Whether we like it or not, radio commercials are the raison d’être of the radio business, for those radio stations funded by the selling of airtime. Despite this inconvenient fact there is often a chasm dividing the programming department from the sales department within a commercial/private radio station. Programming often falls into the paradigm of seeing themselves as the shining light of entertainment while sales is their nemesis. Reciprocally sales often see themselves as the unappreciated benefactors of the radio station without which there would be no jobs and toys for the programming team.
Both paradigms are unproductive, particularly in the 21st century. In an ideal world, programming and sales should work hand in hand finding solutions rather than friction, understanding the common ground and looking for every opportunity to create a win-win.
The common ground that binds everyone together inside a radio station is the listener. How well a radio station engages with the listener determines both the size of listening audience and how effective the radio commercials are. The task of achieving satisfied listeners and successful outcomes for clients is inextricably linked because both have to be achieved in the same 60 minutes each hour of the day.
While we may departmentalise each hour of program into what we think is the optimal order of content delivering the optimal listening experience usually commencing at the top of the hour, people do not necessarily listen to radio that way. People are tuning in at various times throughout the hour and the experience can be very different depending on when that tune in event occurs.
It is best to think of the hour in terms of ratio of content rather than some vertical order of content that listeners are going to conveniently listen to.
The reality is that commercials often represent 20% or more of what a listener will experience while listening during the hour. They are an integral part of what a listener encounters and while there is a paradigm that listeners “hate” or “avoid” radio commercials this is in fact an erroneous perspective.
What listeners actually do is manage their exposure to radio commercials (as people do when consuming all forms of commercial media).
Let us unpack that a little more:
Radio listeners are not morons. When people tune into a commercial/private station they do so knowing they will hear commercials. Radio listeners also hear, absorb, and react to radio commercial messaging that targets their interests, needs, problems and desires which is why radio advertising works so well.
The problem is not radio commercials that speak to the listeners’ interests or needs, it is the commercials that do not. The challenge is carrying the listener through the commercials that are of no interest to them, so they are still listening to your radio station at the end of the commercial break.
Another critical issue to take on board is that a radio commercial of no interest to the listener is the same as a station promo of no interest to the listener, or a contest of no interest to the listener. It is not just commercials that we have to be concerned about, it is everything that interrupts or delays the principal reason people listen to your radio station. Radio commercials are nowhere near the sole cause of listeners tuning out, however for the purposes of this article we will stay focused on commercial content.
The primary issue at stake when it comes to radio commercials and their effect on the listening experience is the “Shit to Fun” ratio (STF). It is critical for programming and sales to understand this as it goes a long way towards bringing both areas of a radio station into alignment and enhancing the listener’s experience and their level of engagement with the station.
In the next installment we will explore what the STF ratio is and how to best manage it.
By Wayne Clouten, BPR
As an emerging jock I was told to NEVER refer to the ads, just hook them through the break. While programming a hyper locally focused commercial FM in New Zealand I turned that rule on its head and it worked. As 90% of our ads were local grass-roots businesses, I encouraged our presenters to include the breaks as part of the whole program. We won't be "back after the break"... the break is an integral part of the show. Taking your comment that "listeners are not morons" to heart, at least twice per show I asked the jocks to come up with a creative way to set the listener up for what's coming: we stated that "we are a local business just like any other, you local plumber, restaurant, tourism operator, and in order to keep our business operating we need to sell stuff like they do... so we're about to play some ads from local businesses that support our station and are the lifeblood of our community, you might even get a good deal... so please listen up and support them when you can." The comments we received from clients and listeners alike that they appreciated that was very encouraging.. some new clients even called us and signed up because of it. Rules are meant to be broken!
Two points:
1. The 13 minutes of ads per hour should be viewed as 13-minute opportunities to entertain listeners - not as an interruption to the entertainment. Unfortunately, the low view of stations, management and the industry generally, to that 13-minutes, has contributed to clients undervaluing entertainment and story in their commercials and this results in listeners having a low opinion of ad breaks. There is no reason ad breaks should not be every bit as entertaining as the rest of the hour, but they're not because of the concentration on "efficiency" by sales reps, sales managers, accountants and management. "Efficiency" equals never saying 'no' to a client, and treating ad writers and audio producers like trash - the first people cut in a redundancy drive, and the last people considered when "serious" industry decisions have to be made.
2. Ad breaks need to compete with the greatest producers in the world. Especially on FM Music radio - most of the hour is taken up with the work of producers like Brian Eno and Quincy Jones and Mutt Lange etc. That's the standard the listener is attuned to. So, what do you expect is going to happen to the listener's enjoyment of the station, when they go from that level of production, to some car sales egotist yelling at them in an overblown monotone, about how great they are? With copy chucked together by his cleaning lady or even worse, Ai. How would any listener react?
Ad break scripting has to be every bit as entertaining as anything coming out of Hollywood and the production needs to be Abbey Road-The Capitol Building worthy. So, accountants in management - are you willing to put in the investment? Sales reps and sales managers - are you willing to slow down a little and allow your writers and producers the time to create entertainment, rather than some of the dross that goes to air in ad breaks? And here's a thought - would you dare allow writers to actually talk to your client and find out what the marketing problem actually is? But of course, that would mean increasing the numbers of creatives in every hub. Heaven forbid, says management.
Efficiency is the enemy of effectiveness.