Page 37 - Adnews Magazine January 2022

Bart Pawlak, executive creative director at 303MullenLowe, also agrees that creative for audio platforms can be improved across the industry.
“I’d say audio-only creative has suffered somewhat from the autom- atisation of the media landscape and the many alluring options that now subdivide a brand’s attention and marketing budget,” Pawlak says.
“It could be a case of idealising the past, but it seems to me that we used to sweat the ideas and the scripts a lot more when radio, as an example, was one of only a few communication options. And brands were more willing to invest in bringing it to life in a genuinely engaging way.”
Pawlak argues that brands should be investing more than just ad dollars in their audio creative campaigns.
“Time, money, thought, courage. When it comes to creative for audio, I feel that too often brands are under-investing across all these parame- ters, these days,” he says.
“Audio-only is approached as an afterthought. A chance to create some ‘matching luggage’, by simply copying and pasting the VO from the TV,
and then cluttering it up a little fur- ther with those proof-points and additional brand mentions that wouldn’t fit anywhere else. It’s a purely functional approach that often squanders the opportunity to engage consumers’ imaginations, like with no other medium and con- nect on an emotional level, which we know is far more potent than a purely rational one ever will be.
“Sonic branding? A genuinely immersive utilisation of podcasts? Theatre of the mind? These are things that, sadly, fall by the way- side when what remains of a
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