Neil Hedley’s book (to give it’s full title) “Copywriting 101 What Was That Number Again – Crimes against Advertising and How to Prevent Them” is a great short read.
Brief and to the point, Neil hits the nail on the head about so many areas of radio advertising that it is hard to just pick a few to talk about here. So I will instead point out the 2 bits that I rushed out to share with the sales team at the station I work at…
- Direct Response ads (pages 56 to 60) – often referred to as radio coupons – “mention this ad and get X for a discount” – Neil’s take on it had me running to our sales team and saying to them – you have GOT to read this and have this response ready to roll when a client wants to do it! They did and it paid off!
- Chapter 17 – the whole chapter is “How To Write Funny Commercials” and the content of the chapter “DON’T” – why did I tell my sales team about this – because it seems that every client want’s a ‘funny ad’. But what is funny to them, won’t be funny to everyone else, and when you have heard that ad 3 times in a day – then it is no longer funny. So it’s simple – don’t do it – unless you are a comedian, can hit the middle of the road comedy easily, and are prepared for a LOT of copy changes (every day!)
My recommendation – get yourself a copy of Neil’s book, have a read through and besides agreeing with him on a lot of the topics, you may discover a solution or two along the way to scripts, clients and even sales issues.
“Copywriting 101 What Was That Number Again – Crimes against Advertising and How to Prevent Them” by Neil Hedley – is a recommended read!
