In your head, I’d like you to read the web address below:
Okay, now try this:
I don’t even need to say it do I? Deny it all you want, but you absolutely read the second one tunefully!
This little marketing trick is a ‘jingle’. The precise definition of a jingle is a short tune that is designed to be easily remembered. They use a technique called ‘hooking’ to make these short snippets of music stick in your head. Although there is an element of creativity in writing a world class jingle, I believe anyone can do it with my 3 golden rules. Whether you’re a MD of a successful business or you just love a cheeky tune – give it a go!
Rule 1 – Keep it short
Your jingle should be no more than 10 seconds, and no less than 5 seconds is where you need to be - long enough that we remember it, but short enough that it plays in a loop in our head.
Rule 2 – Pick clashing notes
The notes shouldn’t sound harmonic, they should sound somewhat messy. For music geeks, this will make total sense, but for people that are confused I’ll explain it simply: music notes, like people, get on better with some more than others. Songs we hear on the radio are made up of notes that fit together well to give us that fist pumping feeling.
Not jingles. Jingles are more like that one mate that whenever he gets a bit tipsy, thinks he’s a world class musician on the pub piano. He smacks the keys and the notes just don’t go. That’s what a jingle needs to be - notes that clash. Unfortunately in life, it’s the frustrating things that we tend to hold on to and in advertising, this is exactly what they utilise.
Rule 3 – Always use prosody
Prosody is a technique that you will find in every number 1 song ever released – if you look hard enough. Prosody is the difference between someone’s brain connecting with a song or it fading into the background. To explain, prosody is when the words and the meaning of the song are echoed in the music, e.g. happy words fit with happy sounding music etc.
Our jingle must follow this rule exactly. Think about what we want to get out of the jingle? We want people to remember our brand. So our message needs to be clear and concise. The music in turn will follow this by a simple, jingle technique – for every new syllable, we get a new (clashing) note.
