DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

First, let’s listen to this radio commercial…without reading the comments I’ve made beneath it.

In a Radio Spot, the Pictures You Paint in the Listeners’ Minds Are the Only Things They’ll Remember.

The story begins, “I was informed I had to have my heart removed immediately. So the team at Cedars-Sinai gave me a portable heart until a human heart was available to me.”

Huh?

Wait.

What??

You had to have your heart removed immediately?

And they gave you a portable heart to use for a while?

If you listened to that spot just once, you don’t remember any of the rest of that radio ad, do you?

That’s because all of the pictures came before the sales copy and the (sigh) two Calls to Action.

Radio advertising isn’t only a matter of painting pictures in the listeners’ minds. It’s a matter of painting the right pictures. Because those pictures are what listeners will remember.

Do You Believe That’s a Real Patient Telling the Story?

Raise your hand if you believe that was a real patient.

Now raise your hand if you believe that was someone pretending to be a real patient.

Just as I thought: Half the readers of this critique think the guy was “real.” The other half thinks it was someone playing a role.

If you’re in the half that think that guy’s not real, here’s why:

He didn’t have a name.

If his words had been, “My name is Bob Levitsky. I’m an accountant in Torrance, California,” we all would have believed him.

Because real people have names.

A Loyal Reader Writes:

We have a “facilitator” (cost cutter) who apparently wants to centralize newscasts on our group of 8 locally focused radio stations…so, one news reader doing casts for all, and only one local reporter in each location. Potentially a loss of 8 jobs. How do you counter such a view?

Sadly, I have no effective way of countering your cost cutter’s viewpoint.

I know, you’re tempted to try to explain to the “facilitator” how reducing your news staff to a bare minimum delivers less value to the community.

You’re tempted to point out that delivering a less valued product hampers the stations’ abilities to charge premium sponsorship rates.

But you need to keep in mind 2 crucial factors:

1. The facilitator’s job is to cut costs wherever and however he can. He doesn’t care about ratings or revenue, only about cutting costs.

2. This is an inevitable result of consolidation of the marketplace. The whole point of consolidation is to gain access to “economies of scale” — for example, having one person do the news reporting for 8  stations rather 8 people for 8 stations.

It’s the McDonaldsization of Radio.

Its effect on the quality of local broadcast content is to continually drive it downward in an unending quest to keep operating costs as low as possible.

Especially for publicly held companies, the lure of immediate positive effects on the bottom line (“We spent less money last quarter”) trumps the potential for long-term gain via investments in a station’s resources and capabilities.

Result? Far too many radio stations invest too little in its product while simultaneously saying “yes” to any offer that promises quick cash: bad advertising campaigns (occasionally of dubious legality), bad sales promotions that harm the station and alienate listeners, etc.

Do I like it?

No.

But somewhere along the way I’ve learned not to fight battles I’m almost certain to lose.

If you do any kind of email marketing — which includes a voice actor mailing to client base or a radio station mailing to its database — here are two simple yet valuable tips for you.

Unfortunately, the first one is surprisingly difficult for me to adhere to…although I try. I really do try.

WARNING! Do NOT Click Here Unless You Want to See the Voiceover Marketing Class curriculum.

I hope the International Radio Creative & Production Summit attendee whose spot I critiqued in this video will come forward to identify himself (I do remember it was a he) and receive the public credit he deserves.

I think I know who it was, but I’d rather not rely on my memory.