I was at a conference last week. There were a lot of great speakers and presentations, mainly about media and social networking. It wasn’t revolutionary for me, but it brought up a few issues that made me think about radio, and of course my personal passion that is radio advertising. One of the useful tools they showed us was http://www.twitterfall.com. At this website you can put in key words and see who is talking about what. Of course I put in “radio advertising”. What I discovered was a few professionals I hadn’t connected with, a few individuals talking about ads they liked, and a few people ranting about how much they HATE radio advertising.
It’s interesting to find people with polar passions, but the majority of people just don’t express an opinion. When you’re in the business you think the listener should be interested in DAB, in the radio station’s website, in the fact that you’ve won a Sony Award, a New York Festival Award or an Aquiva Gong. But people care about radio, like they care about their toaster.
What people WANT is the piping hot and buttery serving of entertainment and the tasty spread of news and information. They are not bothered HOW it’s delivered (why should I get a digital radio when my FM set works just fine?) And for local radio it seems like they don’t really mind where it comes from (according to the latest RAJAR statistics the centralized and homogenized radio groups are doing very well and gaining audience.. their Local FM Brand doesn’t mean as much to them as it does to a few radio enthusiasts bemoaning on bulletin boards ). They don’t want ads that get in the way of their entertainment but will tolerate a certain degree of interruption because they understand that it’s the price to hear their favourite song, or a traffic update. Unlike me, the listener does not TURN UP the radio when an ad break comes along.Or do they?
It’s the job of the advertising to reach those people who’s problems can be solved by your product or service. That problem can be a small one like “I don’t know where to take my partner for dinner at the weekend” to big ones like “I’m drowning in debt and I don’t know where to turn”
The way to get people to turn up, or at least to tune in, is to talk to them in a way that relates to their lives. Explain the problem with empathy, and give a clear solution. What do you want me to do? Why Should I?
People don’t CARE about your business… but they may care about what your business or service can do to help them in their every day lives. Why should they care if you’ve been in business for 120 years. Why should they care if you have 100 outlets (they MAY care that there is one convenient for them) they probably don’t even care that you have a wesite, facebook page or twitter address.
When you advertise, take a step out of your little world… and try to think why people should do business with you.