Radio Advertiser

By Author: Mohan Chen
Total Articles: 431
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What you say - as with any advertising medium, if you actually want people to buy your widgets or book your widget-cleaners, you need to give people a good reason to do it. People won't flock to your store, or jam the phone lines, just by hearing you're a "family firm" and offer "good service". Try to beat the "So what?" factor. The best way to do this is to come up with something unique about your business. The second best way is to come up with a unique offer.

How you say it - an important part of the process for radio advertising costs but one that is all too often left to people who don't do the job right. Local radio stations, by and large, don't have the staff to put effective radio advertising together. Some are exceptions. Most sub-contract part of the work to production houses miles away, who couldn't care about your business or the radio station. Ask to meet your radio creative. Show them the business. It's the only way they'll understand it. Make friends with them, so that they want to make the advertising work, as well as you.

Mike Bersin, who is ...
... a freelance creative radio consultant, has some thoughts elsewhere on good radio creativity. All his ideas are great ones, only eclipsed by the greatness of the man himself. (He's great, in case you hadn't already realised.). I, however, have three basic rules you might care to follow. They're not as fine, or as fun, but work just great.

1. The client name goes in three times. Picture this... you hear a radio ad, prick up your ears because of a decent offer, and then... don't hear the client, because the cretinous agency idiot wrote it like a press ad, and assumed the listener could somehow rewind and hear the ad again. Put the client name in at the beginning, at the middle, and at the end. That way, nobody will be in any doubt who's paid for it.

2. The offer goes in twice. Seen a great TV ad, only not to have the faintest idea what it's on about? Fine, give a nice creative treatment of the offer. But repeat it again, simply, at the end of the ad.

3. Only think once about the length of the ad. When it's written. Don't try and fit a 30" message into a 20" ad. If it means you can only fit the offer in once, or the client name in twice, it's not going to work as well. And it'll cost the client more than the paltry 20% he's saved by losing those ten seconds.

How many times you say it - this is the most important part of radio planning. Don't try and hit as many people with your ad. Hit as many people as you can as many times as you can. If that means that 200,000 people hear your ad five times, that's better than 400,000 people only hearing it twice. People act on repetition. Tell people a few times about something, and they're far more likely to do it.
BUT hold your horses. This is general radio wisdom. But, sadly, general radio wisdom also entails really p*ssing the listener off with the same old tired radio copy. An eminent american radio guru once said, "Repetition builds reputation". A slightly less eminent British radio guru has amended this to say, "Repetition builds... repetition". As a not-eminent-at-all radio guru, I say... work on this rule of thumb. Less than three times = not enough. More than 10 = too much. But don't forget that you need your target market to hear the ads - so if women listen to the radio twice as much as men, and you sell a men's magazine, you need to be careful what the salesperson targets your campaign on.

How much will you get charged?

Generally, radio advertising costs charge you per thousand listeners at one time - and a good rough price for this is £2 per thousand people. So, if the breakfast show has 100,000 listeners at 7.30am, then buying a spot at 7.30am will cost you £200. The late night show's 10,000 listeners would only cost £20. And remember - it's better to get a sensible repetition on a smaller audience than a huge audience not remembering your ad at all.

Stations will work this out based on a thirty-second ad (which is actually slightly under the average length). Expect other lengths to be worked out roughly pro-rata.

You might therefore think: "Hang on, this looks like a nightmare to work out". It's not, since any radio station worth their salt will work this all out to your budget - giving you an estimated repetition figure, called "OTH" (opportunities to hear). The listening figures that the stations work on should be from RAJAR - an independent audience survey company.

So how much is it to advertise on the radio?

How much is a piece of string? It depends on the people you want to advertise to, the popularity of the station, whether the salesperson is desperate to sell you anything to hit his target or whether he wants to make a long-term prospect of you, or whether the advertising agency media buyer actually - and unusually - understands buying radio.