How advertising jingles influence our purchasing choices (and why we can still sing them decades later)

Even if we haven’t heard them for many years, renowned songs often stay in our memory for a lifetime. We often remember every lyric to songs we learned as children or albums we loved as teenagers. But outside of the music we deliberately choose to listen to or learn, there is one type of music that seems to stick in our minds without any effort: jingles.

Jingles have a long history in the advertising industry. The first known radio jingle in the UK – Have you tried wheat? – was published in 1926. Since then, jingles have become a major part of our daily lives.

Last market research found that several of the ten most recognizable adult jingles in the UK date back three or even four decades. While comparison site Go Compare topped the list, Mars’ “work, rest and play” jingles (discontinued in the mid-1990s) and even Shake ‘n’ Vac’s “bring it fresh” (1980) are still on the minds of respondents.

So why do these songs stick in our minds? And how does this affect what we buy?

Jingles are memorable in different ways. Some advertisers apply familiar songs that are naturally easier to remember in a fresh context. For example, the Go Compare jingle takes the classic song “Over There” and combines it with a comical visual element in the form of a prominent opera singer. The “Just one Cornetto” campaign (launched in 1981) similarly takes a classic melody (O sole mio) and adapts it to sell ice cream.

Other jingles apply musical elements that turn them into “earworms” – melodies that get stuck in our heads whether we like it or not. IN tests By examining a vast collection of pop music, my team discovered that the songs that were likely to become earworms had upbeat tempos, often in a range that made you want to dance. Many jingles such as “Do the Shake ‘n’ Vac” and “I Feel Like Chicken Tonight” fit this pattern.

Different indeed tests found that when people move or sing along to catchy songs, they are more likely to later think of them as earworms. This also happens was found that having an earworm for a song you recently learned means you’ll remember it better later.

Lyrics can also play an crucial role in remembering a song or product. The alliterative text “Maybe it’s Maybelline” will make even a consumer who has never heard of this brand easily remember its name the next time he enters the store.

Links to other moments of our lives

It’s not just the features of the music that make jingles so memorable. Music is usually closely associated with the context in which we heard it. This means that it is often closely linked to autobiographical memories from our lives.

Hearing a melody from your childhood can therefore bring back memories not only of the song, but also of the living room you grew up in and the feeling of sitting in front of the TV with your family watching together. That’s why jingles can be a mighty nostalgia trigger.

Tests showed that the period when we are around 10-25 years aged is usually the best remembered. Musical signals also best evoke memories from this period, the so-called “memory tumor”.

According to this, same thing consumer research also revealed different jingle recognition rates among different age groups. For example, for millennials, McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it” was the second most popular jingle, and “Maybe it’s Maybelline” was the fifth most popular jingle.

Some brands clearly strive to combine this nostalgic element with following trends. Maybelline has recently reinvented his jinglefeaturing dance music elements intended to appeal to Gen Z audiences while retaining the characteristics of a classic ’90s jingle that connects millennials to their youth.

So does writing a memorable jingle facilitate sell your product? In tiny, yes. Tests which examined the choice of two products from the same category (e.g. cameras) showed that products associated with a familiar melody were more often chosen than products associated with an unknown melody.

However, liking music also independently influenced product choice. In particular, music that participants really disliked tended to discourage them from choosing the product, even if it was a familiar tune. This suggests that advertisers need to carefully consider the music preferences of their target market, rather than just writing catchy tunes.

Music remains strongly in our memories. The same features that facilitate us learn the alphabet through music or take us back to the first dance at our wedding also make us able to effortlessly remember which cleaning product promises it washing machines live longer.