I was recently chatting to a new business owner (they are a new to radio, but the business has been advertising for years with us) about their bank of generic spots that we had ready to roll – they didn’t know what I was talking about and I thought that maybe you might not know about this too – so here we go:
We have on file, and ready to roll several scripts for this client’s business – they include: 1 Generic ad which runs all the time – 4 live reads, 4 pre-produced 30 second commercials and 1×60 second commercial that is produced.
What are they?
They are all pre-set spots that, if we are in the right circumstances, we can push to play at a moments notice.
If the weather conditions turn too hot – we run spot 2 – turn cold – we run spot 3 – suddenly it’s a heatwave, run spot 4, etc.
We have a generic commercial that runs all of the time – but we can replace it at anytime with the catalogue of spots – when needed.
We do make sure that we get client permission to roll them – we don’t just do it because the weather turns nasty – so it requires the sales rep and traffic be ready to make changes – but we essentially have these spots ‘in the bank’.
I was thinking about these spots the other day, and how they came about.
We had a hire company that was advertising with us – and they wanted some generic spots ready to go if there was a natural disaster (to advertise their generators), or it got too hot (portable air-conditioners) and so on, and so forth.
It was a great idea – and we had a sales rep tell their other client about this idea saying that it would be good for them to do the same for their business – they liked it and locked away those scripts.
These special spots have been the same for the past 5 years – and all they do is remind the listener of the clients business name, what they have ready to go, and how to contact them – that’s it – no prices, no fluff – just the facts – but it takes a sale rep who is on top of what is happening to make sure that the client is contacted and aware enough to give the traffic department a heads up to change the ads.
Have a look through your client list and see if you have any clients who could do with some generic spots that are ‘special’ enough for certain circumstances.
Make the scripts and stand by to show how reactive radio can be to what is happening in the world.
