How would you like your competitors regularly to report to you all of their upcoming radio promotions, format changes, etc.?
Well, you could plant or recruit a spy at all competing stations. Among other drawbacks, that might be illegal (“industrial espionage”).
Or you could take the suggestion of radio promotions guru Doug Harris:
Join all of your competitors’ “loyal listener” clubs.
Like most great “creative” ideas, this one is elegant in its simplicity and potentially rich in its rewards.
This was recorded live at the 2011 International Radio Creative & Production Summit.
By the way, there is exactly one copy remaining of the entire event on multiple DVDs.
View the radio promo critique video here.
A Loyal Reader Writes:
“On my radio show (on a country music station), I like to talk over familiar music so I can embellish the break with something relative to the topic I’m discussing.
“For instance: talking over a bed with the music for ‘Crazy’ by Patsy Cline while discussing crazy subject matter.
“I just had an aircheck session, and the boss says not to talk over music that is familiar to the audience.
“Here is what he said:
“ ‘Please discontinue using familiar song beds underneath your talk. These beds should be low and unfamiliar so there is no competition in the listener’s mind between what you are saying and the music bed.’
“Although I respect his opinion, my response is: We talk over an intro of a song and that is familiar to the listener, and they still hear what we are saying. How is that any different?
“What is your philosophy on using familiar music beds to talk over?”
First, my compliments to your PD for being one of the few who give regular aircheck critiques to his staff.
Second: He’s correct.
When you “talk up a vocal” — talking over the instrumental intro to a song — you are using a brief segment of music that very quickly will lead to a payoff for the listener. That payoff is the rest of the song.
Ideally, your words help increase the emotional impact of that song.
More often, of course, jocks use the “intro” or “ramp” to squeeze in verbiage required by their PD: station liners, promos, etc.
Those rarely help increase the emotional impact of that song, but there still is a payoff when the instrumental intro ends (again, the song itself).
Sometimes you can hijack the excitement of the music to help increase the impact of your verbal message.
Quick Question: Who’s the better writer – you or Willie Nelson?
You might be a terrific writer; I don’t know.
I do know that Willie Nelson is.
And when someone to whom “Crazy” is a very familiar song hears an instrumental version of it, guess what they do?
They mentally sing Willie Nelson’s lyrics.
Radio Rule #1: Don’t talk over a vocal.
Radio Rule #2: Don’t talk over an instrumental that is more likely than your words to command the listener’s attention.
Radio Rule #3: Even if you can “hit the post” perfectly, no one wants to hear you talk up the vocal to Chicago’s “Color My World.”
This is the fourth of a 6-part series of Secrets of Radio Advertising.
I have heard “experts” declare that you must use the advertiser’s name at least twice in the first ten seconds of the commercial.
Ridiculous. Stupid, even.
Here’s exactly when to use the advertiser’s name in the commercial:
After you’ve interested the target audience in the problem your client promises to solve for them.
Until the audience is interested in what the advertiser is offering to do to add to their lives, they have absolutely no interest in knowing the advertiser’s name.
Why is the following a stupid radio traffic report?
“There’s a six-car pile-up that has slowed traffic for several miles on Highway 101 just north of Riverside.”
It’s stupid because no one pays any attention to the details if they don’t already know the location applies to them.
First you identify the location, then you identify the problem.
But most radio commercials include the name of the advertiser in the very first sentence:
“Sears proudly announces its big annual white sale….”
Remember what Robert Collier said about entering a conversation the consumer already is having?
How many of your listeners already are having a conversation — either with someone else or with themselves — about Sears?
