Making radio ads more effective was another theme of last week’s radio conference, which included various sessions on radio advertising.
Ralph van Dijk told delegates in his session that sales people preparing a creative brief should focus on radio and ask the specific question of their clients, ‘what is the problem to be solved on radio,’ not just ‘what is the problem.’
He stressed the importance of understanding how the human mind works and dealing with the subconscious effectively. “Our actions are influenced by our feelings.”
If you give listeners simplicity the creative will have more impact according to van Dijk, who also urges the use of humour; achieving the right tone for the station; and drawing the listener into the ad.
In the UK these methods, plus activity from the Radio Advertising Bureau, have been employed effectively to grow radio advertising by 287% in the past 12 years.
He says there is a lack of talent in radio creative, especially within advertising agencies, a message also echoed in another panel session where Siimon Reynolds, Roger Camplisson and others urged radio stations to charge more to get good radio creative.
Douglas McArthur from the UK’s Radio Advertising Bureau, explained how the RAB has promoted radio to agencies and media buyers, rather than leaving it up to individual networks to do that job, and that the UK approach has been very effective.
“At the RAB we see ourselves as working for advertisers, not radio stations.”
Other panel members from the advertising industry praised the radio industry for involving them closely, saying a tv conference would not bother to ask advertisers what theyh thought about the effectiveness of the medium.
Radio was also congratulated for embracing new competition, which advertisers see as good for clients.
Problems for radio include that advertisers question radio more, where they generally accept without question the tv and newspaper copy they are presented with. Radio is also ‘invisible’ for radio creatives, who cannot show their radio work in a protfolio and therefore do not usually concentrate on achieving success in that medium.
The ‘disgrace’ of junior creatives working on radio, while the more senior staff work on print and tv was also seen as a hinderance to achieving good radio copy.
In the end though it’s up to the radio industry to push for improvements according to Douglas McArthur, who quoted the example of Unilever which used to spend nothing on radio and now spends ₤7 million. He told the conference:
“It’s not the customer’s job to know why radio is better, we have to sell it to them!”