Radio Adverts

When researching media magazine i came across this article about how to make radio adverts. I found it useful because this will help me understand a main part of our coursework which i will be focusing on. I have understood that it is cheap to do but you have to be commissioned to produce a radio advert.

How to … make radio ads
It’s cheap, it’s (relatively) foolproof and you can let your imagination run wild with it. Radio is a fantastically flexible medium, and great fun to produce – so why aren’t more of you producing it? Lecturer and examiner Clive Edwards gives you the lowdown on what makes a good radio ad.

Try this for a party game, with a group of friends.

You all need a piece of paper, a pencil, and no conferring until you have written down your decision.

You have been commissioned to produce a radio advertisement for a new car. You want to stress that this is a family car. Its biggest selling point? Its safety features. This car is safe. It will protect you; care for you.

You need a voice over. It must be a voice that is reassuring. It oozes sincerity. Honesty. Integrity. Trust.

Now of all the teachers in your school or college, whose voice would you use for this voice-over?

Write down the name of the chosen one. When you’ve all finished, compare notes.

Perhaps you’ll all agree. But I doubt it. Some will find it impossible to separate the actual voice from other points about the person. Such as the physical appearance, his/her habits, character, recent history, teaching style …

You can carry on the game with other scenarios. Whose voice would you use to advertise: the sexiness of a new perfume for men and women; or the latest exciting, spine -chilling ride at Alton Towers; or a new magazine encouraging old people to stay active, and so on …

Remember – it must be about voice. Not personality. Nor history. Nor habits. Nor style. Just voice.

The important thing about making a radio ad is that it depends entirely on sound and script. Nothing more. People are going to listen to this voice and they are going to build a picture, instantly, of the person who speaks the words.

Radio: an imaginary world

If you are writing a radio ad, you have a licence to imagine, and to get your listeners to imagine …, well …, anything you like, and anywhere you like. Barbados, France, the countryside, a busy street, the moon, a swamp …

So, how to get started. All you need are:

• the voices

• the script

• a PC

• a microphone

• the sound effects CD that you can get from any music store

• and a software package like Cakewalk, Cool edit pro, Cubase.

The script

Clients pay for advertising time in 10 second bursts. Radio ads are usually 30 seconds or 40 seconds long – and you can’t fit much into 40 seconds. So you need to bear in mind everything your dear old English teacher told you. One of mine once said that prose is ‘words in the best order’; poetry is ‘the best words in the best order’. I think she cribbed that from someone famous. Well, it’s good advice for the copywriters of radio ads – the creative team, as they are called in most commercial radio stations. And by the way, they are treated with utmost respect. Commercial radio depends on these modern-day poets for their income.

Sid Pettit works for BRMB in Birmingham, part of the Capital Radio group. Her advice is: ‘Don’t go for the hard sell. Single voice-over ads using some bloke trying to fit a load of information into a small space just irritate the listener. They will flick stations.’ Exactly what the radio station doesn’t want. Radio stations know they are at their most vulnerable to station-flicking during news breaks and commercial breaks. So it pays to keep the ad entertaining. It satisfies your client, and your listeners.

Go for scenarios, situations, imaginary ones,’ says Sid. ‘It’s theatre of the mind. Radio is a noisy market-place. You’ve got to attract their attention. But don’t do it by shouting at them.’

Hmmm. This doesn’t sound easy. Another phone call. This time to Dave Murphy, down the road (literally) from BRMB, at Heart/Galaxy FM – part of the Chrysalis Radio Group.

‘The best commercials on radio,’ he says, ‘avoid clichés. And they don’t try to do too much. Just focus on a single idea. One aspect of the commodity you are trying to sell.’

I asked him for an example. A slight pause. He was asked to write an advert for a carpet company in the Midlands. As usual with carpet sellers, they were having a half-price sale. How do you make that memorable? Everyone is having a half-price sale.

Dave came out with an ad something like this:

If you come and get your carpet from xxxx we can give you floor covering for half the price. Or you can buy a house twice the size to fit it all in.

People actually phoned the carpet shop and asked them about the bigger houses they were selling with their carpets!

Sid Pettit remembers one of her favourites. The hi-fi company Bose wanted a radio ad for their new, tiny, ‘virtually invisible’ speakers. Now Bose have plenty of qualities. But she knew that the ad should focus on one aspect only. So, it went something like this:

Customer: Good morning, I’d like not to see some of your Bose virtually invisible speakers.

Assistant: Certainly, sir. Here they aren’t.

Simple. Effective. Makes the point. Witty. Doesn’t rely on clichés.

Footfall is what the radio ads are looking for. Not sales. A radio ad will probably not convince someone to buy something. Not on its own. But it will create an interest. It will create footfall. People will go to the shop and look. Or phone.

The call to action

And that’s another important element of a radio ad: The Call to Action. Don’t just tell them about what you’re selling. Get the listener to do something. An action. Like ‘call us now on …’ or ‘look up our website on …’ or ‘visit us today at …’

Dave Murphy recalls one of his most difficult radio ad projects. It was for a funeral director. They wanted an ad that encouraged people to open an account that would pay for their own funeral. I grunted my distaste down the phone. ‘No, there was no problem in that,’ said Dave. It was the fact that they insisted that he mentioned in the ad that all new customers would get a free Teasmade into the bargain. A free Teasmade to help you wake up in the morning, and a down payment on a coffin just don’t go together too well.

Sid recalled her favourite horror story – the worst script ever. A client insisted on writing his own script. It’s not unusual for clients to think that they can write scripts as well as the professionals. It’s one of those jobs that looks easy until you have a go. So, it’s for the day of the funeral of a famous and loved royal person. The advert begins like this:

(Sombre voice, slow) Blank Blank (Shop) and its staff would like to express our deepest condolences to the Royal family on the sad occasion of the funeral of xxxxxxxx . As a mark of respect, the shop will be closed throughout the day on Thursday. (Upbeat music, cheerful voice) But we’ll be open again on Friday with lots of special offers, bargains galore and free gifts …

Well, that’s a few words on script. Now here’s the Call To Action. Have a go at writing one. And have a go at that party game, with the voices.

The editing? That’s another issue. One thing at a time. Keep it simple. Don’t try to do too much in one short ad. Shut up, Clive. Let them get back to the music.
Clive Edwards

This article first appeared in MediaMagazine 1, September 2002