4-8-2013
Pro sales guy, regular blogger, and good friend of Radio Ink, Sean Luce, recently made some compelling arguments for having radio generate superior creative. This would be a noble and worthwhile effort, he contends, to produce advertising with better recall for the ad and the advertiser. My dad had a line that covered this circumstance: ?Nice dodge ? if you can pull it off!?
The (factual) story Sean used to demonstrate the point was of an advertiser?s somewhat bland billboard that was naughtily defaced and, as a result, drew more attention and awareness than spending multiples on straight advertising ever could. By accident, the ad did indeed ?rise above the clutter.? The advertiser enjoyed (?) a couple weeks of higher visibility in the market. There was no mention of any increases in the advertiser?s business.
While Sean?s point is well taken, there is still that niggly problem left over. That issue being: In today?s contemporary radio, almost every one of the spots written and produced locally will not be rising above any clutter. They will not be rising to near the top of the clutter. They will continue to be the clutter.
Practically, asking radio to start offering listenable and effective messages is like asking precocious, undisciplined kids splashing in the shallow end of the pool to swim Olympic times in the deep end. It ain?t gonna happen.
To continue the analogy: If radio is determined to swim with the big kids in the can?t-touch-the-bottom section, we will have to 1.) Learn to stay alive in water over our heads, 2.) Learn to swim, and 3.) Learn to do water tricks.
At no time has anyone ever come up with evidence that radio does not produce some of the worst examples of advertising ever to grace a professional, commercial, mass medium. When it comes to providing sophisticated, effective, advertising messages, music radio is still a stifled, third-rate jukebox.
As to generating conscious recall from an audience for the ad, the advertiser, and the content: It ain?t gonna happen. Accomplishing recall isn?t even a worthy goal. It is not necessary. The entertainment value and emotions that might be produced certainly do add to the listenable qualities and efficacy of the spots. Recall, however, is not a factor. ?And, why is that?? some skeptical broadcasters might inquire.
Before continuing, I do acknowledge the exception. This is the occasion when an advertiser?s message reaches the lowest of the low-hanging fruit. These are consumers/customers who are already in the market for the advertiser?s product or service; who hear a spot about a great deal from an advertiser, and have hundred dollar bills hanging out of their jeans. Only a slight nudge is required to take advantage of that advertiser?s offer. Even that is not about recall. It?s about triggering immediately available behaviors.
Meanwhile, any spot that has entertainment value or is producing a powerful emotional response in an audience does have extraordinary advantages over the (usually innocuous) content-heavy commercials. It perpetrates extended listening ? as opposed to immediate tune-outs. And it starts or reinforces the feelings necessary to drive a visit or a sale. But, expecting this particularly entertaining spot to increase [I]conscious recall[/I] is about roaring down a blind alley with an expectation that a hole is going to open up ? just in the nick o? time. Just as well then, that recall is not required because, again, it ain?t gonna happen.
Now, for another ?woo-woo? example: Since we are discussing a ?linguistic technology,? it is valid to mention Arthur C. Clarke?s famous comment: ?Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.? Properly executed radio commercials are generating and influencing desired behaviors ? without the necessity for, or assumed benefit of, conscious recall!
Plus, and this is absolutely a critical distinction, radio does have an advantage. Because radio is an electronic medium, the signal is accessed by an audience and processed (primarily) at a subdominant ? a right brain ? level. Any messages delivered through an electronic medium become speeding freight trains careening directly to that portion of the brain responsible for emotions, creativity, and pattern completion. Critical, information-processing capacities are snoozing over yonder in the left brain ? the dominant hemisphere ? and getting bypassed. Hence, the lower priority of content material in radio commercials.
As savvy marketers and their agencies have known for generations: ?Buying? is an activity influenced by emotions. These emotions are often already tainted by individuals? experience and influenced by cultural elements ? including advertising. Evidence can be provided that demonstrate how most of our emotions and the decisions generated through their influence take place at an unconscious level ? outside of our awareness. (This, I appreciate, is unwelcome information to those who insist their decisions are made only on the facts, the numbers.) It ain?t gonna happen. Not with humans, anyway.
Still, Sean?s admonition to get above the pile is not without merit. It?s just that my part of the radio team (programming and commercial production) is not even close to being well enough equipped to start launching four-baggers out of the yard on anything resembling a consistent basis. For us, a bloop single is cause for high-fives all around and towel snapping in the showers after we?ve been soundly thrashed 95-5 ? a reference to our share of ad revenues.
Further, ?digital? is nobody?s ?game saver? either. Our responsibility is to improve our product. Processing our standard-issue crap through a different strainer will still not produce a better pate. It will be the same crap on a different plate.
Meanwhile, Sean?s profession of training sales folk to up their individual games is an essential element of the radio business. The same can?t be said for the communicative aspects of what we do ? a legitimate reason for despair. After all, if we can?t/won?t provide the training to drastically improve our product, including commercial production and programming, Sean?s better-trained colleagues will still be going to the street with a leaking, or worse, an empty sample-sack of radio clutter.
Ronald T. Robinson has been involved in Canadian Radio since the '60s as a performer, writer and coach and has trained and certified as a personal counsellor. Ron makes the assertion that the most important communicative aspects of broadcasting, as they relate to Talent and Creative, have yet to be addressed. Check out his website www.voicetalentguy.com
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