Some people might argue that all radio ads should be done in a passive voice – others in an aggressive one – and over the past couple of weeks I have been taking a closer look at ALL of the ad copy I have written and taken note of the results of my own writing.
I have written 130 radio scripts in the past 3 weeks – 103 of them went to air (those that didn’t were demo scripts) But as I wrote them during this time – I took note of what their ‘voice style’ was.
I justified the voice style as follows:
An aggressive voice script was one who’s first line was either ‘active’ or suggesting action, talking with urgency, or excitement, or setting a scene.
A passive voice script was based on the first line of the script being a generic read style or containing no action.
I tried to narrow down each script (even the creative ones, promos, and credit liners) into only those 2 categories. Sometimes this was hard as the action didn’t start until the 2nd or third line – but to fit into my survey – I based it on the first line only.
There were 41 Passive style scripts, 89 aggressive scripts – these are playing across 8 stations (yes I write for 2 in my day to day job, but I also freelance for other radio stations in other countries).
The aggressive scripts were mostly hard sell, call to action campaigns, some were actually my creative scripts – as clients wanted something alone the lines of an argument, or similar style scene.
What I discovered was that, in my own writing, an aggressive voice could come across as pushy or confrontational, which could have turned off listeners and make them less likely to engage with the commercial.
I was hyper aware that aggressive language may also make the commercial sound insincere or gimmicky.
But any type of action negated this and drove creative action or storytelling in a better way. I was tending more and more towards an action oriented script, connecting with an emotion or a scene first.
Over-all this was an interesting exercise, and helped to flex my writing muscles – I can highly recommend doing this to any radio copywriter as you may also discover some of the crutches that you write under.
Yes, I agree that it is best to use a clear, concise, and engaging active voice when writing a radio commercial, having some action or ‘aggressive nature’ to it will make the script stand out and achieve better results for a client.
Capturing listener’s attention, conveying the message effectively, and leave a lasting impression on the audience by using an ‘aggressive’ or ‘active’ first line… this is going to get better results for your client.
And in my book – this is always a good thing to do.
