Oral Communication | A marketing foe? People’s friend?

A communicative act is predominantly oral. Languages exist as a means of spoken expression. They have been adapted to written formats that transcend their original use. But they remain a living act of interlinguistic expression in real phonetic contexts. So, yes, oral communication does not strictly belong in the digital world. Even so, content marketing has learned to adapt orality to create smart strategies.

In ancient times, even before the first written documents that we now call literature, people communicated exclusively orally. Oral communication was the primary means of conveying information. For many centuries, written texts have been the primary means of transmitting messages. But with digital media, this content paradigm shifted.

There is, again, a predominance of oral means of communication. This is what I will talk about in this article. I’ll mention why there is a special interest in oral communications in digital marketing.

What would oral communication be in digital marketing?

Oral communication in digital strategies refers to conveying a message through digital media using essentially oral channels. In other words, we do not only communicate through text messages, tweets, or email advertisements. We utilize oral media to target specific audiences. These include video presentations, podcasts, audio, and music.

Nowadays, people pay more attention to spoken messages (usually through videos). There is a kind of distracted attention that ignores the written text and finds refuge in multimedia content.

This strategy is used to make a digital marketing campaign effective for SEO (in terms of reactions and traction) and user engagement. Thanks to the high level of interactivity that oral messages generate in marketing, this type of campaign has gained prominence. Reading has become only a subsidiary tool in digital approaches.

Do we pay attention to commercials, to ads? Do we keep listening to the radio, or is it just noise filling an awkward silence? Here, speech sometimes acts as a collective mediator. It says things because things need to be said; because these stages of late capitalism demand a constant, uninterrupted flow of content. A TV channel always has to show something; a social media platform always has to post something; a radio station is always telling us something.

Visual communications and social impact

Certainly, the once-excessive amount of content produced and consumed in social networks stimulates and supports the need for oral production channels. They reply to audience targeting, and they present a demand from the industry.

In a way, it is even consistent with our species’ nature. We are individuals who speak and communicate orally. That might explain why:

• We use generative AI language models to have them narrate their results to us.
• Social media platforms that prioritize video content have a massive audience and growing popularity.
• Tools for producing written content also include voice assistance.
• Music is a dominant creative resource that is easily accessible digitally.

These days, visual communications encompass all aspects of digital production. Digital marketing relies heavily on interactions and reactions. Messages are crucial to creating an effective advertising campaign that improves search engine optimization and brings traceable results. Therefore, a suitable piece of media must be made for this purpose. In this case, spoken messages, people saying things, have proven to be the mandatory tool to achieve this.

Social media algorithms prioritize reels and videos for communicating a message. Even in messaging channels, voice messages have also been prioritized for transmitting a message. It might seem ironic to say that the oral takes precedence over the visual in our times. 

With this statement, I am not saying that the visual is not a priority in the way we consume (because it is). Instead, I want to reaffirm that oral communication, which involves speaking, has a greater impact on the things we see in these times of high digital connectivity and social media optimization.

Oral communication in perspective

Social networks bear much of the responsibility for this. When the first version of the internet emerged in Web 1.0, the hegemonic medium for communication was text. There were chats, forums, documents, and blogs, where we shared our messages. But this has changed.

Today, social media platforms have significantly influenced our perceptions. Now we are more susceptible to being informed through media like Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. A kind of orality strongly influences all of them.

But orality and its primacy are not new. It has been brewing for some years now. Television and radio have been the primary sources of information. While newspapers and magazines have also gained some popularity, they have been more specialized. This is still partly the case. Facing that scenario, those who pay attention to TV or radio are now new, more limited audiences.

And this problem escalates. Walter Ong, in Communication, Technology and Thoughts, comments that orality in our times stems from an ancient tradition. Our verbal capacities are linked to an oral character. We like to speak, to say, to comment, and the vehicle in which we transmit information only influences how we transmit it. However, talking or saying things orally is intrinsic to both us as individuals and to our culture.

It offers a certain level of literacy in orality. It lends a certain aesthetic and rhythm to the way we say things. This new level of orality offers a fresh perspective (unfortunately, from the standpoint of mass production and sales) on oral production. It gives us a structured way to become proficient in how we say things with words.

The comeback of oral tradition?

Hardly so. At times, the voice seems to take a back seat to other elements. This spoken communication is complemented by music, by people performing actions in a video, or by AI narrating the results of prompts. Yet the impact of spoken communication on contemporary digital production is undeniable.

Not necessarily. It remains a supplement, a support, an add-on. Our digital platforms are still dominated by text. There is indeed an empire of orality in digital media. Also, not all media allow for this type of messaging. For example, email marketing via LinkedIn InMail is not the primary method.

Behind the irony of the format I use to communicate—writing (because I like it, because it amuses me)—I do not deny the profound value of oral communication. Although it is a format prone to being forgotten, it remains a way of recreating the most human aspect of our communication system.

In my marketing campaigns, I place strong emphasis on formats that rely on spoken words because of their high impact on results. However, the volatility of the creative process itself makes it difficult to measure, critique, or analyze. But there is something poetic, yet cruel, about it that I really enjoy in any marketing creative process.