Some really nice thoughts on ad breaks on radio stations from John Evington here.
I worked under John many many years ago (about 23 years ago) in Stoke on Trent UK. He knows his stuff! I’ll remind him sometime of the day he voiced an ad for me… promoting the Bolshoi Ballet…. and mentioning some of those Russian dancers by name.
The dapper John Evington
Recently I had a mail from a former colleague from way back in the day. He is high up in sales for a radio group. I asked him who did his creative and he told me they use external production houses…. “It’s MUCH cheaper” he told me.
Mmmm. Lets look at that. A few years ago I was working as a freelancer at a radio station and we went out to see a client. We took a brief. Nothing different to what you may have to do with an external production house. The sales person kind of expected that the client would buy one ad to run on her station for a month. But we took more briefs, wrote around a dozen ads, and presented them to the client. We developed the relationship with that client, honed and worked on the creative and then they dropped the bombshell. They loved them so much wanted to run all the ads, in all the areas where they were launching their product. Suddenly an order that was maybe ten thousand pounds because hundreds of thousands. Creative and Sales working together can get clients to spend that would not have done so, it increases spend… it MORE than justifies having a Creative on the team…. if IF you do it right. IF you don’t see a writer as just a factory to make ads. In 2 visits I justified the salary of a Creative for the next 20 years. One Creative Consultant I know went into a radio station and worked out that every year the Creative Team added around a million pounds to the station that they would not have written without the onsite writers. I’m not sure HOW he worked it out, but I can believe it.
The UKRD Group has caught on to this and have employed Mike Bersin, putting site writers into their radio stations. Writers who can write multiple ad campaigns, who can present creative with confidence, and who have a wealth or radio experience. There are some big names and people who I hugely respect working at some UKRD stations now. I wish them well with it. They deserve to do big things.
As for production houses, there’s still a need for them. Healthy competition is a good thing. Agencies have choice, clients have choice and smaller stations that cant afford a production facility have an option. But if you want to see growth in sales, get a writer!
How many writers? Good question. Wouldn’t it be interesting if every sales person had a dedicated creative? I can only dream.
For more on Mike Bersin and his methods for increased Radio Station revenues, read these books!
The Creative Led Sell: The Definitive Guide to the Easiest and Most Effective Way to Sell Radio Advertising
Taking the Brief: A Simple Guide to Getting Great Briefs for Ads That Will Make the Client Money
Make More Money: A Business Users Guide to Creating Radio Ads That Increase Sales, Turnover and Profit.
L to R Simon Rushton, Emily Morris, Mike Bersin and Graham Elliott.
Dan O’Day is a great, reasoned, sensible thinker on radio advertising. He developed the Certified Professional Commercial Copywriter course for the RAB in the USA (I was the first person to qualify outside of Texas!!)
Here are some of his wise words… Click here.
Dan O’Day
Most radio stations in the world it’s the Breakfast show that is the flag ship and attracts the most listeners. This is where advertisers, naturally, want to focus their effort. Understandably. But lets break it down a little further. Here’s my typical morning:-
5.45am Wake up
6am into the kitchen turn the radio on while I prepare my breakfast.
6.30am hit the shower and get dressed for work.
7am Catch some TV news
7.45am on the motorbike to work (no radio)
8:05 at my desk with a cup of fruit tea… catching up on mails etc.
Now imagine if the peak of breakfast show listening is at 07:55 and you place your spot there, every day…. 07:55… then every day you would miss me! I will never hear your spot. The same is true of other people’s listening habits across the whole day. Although you want to hit the maximum people the maximum number of times, you don’t do that by JUST hitting the peaks!
So make sure your activity is across the day, and different times during those hours.
Ask your Sales Person for an Optimum Effective Schedule! Have a look here.
Of course I have an issue with the number of times people have to hear an ad to respond… since 3.5, or 3.25 or 4 are just made up numbers! But there is a general feel that, with a good offer, you start to get a good response when the OTH hits about 4 or 5. (Which is why it’s NOT good advertising to be on for just a week!
You HELP by making sure your spot ads tell people what you want them to do, and gives them a really good reason to do it!!
A tranny. The radio, not the boy.
I still listen to a lot of UK radio. It’s not much different to radio here.
And something that I notice about a lot of radio ads…a LOT… say things that you don’t have to say.
Let me explain.
“Come to our open day on Friday the 31st of October 2013”
Oh, I’m so glad you said 2013. I thought it might be October NEXT year. Or perhaps I’d missed it! Come on! You can drop the 2013.
“Come to our store and buy your next pair of shoes from Simon’s Shoes… or call 0787 386 017”
I’ve already written why phone numbers are a waste of time… because no one remembers them. They’re also a waste of time if people don’t buy your product or service over the phone!
www dot? Really?
“Simon’s Rib Restaurant… open every day from 12 ’til 3 and evenings 7 ’til 11.”
Cool, so you’ve told me your open when people want to eat. Don’t waste your time, tell me why my lunch break should be spent at Simon’s Rib Restaurant! Tell me, for example, I can download a free desert voucher… and put the opening hours on THAT if you must!
If you can reasonably expect the listener to fill in these details, then spend the time you’ve saved to entice the listener into doing BUSINESS with the advertiser.
The client is INSISTING on two phone numbers in their 20 second ad.
Because they are putting 2 phone number in, the ad will not work for them and they will never use our stations again.
The Sales exec is terrified of losing the sale.
Other Radio Stations apparently will take the money.
Those stations will get one sale and never see that client again. The problem is it wont be those stations that get the blame… it will be “radio”. It seems easier to say to the client… OK….. whatever you want. But sometimes we need to walk away. Especially from the client who will blackmail the sales person over money, threaten to use other stations, generally throw their toys out of the pram.
If I went to a doctor and asked him to give me different drugs to the one he prescribed, I am pretty sure he wouldn’t do it. Even if I told him that I would go elsewhere where they WOULD give me the drugs and that he’d lose me as a patient.
In radio sales there is a duty to take care of the client’s money because it is an investment. We’re like investment bankers! (OK that’s a pretty poor choice of comparison) The point is we have to show clients the right way to spend their money and when we KNOW they’re wasting it we need to walk away. I’m not saying we slam the door behind us… we want the client, we want their money… but not at ANY COST. We also want their money long term, not just for the one off sale. We want their business to grow as a result of their advertising and for them to spend MORE money with us as a station.
Sales People you need several things:-
• You need to be trusted as someone who gives good advice
• You need training, to read books and do courses in Radio Sales.
• You need to understand the clients business, and show them you understand yours.
• You need to know the name of your afternoon presenter. Really, you should know the product!
• You should work closely with the client to get a good brief.
• You need great Creatives to write you effective radio advertising.
• You need courage and integrity.
It’s the client on the phone. They got me to record the ad on their answer machine. Me voicing it and doing the characters over the phone. They played it to their kids and they didn’t like it. It’s good to know that their radio advertising decisions are based on the reaction of a 6 year old kid. Does a 6 year old buy conservatories?
I’m constantly amazed how clients judge their advertising. Gut feeling is great. But the way you judge it is to go back to the brief and see if it answers it. Does it tell people what you want them to do? Does it give them a great reason to do it. I remember some ads from the 1990s by a double glazing company. They created amazing top of mind awareness, in the beginning. Then they gradually started to irritate people. We tried to talk to them about running some ads with actual reasons to buy from them…but we were ignored. After an amazing flash of “awareness” for a couple of years the company eventually went bust. EVERYONE knew them. No one wanted to buy from them.
Ads should not be some kind of ego trip for the owner of the business who wants to hear his own voice on the radio.
Ads should not be just to entertain. (although they CAN entertain)
Ads should not be a platform for the writer to show how wacky and creative he is.
Ads should not be done just to win awards (although the best ones CAN win awards).
Ads are not about awareness or image (that is something that happens anyway, be true to brand… but be more!)
Judge an ad on whether it tells people what it wants them to do in relation to the client and gives them a really good reason to do it. Ads SELL.
If there’s nothing to SELL (and telling people you DO something… like “I sell carpets” is not selling) then don’t judge the ad, judge your brief!
The sales exec walks into the office.
“Have you got an idea for a Plumber?”
This time it’s Plumber… but equally she could have  inserted Double Glazing Company, Solicitor, Carpet Shop, Furniture Shop etc.
An idea about what?
Many sales people have a mysterious understanding of the creative process. We actually need to have an idea about what we’re supposed to have an idea about. That’s what the brief is.
I could have a plumber joke in my head. I could have an idea about dancing lemurs in a bathtub. I could have an idea of people playing music using bathroom fittings… BUT they are all irrelevant if they don’t help the client to communicate THEIR message.
Give me the brief and I will give you the ideas.
Oh and the more time you give me the more ideas I may be able to generate. More ideas = more reasons to advertise = easier sales.
Dancing Lemur (not in a bath, that would just be silly)
Click Here to Hire Me
I can also help if you need someone to produce your radio commercial, with contacts around the UK.
Mostly I bite my tongue…. but what I WANT to say sometimes….
Dear client….
I spent three years at University learning techniques of radio production. My first job was with the leading radio station creative department at the time, where I learned from some of the top names in Radio Advertising then and still today. My ads were ripped apart and reconstructed by the best. I’ve gone on to work with learn from and mentor some of the UK’s biggest talents in Radio Advertising I’ve spent the last 23 years reading everything I can find on Radio Advertising and studying technique and seeing what ads work and don’t work. I have a few awards, and qualifications from the USA and Canada in copy writing for radio advertising and radio sales. I go in reading, listening researching and looking at how I can grown and know more. I make my best effort to write copy that will help clients meet their objectives, I love my job and love hearing my work on air… I love feedback from happy clients and relish the challenge of those that are not happy with their results (few and far between if they take my advice).
But yer… if you want to write your own ad… feel free. 🙂
rushtononradio 