If you ever get the opportunity to study voice acting with Richard Horvitz, don’t think twice; grab the opportunity.
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This isn’t what you expect it to be.
Miami radio legend Rick Shaw shared this devilishly clever competitive jab from several decades ago.
In the early 1960s, WQAM (then Miami’s dominant Top 40 station) would have a daily “secret word.”
It wasn’t a contest. It was just a fun thing to do.
The WQAM jocks would announce the day’s secret word each hour.
Every now and then, the secret word would be the name of one of the salespeople at WFUN — WQAM’s biggest rival.
All day long when the poor account executive was out making sales calls, prospects would say to him, “Hey, you’re WQAM’s secret word!”
First, let me point out that most comedy commercials do not succeed for the radio advertiser.
Some succeed on a creative level — that is, they’re funny.
But the goal of a humorous commercial should not be to make the listener laugh. It should be to cause the targeted listener to act on the sales message.
The most commonly cited reason for the value of comedy commercials is, “We get their attention by making them laugh, and then we can try to sell them something.”
Wrong.
A second reason — and I’m quoting one of the principals in a company that specializes in funny radio commercials (not my friend Dick Orkin) — is that “if your commercial is funny, then it will stand out from all the other commercials that surround it.”
That statement would be true if yours were the only humorous spot on the air.
But these days most commercials do try to be funny.
So let’s examine the logic:
Your commercial likely will be surrounded by other commercials that attempt to be funny. So yours will “stand out” by…attempting to be funny?
The Real Reason Comedy Commercials Succeed
You already know the average consumer is overloaded with commercial messages. The most commonly quoted figure is 3,000 attempts every day to sell that person something.
We can’t possibly process all those messages. So we automatically filter them, with most never reaching our consciousness and most of the ones that do reach our consciousness immediately being rejected.
In other words, we go through life with our defenses up, guarding us against unwanted intrusion.
Now, picture yourself walking late at night down a dimly lit, deserted city street in a strange, unsavory neighborhood.
You’d be easy prey for a violent criminal.
But you try to lessen your vulnerability by walking briskly, minimizing the amount of time you’ll be alone on that street.
And you adopt a physical attitude that you hope looks so self-assured, even menacing, that it will deter any ne’er-do-well from messing with you.
Maybe you’re clutching a can of pepper spray for self-protection.
In other words, you’ve got your defenses up. You’re a hair’s breadth from your body’s “fight or flight” response.
Now….
Imagine that as you’re walking along that street, suddenly you remember the funniest moment you’ve ever experienced.
As you recall it, you begin to laugh.
You’re overcome with laughter. Sides shaking, bent over, laughing.
The common is phrase is, “Helpless with laughter.”
At the moment, where are your defenses?
Gone.
You’re completely vulnerable.
You can’t fight or flee.
The surest, safest way for a mugger to incapacitate a victim would be to make that person hysterical with laughter.
Fortunately, relatively few muggers read this blog. Otherwise we’d have to enact strict new “Tell A Joke, Go To Jail” laws.
Back to radio commercials….
When an advertisement comes on the radio, the listener’s guard is up. Even though my saying this will offend a few radio sales chauvinists, people do not turn on the radio for the commercials.
Your favorite song is playing on the radio and you give it your full attention, bonding to it once again, probably joining in either vocally or subvocally.
But when the commercials begin, the protective filters take over. You do not react, “Oh, a commercial! Perhaps it contains valuable, unbiased information which will improve my quality of life!”
If the commercial makes you laugh, however, then while you’re laughing your guard is down. Your filter is in the “pause” mode.
So….Does this mean I advocate “making people laugh and then trying to sell them something”?
No. (That’s how most advertisers try to do it. It’s a foolish tactic.)
Instead, I teach professionals to “sell people something while you’re making them laugh.”
How do you do that?
By weaving the comedy and the sales message together.
By creating your spot so that you can’t separate the comedy from the sales message.
By making it so if the listeners remember the “funny part,” they also automatically remember the sales message.
Unfortunately, most attempted comedy commercials consist of two separate, distinct parts: the comedy and the sales message.
(to be continued…)
In my in-station workshops, I teach a foolproof system for developing a virtually limitless supply of new ideas for radio features, promotions, branding, etc
I call the process Designing Your Station’s Unique Listening Proposition.
Here’s one of many ideas created by the morning show at Miami’s LITE FM during an in-station workshop a few years ago
Often they turn to their audience for help in understanding some topical issue or providing needed info.
They decided that each morning they’ll compile a list of the “Bright Lights of the Day” (the listeners who called in to help), thank those people in the show’s “closing credits,” and put the daily list up on the station’s website and/or Facebook page.
Note: What a great way to integrate your listeners into your program and to help make them the stars…as well as to encourage them (and their friends) to visit the station website or page more often.
Today is the day commemorated throughout the world: the first day of my fourth full calendar year of blogging.
For the millions of people gathered in living rooms, churches and pubs to good-naturedly argue about which of my blog postings is their favorite, here’s a quick review of the Best Of The Best from 2011, to refresh their memories.
A bunch of people, including me, answered the question, “Would You Ever Return To A Radio Job?”
A tribute (including video) to Avery Schreiber, Improvisational Genius
I smacked down a radio commercial played in Chicago and in Milwaukee that is both terrible…and illegal.
I attacked Radio Managers Who Steal.
(video) The Unbelievable History of Radio DJs
(video) The Client Who Voices His Own Radio Commercials
When Does “Station Imaging” Become “Lying”?
(video) How To Use Music In Radio Commercials
(video) Radio Personality & Radio Production Pro Nightmare
The Foolish Fallacy of Radio Advertising’s “Immediacy”
Yes, I Do Have A Foolproof Method of Getting Radio Salespeople To Turn In Their Copy Copy Orders On Time
(video) The Lost Don LaFontaine Voice Over Video
(video) When The Client Directs The Voice Over Session
When A Radio Station Keeps 71% of Its Promise
The Second Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Heard In Radio
Finalist, Worst Radio Sales Promo Break Ever
(video) One of The Greatest Public Service Announcement Spots Ever
Dr. Don Rose – When Radio Had A Soul
(video) A Video For All Radio Morning Show Hosts
(video) The Joys of Radio Commercial Production
(video) Brilliant Example of Advertising With Stories
The Aircheck That Woke Me Up To What COULD Be Done As A Radio Personality
Why Radio Stations Should NOT Give Away Cash Contest Prizes
JOHN FROST RADIO IMAGING: Sex Addicts Anonymous
