Do Your Ads Talk Too Fast To Your Audio Audience?

ABSTRACT

Speech rate plays a critical role in understanding speech and therefore in advertising messages. Announcers tend to speak fast in radio and television commercials. Can this pace affect consumers9 cognitive processing? This study analyzes the effects of different speech rates (160, 180, and 200 words per minute) on the effectiveness of commercials, physiological arousal and attention, emotional valence, and recall and recognition of information with respect to audio advertisements. The results showed that speech rate influenced cognitive processing and modified the consumer9s physiological response. The commercials at a moderate rate—180 words per minute—achieved the best results. These findings suggest that the announcer9s rate should be adjusted to achieve the best consumer information processing.