How To Make Your
Radio Commercial POP!!

The Radio Ad Lab has been conducting a study about what makes a radio commercial work. Think about it...you've probably heard thousands of radio commercials in your life so far, and you'll hear thousands more. How many of them have made you pick up the phone, look up the website or drive over for the deal you heard about? Not many.

If you’re either already advertising your business on radio or are contemplating a radio buy, please read on to make your ad dollars make sense.

Most radio commercials don't work as well as they could, and this ongoing research study is focused on finding out what makes great ads work. The study measures the physiological reactions of listeners to selected radio ads to figure out which creative elements the best-performing commercials have in common. Here's what they found:

Strong beginnings make a difference, “too many ideas” loses, and sensory words win.

Let’s take those three points one by one.

1. Strong beginnings make a difference. What that means is that in the first sentence, you have to grab the listeners’ attention or you will not ever get it. Some ideas that work include humor, powerful words said slowly to emphasize a point, or a compelling question. Deciding on the best approach for your radio commercial depends on the tone you’re intending to set with your advertisement and the product or service you are selling, but the main point is, if you don’t have a strong first 5 to 10 seconds, you’ve wasted whatever money you spend on the remaining 25 to 55 seconds.
2. "Too many ideas" loses. This is so common in radio commercials, and is such an unnecessary mistake to make. You are buying 15, 30 or 60 seconds of radio time, and if you try to sell more than one idea in that short period of time, the listeners won’t have any idea which message is the most important one. Worse yet, they may completely tune out, feeling like you’re trying to sell them everything and the kitchen sink! Decide on the job you expect your flight of commercials to deliver for you, and target one message to accomplish that goal. One of the very best examples of branding via one message is the Nike campaign - Just Do It. Bet you can’t see the swoosh without thinking of those three words. One idea per campaign will bring your message home to the maximum number of listeners, and they’ll remember it and you.
3. Sensory words win. To borrow a phrase from my friend Wendy Kinney, no restaurant promotes their hunks of dead cow, they advertise sizzling steaks. Take that a step further, and talk about the mouth-watering crunch of freshly cracked black pepper on the outside of a prime New York strip, grilled up just the way you like it and topped with a warm, silky blue cheese béarnaise sauce. Did I just make you hungry? Sensory words win, no matter what product or service you’re selling. Think about the sensory experience that your clients have when they deal with you, and then think about your existing radio advertising - are you using the same words? If not, then you need new radio commercials.
4. Oh, look…here’s a bonus, 4th point that I’ll give you from my years of experience voicing radio commercials: fewer words make a bigger impact. Give the voice talent the time they need to really, truly sell your message by using the fewest words possible to convey that message. Sure, I can get 150 words in a sixty second spot…if you don’t believe me, I’ll give you a demo! But will a spot like that work? Not just no, but h-e-double-toothpicks no! Referring back to point number two, which emphasizes making only one point per campaign, this bonus point builds on that: too many words dilutes your message at best, and at worst will make the listeners tune out well before the end of the commercial you’re paying for. Why? Because when you try to squeeze too many words into a small segment of time, then the read will be rushed in order to fit it all in. People don’t want to hear a rushed announcer announcing words, they want to hear a friendly voice telling them something they need to know, in a conversational way. Fewer words make a bigger impact, and allow the voice talent the opportunity to romance your message. And that makes listeners sit up and take notice!

So now you understand what makes the really good, effective radio commercials work. Review your existing scripts, or if you’re just in the “thinking about buying radio” stage, review the above material again. If you’re going to pay for a radio schedule, you need to be sure the commercials are doing the very best job they can do for you. Anything less is a waste of your money, and if you’re like me, you don’t want to go wasting your money!!

The next time you find yourself noticing a radio commercial in a really positive way, note the words that got your attention for your future use. When dealing with your clients, listen to the words they use to describe their experience with your service or product and keep a list of those words for your future advertising use.

As always, if I can answer any questions for you, don’t hesitate to contact us.  That “contact us” link lands an email in my “in” box and you’ll have an answer by the end of the day.