simultaneously. For example, the toast can be proposed right after the bride and groom have had their meal instead of waiting for all the guests to finish eating.

Manage the Mood

As the MC, you set the tone for the event and so you are responsible for the mood of all your guests. Remember you are running the event on behalf of the couple who are your hosts. Right at the beginning, tell the guests you are their personal customer service manager. Assure them that they are going to have an enjoyable and memorable time. Remind them that if they don’t get the service they expect, they should direct their complaints to you alone. Don’t leave the service providers out – they contribute to the mood as well. If you decide to invite guests to dinner 15 minutes earlier than scheduled, alert the caterer and waiters. Before the first dance, check with the DJ if he has cued the correct song. The bride won’t be amused if she is forced to dance to ‘Ashawo’ instead of ‘No-one Like You’. You will successfully manage the mood of an event when you anticipate all events and take nothing for granted.

Are you on MC duty this weekend? To minimize chaos and maximize satisfaction at your next wedding reception, here’s what you need to remember:

• Know your customers;
• Manage the noise;
• Manage the queue;
• Manage the time; and
• Manage the mood.

Pay attention to every one of these details and you will master the ceremony.

You can do it!

14/03/2013

Public Speaking - 5 Tips To Help You Face Any Crowd


Are you familiar with the feeling? Your heart pounds, your mouth feels dry and you start sweating even in an air-conditioned room. The MC has just announced your name and the audience is clapping enthusiastically as they wait for you to get up onto the stage. Instead of getting ready to speak, you feel as if you should just flee the scene. Like a condemned man whose time is up, you shuffle forward in extra slow motion. Questions are bouncing around frantically in your head. What at all was I thinking when I agreed to speak at this function? What if I don’t perform well? Can I face this crowd? What if they don’t like me?

Last week, I had the pleasure of emceeing the Grand Finale of the Springboard Road Show in Kumasi. Before the event, I tool part in a ‘Power Mentoring’ session with a couple of young people who wanted some pointers on career advancement and public speaking. A common concern was the question of nerves and how to summon enough courage to face a crowd. Let me share with you the tips I gave those young people I met in Kumasi. To recall them easily, just think of the word SMILE. Every letter stands for a particular method. Use them together and you will have a solid system for fighting nerves when you speak in public.

First of all, recognize that feeling nervous about speaking or any other important task is a perfectly normal reaction. Even the most experienced people feel like this. Some have been known to even throw up. The trick is to channel your nervousness into a productive output. Or to put it in another way, you may feel like you have butterflies in your stomach but the important thing is to make them fly in formation. But how do you do this?

1. See the end first

It is important to prepare your mind for success long before you get onto the stage. Visualizing a positive ending will give you a sense of control and imbue you with confidence. So hear the audience clapping warmly in appreciation of your speech. Imagine the other speakers congratulating you on a job well done. Feel the sense of pride you get from knowing that you have performed to the best of your ability. Repeat this visualization exercise just before you speak - it will help you take care of those nerves.

2. Meet and greet

A good way to face the crowd is to meet them before you speak. This means arriving at the venue early enough to mingle with the audience before the event actually begins. Smile, go up to an audience member and introduce yourself. Tell the person you are glad they came and assure them of a good time. Repeat the process for at least 5 other guests. When you do eventually get on the stage and scan the audience, you will recognize the familiar faces of people you met earlier. Suddenly the audience is no longer one mass of strangers. You ‘know’ some of them and that knowledge will help you get rid of your nerves. After all your ‘friends’ are in the audience and they are expecting you to do well. Why worry?

3. Interest with your intro

Imagine you attend a relationship seminar and a speaker opened her talk like this: “Would you like to know the two words that are absolutely needed to make your spouse happy?” Would you get up and leave? Or would you stay to find out what those two words are?

The first words that come out of your mouth should make your audience want to listen further. If that happens, good news - you have hooked them. If your initial words elicit a feeling of disinterest or boredom, you may tense up and get nervous. The way to control your nerves when you start speaking is to plan your introduction with care. It should be relevant, even thought-provoking if you want. Memorize it and deliver your lines with passion. Research has shown that audiences remember the beginning and end of a speech better than the body so treat the conclusion of your talk in similar fashion.

4. Look at them

Look at your audience when you are speaking and you can beat your nervousness. Most people will not know you are shy if you look them in the eye when you are talking to them. Here is how to do it. Scan the audience and locate your new friends from the ‘meet and greet’ zone. Imitate the action of a windscreen wiper and let your gaze sweep the room in an arc from left to right. If you did your ‘meet and greet’ well, those people seated around your new friends will get the impression that you are also connecting visually with them. They will most likely smile at you. Please smile back. You are facing the crowd, not out of nervousness but with confidence.

5. Enjoy yourself

As a speaker, take note of the following points:

• Know your audience – (gender, age, profession, religion) so you can tailor your remarks to the various people who make up our audience.
• Know yourself – only speak about things about which you have knowledge

Be serious about your preparation but don’t take yourself too seriously. If you stumble over certain parts of your speech, don’t worry – try to laugh it off and keep going. Engage your listeners – ask them questions. Your awareness of your audience and yourself will enable you to relax and enjoy the speech without leaving any room for nerves.

So there you have it. Those are your 5 pointers to help you face any crowd. Keep in mind that you have to practise constantly and then put the tips into action often. Nervousness is a natural phenomenon for speakers but you can control it if you remember to SMILE!

You can do it!

06/03/2013

"Where freedom is, there shall my country be."

--- Latin Wisdom

01/03/2013

How To Enjoy Speaking In Public by Kafui Dey


What thoughts run through your head when you are asked to make a speech?

“But am I even qualified at all to speak?”
“But I’m not a trained speaker!”
“But I’m scared! What if they boo me off the stage?”
“But I’m not confident enough.”
“But what if I run out of things to say?”
“But I’m too shy.”

These are all valid concerns. When I asked new students at a public speaking class whether they thought these problems could be overcome, they were emphatic. “No!” Do you feel the same way too? Let’s take these objections and turn them into 6 ways by which you can start enjoying your public speaking experience.


1. “But am I even qualified at all to speak?”

Last week I was chatting with a young man who was convinced he could not speak in public because he was shy. During our conversation, I found out that he was a musician who had been playing drums 4 hours daily for the past 10 years. That works out to over 10,000 hours of his life spent behind a drum kit. When I asked him whether he was confident enough to speak for just 5 minutes on his passion for music, he nodded enthusiastically. Why? Because he knew his subject inside out, he was more than qualified to talk about it (see point 5). What are you good at? What special knowledge do you have? If your life experiences, interests, training and education match a particular subject, you are qualified to speak to people who need that information. Wouldn’t you enjoy sharing it with them?


2. “But I’m not a trained speaker!”

Cristiano Ronaldo is probably one of the most technically gifted footballers of his generation. But he didn’t get to the top on pure talent alone – he developed himself through hours of training. As it is with sports, so it is with speaking. The surest way to become skilled is to get training. Today the options are many. If you have the resources, you can sign up for live seminars, attend a speaking course or get lessons from a private tutor. If you want free lessons, get onto the internet and take part in webinars or browse through the thousands of web pages and videos on public speaking. You can also learn by observing outstanding communicators (actors, broadcasters, ministers and politicians to name just a few) who make their living from speaking. How do they arrange their ideas? How do they move on the stage? How do they use words to paint verbal pictures? You can learn a lot by careful study. And as you begin to master the various components of communication, you will notice that you are more willing to speak at public events. You will be well on your way to enjoying the experience.


3. “But I’m scared! What if they boo me off the stage?”

Have you ever gone to the cinema expecting the movie to be boring? I doubt it. You sit in your seat, fix your eyes on the screen and look forward to being entertained. Most people will have similar expectations when you mount the stage to address them. They will want you to succeed. That means they are effectively on your side even before you open your mouth. But it also means that you are responsible when you spot them displaying signs of disinterest (see point 5 on how to deal with this). As you make your way to the stage, know that most people in the room are rooting for you. That assurance should calm any nerves you have and set the tone for a pleasurable speaking experience.


4. “But I’m not confident enough.”

I once saw a documentary where a wild goat was filmed bounding up an impossibly steep cliff at top speed. Never once did the beast lose its footing because it was naturally equipped to not just survive but thrive in this harsh environment. Similarly, a speaker who knows his or her subject is suitably equipped to step in front of room full of people and communicate without fear of slipping up. Confidence comes from certainty, from knowing where you stand. Be like the proverbial blind man who warns you that you’re the target of a stone he’s about to throw – know what you’re standing on. For you to get the confidence to speak in public, decide only to talk about things you know (see point 1). That is a surefire way to enjoy speaking in public. And it doesn’t matter whether the setting is a corporate or social one; if you don’t know, just say no to the invitation.


5. “But what if I run out of things to say?”

When you spot a driver’s mate clutching an empty gallon and jumping out of stalled trotro packed with irate passengers, you know the driver just ran out of fuel. As a speaker, you also risk running out of information - your fuel - if you fail to prepare well. And if your audience ends up being disappointed in your performance, who takes the responsibility? Of course, you do. A few questions are key when you are asked to give a talk: What makes you qualified to speak on the topic? Who will you be speaking to? What is the purpose of the talk? How long do you have on the stage? In answering these questions, you will be providing the fuel for your speech. Only after that can you get down to actually organizing the talk with an arresting introduction, a definite body and an upbeat closing statement. Approach your next public speaking assignment this way and you can be sure you won’t run out of things to say.


6. “But I’m too shy.”

When I asked a pastor how he overcame his shyness, this is what he said: “I decided to open my mouth and speak at every opportunity I got. Before long, my shyness had disappeared.” Perfect strategy. Decide to do something about your problem and then just do it.

Shyness is often a result of focusing too much on yourself. You worry that you may not make a good impression on others and so you withdraw into your own private world. You can conquer your shyness but you have to do it in small steps. Nobody gets up one fine morning to discover that they have suddenly acquired the ability to speak in public for thirty minutes and receive a standing ovation for their efforts. Start by deciding to be the first at a public forum to ask a question. Do that for a while and then graduate to making suggestions and contributions at meetings. Before long you will be looking forward to opportunities to speak in public and when you tell people how shy you were in the past, they will exclaim: “Who, you?”


For you to enjoy speaking in public, remember 6 things:
• Be qualified
• Get trained
• Expect to do well
• Know your subject inside out
• Prepare thoroughly; and
• Find opportunities to speak.


You really can learn to enjoy speaking in public. No ifs, no buts. And do remember to drop me a line on [email protected] after you’ve enjoyed the applause of a thankful audience!

Do you have a friend who is preparing for a presentation or a big speech? Feel free to share this article with them. For more articles on public speaking, please go to www.kafui-dey.blogspot.com

24/02/2013

"Criticism is easy but it does not create."

--- Nigerian Wisdom

28/01/2013

"Before starting to sing, a young bird will listen to the song of the old."
--- from

22/01/2013

"In the courtroom of the conscience, a case is always in progress."
--- Dutch Wisdom

16/01/2013

"He who is bitten by a snake fears a lizard."
--- Ugandan Wisom

20/12/2012

O COME ALL YE FAITHFUL is today's Christmas Caller Tune for your downloading pleasure :)

On MTN, text DL6661004 to 1355

On Vodafone, text 993493 to 134

On tiGO, text FNL to 556

On Airtel, text ACT 0136229 to 6060

05/12/2012

"Praise we the great of heart and mind
The singers sweetly gifted
Whose music like a mighty wind
The souls of men uplifted"

--- William G. Tarrant