I have been on a bit of a downer this week about radio ads – I basically heard some of the worst ads EVER on Monday, and it sent me into a bit of a spin about how bad some ads can be.
It got me thinking about our industry and why there are bad ads – we’ve all made them – and some brilliant ads – we’ve all made them too.
I am also aware that we might think an ad is terrible, but a client can love it.
Attentively we can fall in love with our own creations, and they can totally suck the air time off the radio.
So why? How and What are the biggest problems with radio ads – let me start with:
1. Lack of Creativity: Many radio commercials follow a similar formula and lack creativity, which can make them forgettable and ineffective. For example – do they follow the same formula or style? Then they suck! I had a listen to a couple of ads the other day, made over several years, and damn it – if they didn’t follow the same formula and were for competing business categories – so that was a HUGE problem, I approached the client who was currently advertising and said that we needed to change, and why – he totally understood and we got right to it.
2. Poor Production Quality: Poorly produced commercials can be distracting or irritating to the listener, making it harder to deliver the intended message. Be it from:
a) using the same voices in every single commercial on a station (you know the ones where you tune in to an ad break and you can’t tell when one commercial ends and the next starts) well that’s a HUGE problem – industry wide. I have tried and tried to advocate using multiple sources for voices, multiple companies and even voices from outside our country (we are a multi-cultural world, so why not use different nationalities on voices too?) but I always get shot down with this one.
b) using the same sound effects in every other commercial (I remember when the record scratch effect was once in every single ad in a commercial break at a metro market) we need to do this type of thing differently.
c) using the same EQ settings and reverb settings – producers need to lift their game with this – maybe some direction in the script would help, eg: make this voice brighter, that one slightly muffled, pitch this one up, etc.
3. Lack of Attention: Radio commercials have a limited time to capture the listener’s attention, and if they fail to do so, the listener may tune out or change the station. This also means that every commercial shouldn’t have an attention getting sound effect at the start of it – that’s REALLY annoying. We need to find a point of difference and make the story be already underway before we join it.
4. Overcrowding: Radio commercials are often played back-to-back, which can lead to overcrowding and reduce the impact of each commercial. Commercial breaks of more than 5 commercials annoy me, massively, less than 4 and I wonder what is going on – and it doesn’t matter if they are different lengths or not – 5 just feels right to me – it’s a pity I can’t convince our traffic and on-air departments of this.
5. Ineffective Targeting: If the commercial is not targeted to the right audience, it may fail to resonate with the listener and result in low engagement. I have heard young kids voices on commercials trying to sell car servicing – what? Older voices for childcare services – pick the right voice, the right words and the right tone to suit your target audience – explain in detail to your client why you have chosen to write a script like this.
6. Repetition: While repetition can be effective, playing the same commercial too frequently can lead to listener fatigue and reduce its impact. I am a BIG believer in having 2 or more scripts for any one campaign – and they can be the same or different lengths, continuing the story or top and tail an ad break – radio is creative – let’s be creative with what we produce – instead of playing the same badly produced, badly voiced and badly written commercial over, and over again day in day out for months!
7. Insufficient Call to Action: If the commercial does not provide a clear and compelling call to action, the listener is not going to take the initiative. This is not a joke – I have heard and written CTA ads which have made phones ring hot – lines form at the doors when a business opens, and have products sold out and the ads need to be pulled as there is no more stock – so why is it that a client wants to weaken your message with a heap of unnecessary fluff? In my experience it’s because they are listening to the wrong people. Listen to those who write the ads and who have experience in our medium – we know what works, and what doesn’t. Someone who does social media has no idea how radio works – and I have said this about 30 times this year alone to clients.
8. Inability to Measure Results: Unlike digital advertising, it can be difficult to measure the impact of radio commercials, making it hard to optimize campaigns for maximum effectiveness. Yes we acknowledge this is a fact – but there are ways to measure. We had one client who advertised on socials, website, google, radio and newspaper – over 6 months she measured every single customer who came in the door, where they had seen or heard ads, they even had a couple of fake options in there (TV – they never had advertised on TV) and the results – RADIO won out with 90% of people hearing their campaigns – Newspaper, less than 15%, online, google search 20%, website 5% and socials 10% – so she cancelled her newspaper and moved that money to radio – as a result WAY more business, and she has had to hire more people. If you have a client who doesn’t know how to measure – show them how – the industry and your sales figures will thankyou.
So yes – I have had a rant, and as i step off my soapbox?
I ask you – are you doing any of the above at your station?
Are you doing anything to fix it?
If not, why not?
