Yard Games Blog

So much radio advertising is wasted because most copywriters never have been taught how to create an effective radio commercial, let alone an entire campaign of radio commercials.

 

The model that most people follow when creating commercials is:  I’ll do a little song & dance to entertain them, and then I’ll try to sell them something.

 

And it USED to work that way. In the 19th Century, some stranger would arrive in a new town and entertain people with a juggling routine. People would gather around. Then the entertainer would conclude his performance, and the “drummer” would step forward to sell the snake oil.

 

And they sold an awful lot of snake oil that way.

 

But that’s not how it works with electronic media advertising in the 21st Century.

 

Remember, ADVERTISING IS MASS SALESMANSHIP.

 

If you happen to a Sales Manager:

 

Do you instruct your account executives to conduct sales calls by telling 27 jokes and then asking, “Do you want to buy some commercials?” If you own a furniture store, do you have your floor people tell each prospect a bunch of jokes and then ask, “Wanna buy a sofa?”

 

If you entertain in a commercial, the entertainment has to be inextricably woven around the sales message. The entertainment portion of the advertisement and the commercial’s sales message should be intertwined.

 

And that’s a very easy and extremely effective test to apply to your commercial:  “Is it possible to remove the entertaining elements without also removing the sales message?”

 

Many copywriters seem to think if they create a funny situation, they don’t need to establish a strong connection between the comedy and the sales message. Your characters must be involved with the product or service: Perhaps they already use that product or that service….or they need the service or the product….or they wish there were such a product or service….or their lives would be enriched by using the service or product.

 

When creating commercials, don’t do comedy unless you do it well — unless you can do it “funny.” And even if you can “do it funny,” don’t do comedy unless you can do it in a way that successfully sells the sponsor’s message.

 

TV COMMERCIAL FOR LAW FIRMS

For people successfully engaged in radio copywriting for radio advertising, creating effective radio commercials is no mystery.

 

It’s a simple concept, yet so few ad agencies seem to understand:

 

Successful advertising intersects common human experience.

 

Today let’s examine the TV commercial for FindLaw.com.

 

This is a good commercial that does many things right.

 

It intersects the common human experience of having some sort of encounter that leaves you wondering — probably concerned — about whether you or the other guy is the legally responsible party…

 

…and having no idea how to get the answer.

 

It DOESN’T include any jokes. That’s because the people who made this commercial obviously understand that the surest way to amuse the targeted audience is to hold up a mirror to their lives….To reflect their own experiences so accurately that the viewers empathize with the protagonist and, as the expression goes, “feel his pain.”

 

In each vignette, they don’t have the guy verbalize his bewilderment; viewers can SEE what he’s feeling, and the viewers provide their own versions of his inner dialogue…which basically is, “What now??”

 

There’s one small moment that disrupts the rhythm of this spot: the first scene, with the tree in the yard. The neighbor shouldn’t have smile after saying, “But it’s your yard.”

 

Why not?

 

Because that set the commercial’s tone as the protagonist being victimized by careless and uncaring people. That could be a valid story line. But the other people he encountered — the young driver of the other vehicle and his own clueless son — were NOT portrayed as attempting to shirk responsibility.

 

Another thing I teach TV and radio commercial copywriters is to sell the results of the product or service being advertised. In this spot, we don’t see the guy benefit from the results of FindLaw.com. But when we see him go to the website and type “driver liability” into the search field, we PROJECT his finding the answers he needs.

 

For a welcome change, this commercial isn’t about how wonderful the advertiser is. The advertiser isn’t important, but the solutions it offers are.

 

Good job.

I teach radio commercial writing, how to sell radio advertising, and how to create effective radio advertising.

 

Recently I critiqued two radio commercials for a client.

 

I was typically meticulous in my critique.

 

I’ve never told anyone this, but as soon as I’ve e-mailed an advertising critique to a client, I become a little nervous.

 

What if they’re offended? I do not want to offend someone. Especially people who…well, who pay me.

 

So when my e-mail inbox included two messages from him this morning, I took a deep breath before opening them.

 

The first was in response to my first critique:

 

“Awesome! Thanks for the fantastic job … This is REALLY helpful. I’ll be sending you some new commercials soon for your critique.”

 

The second message, responding to the second critique, said:

 

“Thanks again … great suggestions and points.”

 

It was a nice way to start the morning.

 

Usually I critique commercial copy before it’s produced. That makes sense to me, because that way the client has time to change the copy before going into production. But this time I had critiqued commercial copy that already had been recorded.

 

One hour and 16 minutes after I received the client’s second “wow, thanks!” response, I received a very long e-mail from someone I don’t know.

 

That someone appears to be the guy who wrote and produced the commercials I had critiqued. It was a copy of a message he’d sent the client.

 

It was not what one would call a rave review of my critiques.

 

Two elements of his rant leapt out at me:

 

1. He defended the use of the lame voice talent (whom I had pointed out sounded like a schlocky announcer who clearly was simply reading the copy he was being paid to read) by saying, “With our budget, that’s all we can afford.”

 

Ridiculous.

 

Those particular spots didn’t require a voiceover superstar. It would have cost only $250 - $300 to get a much better voiceover performance.

 

I don’t know what they paid their voice over guy, but if they’re not willing to shell out $250 – $300 for a decent announcer read, they need to adjust their priorities.

 

2.It was a very long e-mail. I mean, this guy was upset.

 

AND THEN I DID SOMETHING VERY, VERY SMART.

 

I closed the e-mail without reading it.

 

I got the gist of it: “You don’t know what the heck you’re talking about.”

 

Why read further?

 

So I could become offended?

 

So I could catalog and rebut his evidence of my alleged incompetence?

 

Do you know what would have happened if I had taken two minutes to read his entire attack (or, from his perspective, his defense of his work)?

 

I would have spent hours mentally refuting his every point.

 

That’s how my brain works. If I think I’ve been unfairly attacked, my instinct is to defend myself — even if only within the privacy of my own mind.

 

But I had other stuff to do today. Why waste any of my sorely limited time (and even more severely limited brain power) marshalling an argument I never would deliver?

 

WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH YOU?

 

Maybe nothing.

 

Or maybe you’re a radio station producer and a thoughtless salesperson mentioned, while passing you in the hallway, “The client hates that spot you did for him.”

 

Oh? You mean that spot that was approved every step of the way and now is on the air?

 

Let it go. Getting all upset won’t help you at all.

 

Or you’re an account exec and the Traffic Director screams at you because you didn’t remind her that she had promised to change your client’s rotation, so she forgot to do it and it’s all your fault.

 

Let it go. Let her words float past you like a summer breeze. (You don’t bother to argue with the wind, do you?)

 

Or you’re a jock, and the station engineer(!) pointedly tells you the comedy bit you did on yesterday’s show “really wasn’t very funny.”

 

Should the radio station engineer be critiquing the radio air talent? No.

 

Should you care anything at all about whether the station engineer thinks you’re funny or your show is good? C’mon.

 

Let it go.

 

Use that time and energy for something constructive.

 

Why, look at me. The time I saved by not reading and then mentally constructing a devastating response to that e-mail?

 

I used it to write this article.

As a radio advertising expert who teaches radio copywriting to people who want to create profitable radio advertising, often I shock people by telling them the following:

 

When it comes to deliver ing a sales message via commercials, radio is  a visual medium. That might sound ridiculous…or hard to believe. After all, anyone can see (or hear) that radio is an auditory medium…isn’t it?

 

Yes, the initial connection to the audience is made auditorily, via sound. But for the sales message to have a conscious impact on the listener, that listener almost invariably converts the sounds into mental pictures. It’s this combination of auditory and visual that makes good radio advertising so powerful…or, actually, that makes all good radio so powerful.

 

A television commercial is limited to whatever actual images the spot’s producers can make appear on your tv set. But the images that your mind can create have no restrictions.

 

All the gadgets, bells and whistles at your disposal should be used only in service of the overall creative sales effort. Is there a reason to use reverse echo on this spot? Is there a reason to use phasing or to speed up or slow down the vocal pitch?

 

Flashy tricks and techniques are wonderful when they actually add to the impact of the presentation. Otherwise, they’re simply distractions; you’re just showing off for the sake of showing off.

 

Imagine that you’re in a Las Vegas casino. As you approach a gambling table, a casino employee picks up a deck of cards. He proceeds to shuffle them with a series of broad flourishes. He amazes you with his dexterity and his speed. Then he puts the cards away and proceeds to spin the roulette wheel. That card-handling artistry probably would be wonderful at a blackjack table; it would enhance your blackjack-playing experience. But doing that at a roulette table ….Well, the guy’s just showing off, wasting your time, and distracting you from the appeal of the roulette wheel.

 

GOOD COMMERCIALS —  THE RADIO STATION’S SECRET WEAPON:     Let’s say there are two evenly matched stations in a market, presenting the same musical format. Music, staff, signal, etc. — the stations are evenly matched. Let’s further assume that Station “A” produces typical, run-of-the-mill commercials — i.e., boring, noncreative 30 and 60-second spots. The commercials produced by Station “B,” however, are fresh, interesting, provocative, entertaining — in short, people actually enjoy hearing them.

 

When Station “A” begins a stopset, it is likely to lose far more listeners than Station “B” will with its stopsets. That means higher ratings for Station “B.” Which should mean higher revenues for Station “B.” And bigger commissions for Station “B”’s account executives.

RADIO COMMERCIAL FOR LEXUS

Radio advertising looks so easy, which is why so many people who know nothing about radio copywriting continue to create bad radio commercials.

Car dealer associations in Southern California have a long history of airing terrible radio commercials.

The latest entry in this Motorcade of Shame begins:

“Going once…going twice…Sold!”

THEN:  Sound effect of an air horn, apparently signaling the end of a sporting event. And then a few sung words of opera, followed by “Bravo!”

Then an announcer informs us, “Every event must come to end. And the the Lexus Zero-To-60 Certified Pre-Owned Sales Event is no exception. Right now, we have a large selection of meticulously inspected vehicles available, and every single one of them is on sale. We even have a line of groundbreaking hybrids…”

So….First they paint a mental picture of an auction. Then a sporting event. Then an opera.

Y’know, for the typical luxury car buyer who enjoys auctions, sporting events and the opera.

But you pictured an auction, right? And maybe you also pictured an opera? (Perhaps you also pictured an air horn.)

And how clearly did you see “the Lexus Zero-To-60 Certified Pre-Owned Sales Event”?

And exactly who instructed all automobile dealers to their promotions as “Sales Events”?

Instead of “Sales Events,” why not come right out and declare them to be “Come Give Us Your Money” events?

They brag about having a “large selection” of motor vehicles “available.” Wow! Stop the presses!

“CAR DEALERS HAVE LARGE SELECTIONS OF VEHICLES AVAILABLE!”

The vehicles, by the way, are “meticulously inspected.” They were inspected; we’re not told if any of them passed.

Oh, and we also have hybrids! The hybrids break ground, which apparently is very important.

1.9% financing! Irresistible lease rates!

They give a deadline. Of course, that deadline was 5 weeks from the day I heard this commercial, so it doesn’t exactly build a feeling of urgency.

And why don’t we end with two Calls To Action followed by 12 seconds of disclaimer?

Southern California Lexus Dealers: Good cars, bad radio commercials.

DOMINO’S PAPA JOHNS COMMERCIAL CRITIQUE IS IT SMART TO ATTACK COMPETITORS IN COMMERCIALS?

Sometimes attacking the competition in your television advertising or radio commercials is smart.

Sometimes it’s what we in the advertising business call “not smart”.

A little background regarding this commercial.

Years ago Pizza Hut filed suit, claiming that Papa John’s Pizza’s slogan, “Better Ingredients. Better pizza,” is “false advertising.” That is the court case to which this TV commercial for Domino’s Pizza refers.

Remember, this advertisement was paid for by Domino’s Pizza…which had no involvement with that court ruling.

The court ruling was on a claim involving Pizza Hut and Papa John’s…but not Domino’s…which coughed up a lot of money for this commercial….

——-

BRANDON SOLANO - DOMINO’S HEAD CHEF: For years, Papa John’s has been telling us they have better ingredients, better pizza. But when challenged in this court, they stated their slogan is “puffery.” What’s puffery? Scott, you’re a lawyer…

SCOTT: Puffery: an exaggerated statement based on opinion, not fact.

BRANDON SOLANO: Here’s what’s not puffery. Our new hand-tossed extra cheese and pepperoni pizzas just beat Papa John’s in a national taste test. And to celebrate, we’re offering two medium, two topping pizzas for just $5.99 each. Our pizzas taste better, and that’s not puffery. That’s proven.

——-

This is what we in the advertising business call “Really Dumb.” It violates one of the most basic tenets of positioning: Bigger brands should not promote their smaller competitors.

Domino’s has a much larger piece of the market pie (sorry about that one), but bizarrely it chooses to bring a smaller competitor to the attention of many consumers who previously had been unfamiliar with the other brand.

Dominos also maintains a much larger “consumer mind share”: When you ask, “When I say ‘pizza delivery service, what names come to mind?” far more people will say “Dominos” than ” Papa John’s.”

But THIS commercial helps link the larger brand (Dominos) to the smaller, less known brand (Papa John’s).

While no doubt Dominos thinks the spot puts Papa John’s in its place, many consumers will be left with the name “Papa John’s pizza” without recalling the allegations against it.

Having a lawyer stand in front of a courthouse and talk about puffery does not further Domino’s current “Better Ingredients. Better Pizza” advertising campaign..

This commercial exemplifies an ad campaign whose creators have no understanding of what is known as positioning. They are trying to tell consumers that “Domino’s pizza tastes better.” But the first 17 of the 30 seconds were spent talking about a competitor.

That’s a foolish approach to advertising.