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How NOT To Do A 10-Second Radio Commercial

Here’s the commercial.

Question: How many times does that 10-second radio commercial have to air on a radio station while you’re listening before you actually hear, understand and remember the details the advertiser is trying to communicate?

Answer: You’ll never get their message.

Hint To belVita: In a radio commercial, don’t give your Call To Action (in this case, what to email and to where) before giving listeners a reason to take that action.

“Oh, but we also were running longer spots in other dayparts, so the short and the long ads combine to create one cohesive campaign.”

Actually, I’m just guessing they ran longer spots. During the two hours I recorded this particular radio station, this was the only belVita commercial that aired.

But expecting listeners to complete a mental jigsaw puzzle in order to hear your sales message is neither realistic nor smart.

Comments on this entry are closed.

  • Mike Bell April 23, 2012, 9:43 am

    Mmmmmmm. processed cheese.

  • Curt Herberg April 23, 2012, 9:44 am

    Whatta waste of ten seconds of air time…

  • J.P. Skelly April 23, 2012, 9:49 am

    @Curt And Kraft probably paid someone a lot of money to create that debacle.

  • Matt Forrest April 23, 2012, 9:57 am

    Wow, big corporations will pay gobs of money to people who can write an amateur script like that? I need to start dumbing-down my copy.

  • Tom Fricke April 23, 2012, 11:36 am

    The award for the worst-named product of the era: belVita.
    Yep, sure sounds like Velveeta, but isn’t.
    (btw, last era’s award went to the Ayds Weight Loss product)

  • Ethan Van Gorp April 23, 2012, 11:48 am

    Email the words “submit gmail biscuits” to powerup-dot-velveeta-@-gift-card-dot-com. Was I close? (Listened 3 times)

  • Kevin Larkin April 23, 2012, 12:35 pm

    Some “genius” was paid a lot of money to write that one. Short spots can be effective using the k.i.s.s. method.

  • Tom Fricke April 23, 2012, 2:55 pm

    What’s worse, is the product being advertised isn’t Velveeta!

  • Tom Fricke April 23, 2012, 2:56 pm

    but unless you see it spelled, it always sounds like “Velveeta.”

  • Dan O'Day April 23, 2012, 2:57 pm

    @Tom: Oops, you’re right. Of course, I’m probably dumber than most radio listeners. I’ll bet everyone else who heard this commercial understood the name of the advertiser.

  • Rod Schwartz April 23, 2012, 5:20 pm

    Cheeze-whiz, what were they smoking?

    Better:

    “Have you tried new Velveeta Breakfast Biscuits?
    Visit Velveeta.com. Claim your FREE Breakfast Biscuits coupon
    and a chance to win a VISA Cash Card. Get yours now at Velveeta.com. Velveeta.com!”

    Even off the top of my head, this makes more sense than their approach.

    P.S. Hope your recovery is proceeding apace, Dan-O.

  • Dan O'Day April 23, 2012, 5:28 pm

    @Rod: Glad to see I’m not the only one who thought they were advertising a different brand. Turns out it’s supposed to be for “belVita,” not “Velveeta.”

    But the geniuses who created that advertising monstrosity already know the name of the client, so apparently they didn’t think it was necessary to make sure radio listeners could identify the brand, too.

  • Rod Schwartz April 23, 2012, 5:58 pm

    @Dan: More likely, misunderstood the name of the advertiser. Like you, I “heard” VELVEETA, also. After all, it’s such a well-established brand name. Somebody in marketing should have caught this early on. (Even a slight change to “Bella Vita” might have solved the problem.)