The only thing worse than having a great commercial buried 10-deep in a commercial pod, is having a bad commercial at the start of that pod. There’s only one way to keep listeners engaged in your clients’ commercials: make sure they are great-sounding commercials no matter where they land.
At Radio Ink’s Forecast 2020 on Wednesday, Advertising Benchmark Index President and founder Gary Getto presented results from a study his firm conducted. The data showed that when the creative is strong, radio is just as effective as any other medium. Getto provided Forecast attendees with a list of six best practices from his research study.
#1) The most effective radio ads use simple voiceover with minimal background effects.
#2) Radio is an intimate medium; have a conversation, don’t shout.
#3) Communicate benefits.
#4) Brands need to be the “hero” of the storyline; not a mere mention.
#5) Brand mentions should be early in the ad with multiple mentions. The first five seconds matter.
#6) Length improves creative, but not dramatically; match length to relevant content.
This article could have been written in 1972 for the proprietors of an MOR station.. And it would have been only semi-relevant even then.
“Conversational”?
By all means, add even more limitations to spot presentations.
“Communicate benefits.”
Hard to do when there aren’t any in particular for any given advertiser.
“Brands need to be the “hero” of the storyline; not a mere mention.”
A successful spot will have a storyline before a brand gets to be heroic.
“Brand mentions should be early in the ad with multiple mentions. The first five seconds matter.”
The first five seconds are for getting attention and beginning the process of generating an emotional response from the listener.
1972, indeed.