By Ryan Ghidoni
PSR Contributor
Monday January the 18th, 2016
Audio Active Advertising – Episode 1: The origin of all great radio ads
Where are great radio ads born? They’re not conjured up in a voice booth by boisterous talent. They’re not conceived in the eye of a vibrant brainstorm in a room full of quirky wordsmiths.
Great radio creative starts…with the sales executive.
The creative process is a relay race ran by sales, creative and production. If sales falters in the first leg of the race, it’s very difficult for the rest of the team to catch up.
How can sales set the pace for the creative process?
- Qualify the client: Make sure the client is sold on the value of radio advertising, make sure they can afford to run the ads at a high enough frequency, and make sure they can deliver on the promises made. If you don’t qualify the client…you are wasting everyone’s time. Get a reputation for this and you will never get good work from a creative team.
- Manage expectations: Don’t promise the client something you can’t deliver. The ads CAN increase the awareness, interest and desire for the client’s product and ultimately bring people to their door. The ads CAN’T overcome a serious flaw in their business. If the product, showroom, and/or customer service stinks…the ad won’t fix that. It will just make more people discover it faster.
- Gather great information: “The ad starts Monday and they’re having some sort of sale. He really wants the ads to pop.” Nothing will sink an ad faster than incomplete information. Make it part of your selling process to do a complete needs analysis. All the best reps do this. From the client’s perspective it transforms you from “pest like the rest” to “trusted consultant”. If you haven’t mastered this process yet, connect the decision maker with the writer so that the information transfer can take place. SAY: “Our writer is going to give you a shout…when are the three best times to get a hold of you?” Then provide the writer with the three options and follow up with them to ensure the call went well.
- Leave the execution to creative and production: Resist the temptation to wind up the client with random execution promises: “We’re gonna make you a jingle”, “We’ll have our morning show host voice the ad”, “We’ll make you a funny ad like the one you saw on YouTube”. The best execution, the one that is most likely to achieve the client’s goals, may very well be none of these…but once you’ve promised the client something…everything else will be a disappointment. Don’t handcuff the writer with an execution promise.
There is much more to each of these points. If you want to maximize your client’s message, check out “Audio Active Advertising” on Puget Sound Radio for the next four weeks as we dig a bit deeper.
Ryan Ghidoni is an 18-year veteran of radio advertising and has worked with some of the most creative sales reps, writers, producers and voice talent in the business. CHECK OUT “Audio Active Advertising” every week on Puget Sound Radio. FREE OFFER: Email
rg******@sh**.ca
with “Audio Active Offer” in the subject line and I’ll send you three great radio ads that will convince any client that they should invest in radio. Coming soon: Is your creative department small or swamped? Get “Audio Active” ads for your clients with Audio Active Advertising’s online agency.
