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MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: T-Mobile Has A Communication Problem

First, the radio commercial.

 

Now that you’ve listened to it, make a list of every picture you recall seeing in your mind’s eye.

Seriously. Take just a moment to jot down whatever pictures you recall making during that spot.

Here’s what I recall:

Two guys talking

A car

The Bahamas

I admit I cheated: I had to make myself listen two additional times, because my mind kept finding other, more interesting things to pay attention to.

Most radio audience members, of course, aren’t similarly motivated to force themselves to listen to an advertisement.

How about you? Perhaps you remembering seeing an elevator.

Before we identify The Big Thing This Campaign’s Creators Don’t Understand, a couple of notes.

1.  This is another example of a radio copywriter using a commercial to illustrate, via metaphor, something the audience already understands: a good deal vs. a bad deal.

Instead, they should’ve spent that time showing us what a terrific deal the advertiser is offering us.

2.  “We’re here at the ballpark.”

Why??

Other than altering the sound effects, how would this spot have been different if they’d been “here in a supermarket parking lot” or “here at the bus station” or “here at a flea market”?

The Big Thing This Campaign’s Creators Don’t Understand About Radio Advertising

For a radio commercial to succeed, the targeted listener must mentally picture what is being sold.

In some cases, it’s enough to picture the product. Usually, they must picture the results of the product or service.

You didn’t picture “up to 500 megabytes at high speed while on T-Mobile’s advanced nationwide network for just 50 bucks a month plus taxes and fees,” because you can’t see that in your mind’s eye.

They relied solely on words (no pictures) to deliver the sales message. And not one of those ineffectual words was about the benefits of “up to 500 megabytes at high speed while on T-Mobile’s advanced nationwide network for just 50 bucks a month plus taxes and fees.”

Presumably, there are benefits to the consumer.

But did you picture any of them as that auditory mess rushed past your ears?

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  • Taddrick Shackleford July 1, 2013, 11:27 am

    Curious what you think of the recent Carl’s Jr commercials. The radio ones with Jenny McCarthy in particular, They break SO MANY basic rules of advertising and yet… I really want to try that stupid salad she does an awful job describing… So odd.

  • Catherine Talento July 1, 2013, 11:27 am

    The weirdest commercial I heard recently was a radio reader for Motel 6. The announcer of the show started by talking about how he likes to take photos and goes on for a few about this hobby of his. It ends up not being an ad for camera equipment or a photo website but for Motel 6. Seriously WTF moment

  • Jean Hetherington July 1, 2013, 11:28 am

    So..I guess the T-Mobile spot was trying to make the point that 500 meg of high speed is a good thing? Most of the perception I’ve been able to gather is that companies usually front you 1 gig of high speed before they throttle you. I think I’d stick with the value of $50 a month…no contract…wait….did I just read something into it?

  • Anonymous July 1, 2013, 12:29 pm

    I enjoy these critiques because I see, or hear them in a different light than you have, Dan.

    99 percent of people don’t listen with an ear to judge what “rules” are broken in advertising. They don’t care that there are all words, and no pictures, because….there’s no expectation for there to be. It’s radio.

    We tend to hear them and it affects us negatively because we think of what COULD have been done for the client. But, does that make it any less of a success?

    A vast majority of the people hear something completely different than we do, as you reference above…. because they’re not listening with a discerning ear for everything that’s WRONG with the commercial.

    The best analysis comes from your first response here. Taddrick is in the industry and knows the “rules” and hears them broken. Yet he still wants to try the product that’s pitched.

    Mission accomplished.

  • James Rabe July 1, 2013, 3:52 pm

    I can’t disagree with the notion that listeners do not judge as we in the biz judge. And many many spots will garner response (‘good’ and ‘bad’…which, really, is fortunate for us). I think the bigger issue is would a spot ‘following the rules’ show a greater response instead of just a response?

  • Dan O'Day July 1, 2013, 5:34 pm

    @James Rabe: I never judge a radio commercial by whether it “follows the rules.” If it measurably gets the results the advertiser wanted to achieve, it’s a “good” commercial.

    When I refer to “rules” or, more often, “principles,” it’s to examine why a particular spot clearly will fail to achieve the desired results.

    I don’t care whether listeners “expect” commercials to “paint pictures” in their minds. I do know how the brain works, however, and I know that a commercial that stimulates mental pictures of things other than the results of the product or service and tries to deliver the actual ‘sales message’ in non-picture generating words, the listener almost never will remember (or even hear) the intended message.