DAN O’DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO

Jimmy Hill of Bristol Broadcasting submitted two radio commercials for critiquing.

“I’ve produced a 5-unit campaign for this client. Although the client insists that these spots are effective for them, I have serious doubts that I’m hitting the mark with respect to what I’ve tried to follow after reviewing Dan O’Day instructional pieces.”

Here is one of the spots from the Italian restaurant’s radio campaign.

Before I begin this critique, let’s return to your statement that “the client insists that these spots are effective for them.”

If the client truly means “effective” — if it’s driving traffic to the restaurant and increasing his business — then keep on doing it.

I suspect, however, that what the client actually means is, “I like those radio ads, and people have told me how funny they are!”

If that’s the case, you still should keep doing it, because the client is happy.

But I doubt he’s actually making a positive return on his advertising investment.

The “lame imitation of The Godfather” is a trite, nonsensical approach to advertising an Italian restaurant.

Effective restaurant advertising sells the experience the guest will have when dining there. I suspect the real dining experience at Vito’s doesn’t include oddball mafiosos.

Much of the dialogue of the “Godfather” imitation is incomprehensible to the listener. 

A radio commercial for a restaurant should have a single Core Message — the one thing you want the targeted listener to hear, to understand and to remember.

Here are the potential core messages in this spot:

• Private party & banquet room. (I think that’s what I heard on the fifth attempt.)

• Pizza

• Pasta

• House salads

• Some sort of special offer on Tuesdays…which I simply can’t decipher

• Canoli

• Monday is Something-or-Other Day; I can’t understand the special offer.

• Daily house lunch special

Which of the above is the one thing you want to communicate? Whichever it is, why are all of the other elements there to compete for the listener’s attention?

I like the line, “Leave a tip, take the canoli.” Not as an effective selling tool but as a funny take-off on the line from the movie.

“Next to the train station on Main, downtown Kingsport” — That is exactly how you should identify the location of a retail establishment.

You didn’t include their street address or phone number — good!

But the biggest problem isn’t the lack of a Core Message. It’s this:

What The Radio Audience Pictures Is What The Audience Will Remember.

I pictured:

• A big, thuggish actor imitating a movie mafioso

• Someone doing a Marlon Brando imitation

• The opening scene from THE GODFATHER, “the day of your daughter’s wedding”

• A cannolo. (I pictured just one. You might have pictured two or more connoli.)

• A fish wrapped in newspaper (from the “sleep with the fishes” line)

I didn’t picture any of the many things this advertisement attempted to sell.

Why not?

Because all of them were presented as dialogue (either by the characters or by the announcer).

In a radio commercial, you can’t rely on words to carry your sales message. The pictures you paint in the listener’s mind are what the listener will remember.

Like so many radio spots, this one left the listener with mental images that don’t include the product or service being advertised.

Radio Advertising for Restaurants

First, take a listen to the radio commercial:

The geniuses who created this radio spot for McDonald’s spend almost the entire 30 seconds of the ad helping listeners understand the concept of “missing” something.

The product name gets buried in the opening, because listeners aren’t expecting it and the copy doesn’t prepare them for it.

If people actively listen until the end of this advertisement, which is unlikely, then they’ll hear who the sponsor is and what product is being promoted.

“But Dan, what about the power of frequency, of listeners hearing that commercial repeatedly?”

Few will hear it repeatedly. Most will tune out repeatedly.

A radio commercial such as this is especially wasteful, because they have a well-defined target audience:

People who have eaten McDonalds’ McRibs…and who enjoyed it.

They’re not trying to introduce this product to the marketplace. The sole message of this campaign should be:

“Hey, you guys who like McDonalds’ McRibs! It’s back on the menu! Go get some!”

And the copywriting….Good grief.

“Like the Mojave Desert misses a tropical storm”?

Really? Precisely how can the Mojave Desert miss something it’s never experienced?

That first metaphor leaves the audience either puzzled or bored. That’s not a good thing to do at the beginning of a radio commercial.

Well, I guess the fresh-out-of-college intern who wrote that needs to learn radio copywriting somewhere. It’s quite generous of McDonald’s to underwrite that person’s on-the-job education.

A Loyal Reader — a radio station production director — writes:

“The account executive did a good job of providing me with the kind of information I needed to produce an effective radio commercial for a local dentist.

“But we’re not airing it. Why not? Because the dentist’s office manager says she hates it.

“The dentist, who is paying for the radio advertising, didn’t say that.

“But the office manager writes the check for the advertising, so she figures that gives her the final say over their what their commercials should say.

“When I tried to discuss the ad campaign with her, she said, ‘I’m not a commercial professional but I AM a consumer and I know what works!’

“It was only with tremendous self-restraint (and my wish not to lose my job) that I kept myself from saying, ‘You’re running Dr. (X)’s office all wrong. I’m not a dentist, but I DO have teeth…'”

Best Dentist Radio Commercial Ever

A Loyal Reader writes:

“I was told never to use common phrases like ‘ten to nine’ … or ‘a quarter after three’ when giving the time during my radio program.

“I should use use ‘eight-fifty’ or ‘three-fifteen’ instead.

“Of course, these rules always come down from my program director or consultant with no explanation.

“I always thought that when you crack the mic, you talk as if you’re talking to one person. When I’m telling someone the time in real life, I never say it’s four-forty. It’s twenty-to-five.

“What are your thoughts on this?”

Actually, when someone asks me the time I always give it to them digitally. But that’s probably because I’m a radio guy.

When you give the time digitally, you lessen the likelihood of listener confusion.

“4:40” is shorter and more easily digestible than “20 to 5” or “20 minutes before 5.”

Also, in “real conversation” (non-radio) people round off the time. 

If it’s 3:43, they’ll say “quarter to 4” — which is fine for everyday conversation but isn’t accurate enough for the person who is hearing “the exact time” on the radio.

So, this is a relatively rare case in which I believe “the way we’ve always been taught” is correct.