Contrary to what most radio salespeople have been taught, “the immediacy of radio” does not mean, “Give us your commercial order this evening, and we’ll have it on the air at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning.”
The concept of “the immediacy of radio” comes from the fact that radio can cover news as it happens.
It dates back to the days when if some major event occurred, people would automatically turn on the radio because they knew they could learn about that event as it unfolded.
If you routinely accept an order at 4 o’clock in the afternoon for airing the next morning, you are doing two things:
1. You are virtually guaranteeing that your clients do not get their money’s worth, because you are not allowing enough time to do a professional job in creating their advertising.
2. You are training your clients to think of radio as a “last-minute” medium of last resort, rather than as the powerful advertising medium that it can be when used properly.
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I used to have this “discussion” with my GSM ALL the time. He disagreed ALL the time.
4:45pm on a Friday: “The client wants a 5-spot campaign. He would like hear bikini-clad women wrestling in a kiddie pool filled with Jell-o, a double rainbow, rays of sunshine, the sound of fresh leather interior, the sound of one-hundred happy customers, and a couple cash register cah-chings. It’s for a their used-car Summer Sale-a-bration. I told the client you would call him in 15 minutes to let him hear the spot.”
There was the time when a spot needed to be made in less than an hour because the client was one of the basketball game sponsors….I had nothing except an ad in the yellow pages to go off of to create a :30 spot!
Wish more sales people would realize this…
“The concept of ‘the immediacy of radio’ comes from the fact that radio can cover news as it happens. It dates back to the days when if some major event occurred, people would automatically turn on the radio because they knew they could learn about that event as it unfolded.”
Sadly, voice-tracking and syndicated programming have killed the “immediacy of radio”. Radio’s ONE big advantage over the other media has been given away, forfeited by the bean-counters and brain-dead that now run radio.
@Curt: That’s part of the problem: There’s no reason for sales people to “realize” it; they need to be taught.
The fault lies with whoever is supposed to be teaching/training/managing them….and/or with station management that refuses to enforce rules that would protect both the advertiser and the radio station.
Has anyone ever been given a radio ad and told to make a newspaper ad out of it?
I would love to leave a comment if I wasn’t trying to meet a last-minute deadline. 😉
I concur with everything Mr. O’Day advocates and his arguments are always compelling. While I agree with Dan’s argument here I think it’s futile. I’ve encountered 11th hour production in the dozen markets I’ve worked (unrated to major) and it’s fed by panic-selling which is fed by “meeting goal”. I just make the best of it.
Uh, how many stations have an imaging person in the- production dept???? Of what I just read Imaging is for all four doors..not just the output from the speakers Who ever answers a phone, whoever contacts a listener or a client.. you don’t represent your station image
you’re making it harder for everbody..
Joe Listener doesn’t care if you don’t work in that dept.If you are short selling your client are you short selling yourself. And not making friends with your production/talents.I am a dumb guy
Thanks Dan