Serial position, information density and speech rate in the recall of radio ads

Abstract

One of the main goals of commercial communication is the recall of the product or service in an attempt to promote the purchase. The recall of a radio ad depends on several factors affecting its structural characteristics. At the macro level, because most of the radio commercials take the format of an ad, inserted into commercial breaks, it is important to determine if the degree of recall of the content is influenced by the position of the ad into the advertising break. But, furthermore, the degree of recall of an ad can be influenced by other microstructural elements, such as its density of information or its speech rate. Therefore, this study is to analyze if a serial position effect is found in the recall of radio commercials and if this can be influenced by other characteristics of the ad. The findings of the study suggest that it is not so important the position of the ad in the radio advertising break as their microstructural characteristics. When an advertisement presents low information density and effective formal elements, as well as improving the recall level, promotes the emergence of a serial position effect. Instead, this phenomenon does not occur when the microstructural conditions are not favorable.