A frustrated radio commercial producer wrote to ask:
“How do we get your message across to these idiotic ad agencies?
“We who work in the trenches of the production room fully understand his message and we cheer him openly. But we are not the ones who need this message; it needs to be heard by the advertising agencies that continually do this nonsense for the radio. .
“The radio can’t do anything about it except watch the current trend that listeners don’t care about what they hear on the radio.”
Despite the frustration that the producer understandably feels, there is is it so some things radio stations could do to improve the situation.
But before they can attempt to educate ad agencies, few of which have any idea how to create radio commercial campaigns that generate positive ROI for their clients, radio owners and managers must make changes within their own venues. job.
They could start to give a hoot about producing profitable results for advertisers, instead of selling as many commercials as they could without even having time to think about “results.”
They could provide actual training to your employees who write and produce radio commercials. You may be surprised to learn that in the United States, most radio commercials created “in-house” (that is, by a radio station employee) are written by the account executive who made the sale.
That sales rep has been taught to sell radio advertising, but has almost never received some Professional level education on how to create a successful business campaign.
As a result, almost every radio marketer mimics every other commercial they hear … which, of course, has been written by other account executives who know no more about creating an effective ad than radio folks do. is imitating.
Worse, they naively follow common radio advertising “rules” that are popularly accepted as “conventional wisdom” but are often 100% wrong.
Those radio owners and managers could have at least one full-time copywriter, well-educated in radio advertising, and well-compensated.
They could create and enforce standards.
Could they … Well, I’ve been saying all of this for many years.
But the advertising agencies that produce that kind of garbage are not going to get it, because they have no incentive. They are not paid for their performance. They get a percentage of the purchase.
And when the radio campaign does not generate a positive return on investment, the agencies blame the radio …
… and they tell their naive clients: “IT IS NOT SUPPOSED to produce results. This is a BRANDING campaign!”
