{"id":18362,"date":"2015-06-22T00:54:08","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T07:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?p=18362"},"modified":"2015-06-22T00:54:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T07:54:08","slug":"radio-copywriting-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/","title":{"rendered":"MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: Copy, Announcer, Music Should Get Out of the Way of the Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">First, let&#8217;s listen to the radio commercial.<\/span><\/p>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-18362-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/USCSurgery.mp3?_=1\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/USCSurgery.mp3\">http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/USCSurgery.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Good opening. No mention of sponsor. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Quickly, however, it sounds as though it&#8217;s going to be a commercial for a hospital, and just as we&#8217;re ready to tune out she says, <em>&#8220;\u2026but my second love is swimming.&#8221;<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Oh. Hmmm\u2026.I wonder where this is leading?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Oops! Here comes an announcer to push aside the real person who caught our attention. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The problem with the announcer VO isn&#8217;t the performance. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The problem is the structure of this spot. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">We care about her, because she&#8217;s talking about her life. Her real life. Our natural empathetic response kicks in.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">But despite his smooth voice, we don&#8217;t emphasize with the announcer. That&#8217;s because:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">We long ago learned to associate that type of smooth &#8220;radio voice&#8221; not with &#8220;fellow human being&#8221; but instead with &#8220;commercial announcer.&#8221;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">The announcer should be telling a story, but he&#8217;s not here as a storyteller. He&#8217;s here to read the words written by the <a href=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/freeteleseminar\/\">radio copywriter<\/a>. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Increasingly, the spot becomes less and less about the woman whose voice first attracted our attention and more and more about\u2026the advertiser, of course.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">At :21, the announcer refers to <em>&#8220;the _____ medicine of the USC team.&#8221;<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">I have no idea what he said between &#8220;the&#8221; and &#8220;medicine.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Neither do you, right?*<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">*Actually, I solved the mystery <a href=\"http:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/04\/radio-commercial-usc-cancer\/\">here<\/a>. <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">But the <em>advertiser<\/em> knows what the script says. So no one representing them listened to the finished spot critically, auditioning it to see not only if they &#8220;liked&#8221; it but also \u2014 much more importantly \u2014 if radio listeners could <em>understand<\/em> it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Here&#8217;s How They Could Have Made This an Effective Radio Commercial<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">1. Have Dr. Beverly Gates deliver 90% of the message, with the announcer placating the advertiser with the &#8220;look how good we are&#8221; babble at the end, along with the two meaningless Calls to Action.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">2. Get rid of that music bed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">It doesn&#8217;t add anything to the impact of the spot. It&#8217;s simply bland, nondescript, and &#8220;minimally invasive.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">What&#8217;s Wrong with the Music? It&#8217;s the Same as You Hear on a TV Infomercial.<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">But guess what?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">During those TV infomercials, <em>something is happening on-screen.<\/em> Miracle knives are slicing through steel plates. Rheumatoid Arthritis sufferers are scaling mountains.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Meanwhile, what does the radio audience see while the music bed conspires with the voice and copy to put them to sleep?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Nothing.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Still Think I&#8217;m Being Too Harsh?<br \/>\nTake this One-Question Test.<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">You&#8217;ve listened to the commercial.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">That nice lady whose voice began the spot: What was it, precisely, that made it impossible for her to continue to swim? <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Hey, the announcer <em>told<\/em> you exactly what it was. It&#8217;s <em>your<\/em> fault for not remembering\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">\u2026or, more accurately, for not having heard it in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>First, let&#8217;s listen to the radio commercial. \u00a0 Good opening. No mention of sponsor. Quickly, however, it sounds as though it&#8217;s going to be a commercial for a hospital, and just as we&#8217;re ready to tune out she says, &#8220;\u2026but my second love is swimming.&#8221; Oh. Hmmm\u2026.I wonder where this is leading? Oops! Here comes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18362","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Radio Commercial Copy\/Announcer\/Music: Get Out of Story\u2019s Way<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials. But guess what? During those TV infomercials, something is happening...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Radio Commercial Copy\/Announcer\/Music: Get Out of Story\u2019s Way\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials. But guess what? During those TV infomercials, something is happening...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DanODayRadio\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-06-22T07:54:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan O&#039;Day\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Dan_ODay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Dan_ODay\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan O&#039;Day\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan O'Day\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c\"},\"headline\":\"MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: Copy, Announcer, Music Should Get Out of the Way of the Story\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-22T07:54:08+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":493,\"commentCount\":1,\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/\",\"name\":\"Radio Commercial Copy\\\/Announcer\\\/Music: Get Out of Story\u2019s Way\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-06-22T07:54:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c\"},\"description\":\"Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials. But guess what? During those TV infomercials, something is happening...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/2015\\\/06\\\/radio-copywriting-improvement\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: Copy, Announcer, Music Should Get Out of the Way of the Story\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO\",\"description\":\"Straight talk about radio programming, radio advertising, radio production...Well, you get the idea.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c\",\"name\":\"Dan O'Day\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/danoday.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/assistant\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Radio Commercial Copy\/Announcer\/Music: Get Out of Story\u2019s Way","description":"Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials. But guess what? During those TV infomercials, something is happening...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Radio Commercial Copy\/Announcer\/Music: Get Out of Story\u2019s Way","og_description":"Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials. But guess what? During those TV infomercials, something is happening...","og_url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/","og_site_name":"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DanODayRadio","article_published_time":"2015-06-22T07:54:08+00:00","author":"Dan O'Day","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Dan_ODay","twitter_site":"@Dan_ODay","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan O'Day","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/"},"author":{"name":"Dan O'Day","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c"},"headline":"MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: Copy, Announcer, Music Should Get Out of the Way of the Story","datePublished":"2015-06-22T07:54:08+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/"},"wordCount":493,"commentCount":1,"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/","url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/","name":"Radio Commercial Copy\/Announcer\/Music: Get Out of Story\u2019s Way","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-06-22T07:54:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c"},"description":"Yep, you hear that kind of repetitive, twinkly boring music in TV infomercials. But guess what? During those TV infomercials, something is happening...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/radio-copywriting-improvement\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"MONDAY RADIO COMMERCIAL SMACKDOWN: Copy, Announcer, Music Should Get Out of the Way of the Story"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/","name":"DAN O\u2019DAY TALKS ABOUT RADIO","description":"Straight talk about radio programming, radio advertising, radio production...Well, you get the idea.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/afe504342187ed9676675802d9c9b19c","name":"Dan O'Day","url":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/author\/assistant\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18362"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18375,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18362\/revisions\/18375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danoday.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}