(COPYWRITING) Radio Visuals

5-16-2014

Radio has been called the most visual medium. Because your audience is creating the pictures with their imaginations, a radio commercial provides the perfect opportunity for brand comparisons, coupons, product demonstrations, even statistics ?because listeners can see more clearly with their minds? eyes.
Brand comparisons: Ask your audience to examine the brand on the left and the brand on the right. Use music, sound effects, audience reactions, announcer inflections, or contrasting voices to show the differences. This of course works in stereo but it also works in mono.

Coupons:  Get your audience to visualize a coupon. Use the sounds of a knife, scissors, tearing, or a chainsaw to cut it out, or the sound of a pen or pencil if you want them to create their own ?radio coupons.? Caveat: Make sure that coupon gets them something huge, meaningful or dramatic, because you?re asking them to take an extra step, not just clip something out of a publication.

Product demonstrations: Show changes by using audience reactions, music slowing down or speeding up, noise or silence.

Charts, graphs, statistics: Play rising or falling tones, orchestra hits for large, a tiny bell for small, a chorus of voices for many, a handful of voices for few, a tuba for old, a power chord for new.

Distorted muffled sound for impaired vision. Crisply equalized sound for clear vision. Dark music or light music for different shades.

Get your audience involved. Help them see. The possibilities are endless.

Pick the most visual thing you can think of ? something that must be done in print or on TV, and do it on radio. It?ll be the most powerful thing your listeners have ever seen.

To get your very own free copy of ?Hedquist?s List of 329 Commercial Cliches,? email me at jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) Hold the Phone

4-23-2014

When was the last time you wrote down a phone number you heard on a radio commercial? I thought so. Do you really expect any other listener to do it, especially while they?re driving?

Millions of dollars in radio time are wasted each year promoting phone numbers no one responds to, and yet clients keep asking to have their numbers put in radio commercials, thinking that radio works like print. It doesn?t.

Use a phone number in a radio commercial only if a phone call is the primary (or only) response vehicle, and only if the phone number is memorable. We can?t all have 1-800-FLOWERS, but the simpler your number is to remember, the better.

First, use the spot to make listeners want to call, then make it easy for them to call. (Read that sentence again out loud).

If you have a memorable number, build the spot around it: benefit/phone number/ benefit/phone number/ benefit/phone number?

Or, challenge the listener to remember the number, or make a joke about it, or sing the number, or make it rhyme.

If you don?t have a number that?ll stick in the mind, make sure you implant the advertiser?s name, and send those listeners to the White Pages of the phone book, or, more likely, to their favorite search engine. That way, they won?t be distracted by the competitors? ads they might see in the Yellow Pages.

Above all, stop adding a phone number as an afterthought. The time spent mentioning a phone number can be used to make the commercial more compelling. If the spot is powerful enough and aired with enough frequency to get listeners to remember the name and the benefits, they?ll find the advertiser.

To get your very own free copy of ?Hedquist?s List of 328 Commercial Clich?s,? email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

(4/23/2014 10:08:27 AM)
Unfortunately, there are so many poor copywriters out there that the average advertiser doesn't know any better. They have been exposed to trashy copy for so long that the stench has long since faded away. Our clients deserve better; too bad most of us can't deliver! For all your so and so needs, anyone?
(4/23/2014 9:36:53 AM)
I've often told clients that the only ones writing down phone numbers while they are driving are the idiots like us working in radio and TV looking for leads!

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(COPYWRITING) Your Life In Commercials

4-18-2014

Woke up, got out of bed
Dragged a comb across my head
Found my way downstairs and drank a cup
And looking up, I noticed I was late
Found my coat and grabbed my hat
Made the bus in seconds flat
Found my way upstairs and had a smoke
Somebody spoke and I went into a dream
(Lennon/McCartney)

A day in your life provides almost endless opportunities for commercial ideas.

Describe all the activities in an ordinary day and you?ll find stories that can be adapted to advertisements for many advertisers. Here are some of the activities in a typical day of a mythological person in Anytown, USA.

Alarm goes off. You get up and talk to yourself, or listen to the thoughts in your head: ?List of things to do today ? visit advertiser??

Do you sing in the shower? ?Sing (briefly) about anticipating today?s adventure, augmented by the benefits of the advertiser?s services.?

Prepare breakfast. We overhear kitchen conversations: ?Family discussion, kid?s demands, spouse?s remarks about a problem that can be solved by the advertiser.?

Get kids ready for school: ?Kid?s complaints, excitement, teasing siblings ? poking fun at problems or even the advertiser.?

Check voicemail: ?Messages from friends, coworkers, teachers, boss, clients, relatives who talk about problems or advertiser solutions.?

Check emails: ?Talk to yourself as you read through them, listen to part of a podcast talking about the advertiser.?

Listen to radio: ?We overhear a news story, traffic or weather report, commercial, talk or sports show that ties in with the advertiser.?

Watch TV: ?We overhear snippets of various programs while clicking through channels.?
On the school bus: ?Driver as spokesperson, reacting with kids as conversation participants or background sounds.?

Car pool: ?Driver and passenger discussion about news, day?s events, traffic, family ? all opportunities for promoting advertiser benefits.?

Drive to work alone: ?Talk to yourself on the way? Interactive conversation with the radio.?

Interact with other drivers: ?Cut me off if you want, but I?m goin? to happy hour at the Dew Drop Inn when I get off work!?

Greet fellow employees: ?A variety of moods are possible here.?

Hear a telephone recording: ?We are experiencing a temporary work stoppage since all our customer representatives are at the annual clearance sale at_________. Please call back during non-sale hours.?

Lunch break: ?Discussion about where to go, who wants what, food costs, time, preferences, convenience, diets, etc.?

Phone calls: ?To and from clients, to and from family. Planning activities ? advertiser involvement.?

Water cooler conversations: ?Talk about work, after-work activities, family ? more opportunities for advertiser discussions.?

End of day ? riding elevator with co-workers: ?Jokes, work-related stories, complaints, successes ? still more opportunities for advertiser discussions.?

Dinner: ?Preparing a home-cooked meal, heating up leftovers, microwaving frozen entrees, ordering out, jumping in the car to head to a restaurant ? each are opportunities to talk about an advertiser.?

Social night out: ?Club, movie, coffee with friends, bar, seminar, reunion, surprise party ? endless possibilities for stories to promote advertisers.?

Helping kid with homework: ?Discussions about future applications of knowledge, your own education, school, careers, persistence, values ? applications for many types of advertisers.?

Drifting off to sleep: ?Reviewing the day?s events, planning for the next day, intimate spousal conversations about finances, love, health, kids, retirement, etc.?

Try this exercise with an atypical day ? a watershed event, a vacation, first day at school or a new job, or an adventure of any kind, and you?ll add even more scenarios.

Any single slice of the day could be the basis for a spot?or combine ?em. Now you have more opportunities to laugh in the face of writer?s block.

To get your very own free copy of ?Hedquist?s List of 328 Commercial Clich?s,? email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) Prepare Your Client To Do Good Radio

4-9-2014

My consulting clients often ask me, ?How can I get my clients to do radio right? How can I convince them to not shoot themselves in the foot? I create great commercials, but they turn ?em down and want to run with ineffective ads.?

It?s because we haven?t prepared them. They?re simply acting from their comfort zone. In their mind, ?If it sounds like a commercial, it must be okay.?

Whether you?re an account executive, writer, producer, or creative director, setting the stage with your client is in everyone?s best interest.

It all starts with us. If we take responsibility for helping our client understand what?s really going to work, then they?re more likely to approve an effective commercial. Here are some suggestions:

No one likes surprises. Simply gathering a few facts, leaving your client with some literature, and returning with a spec commercial will not guarantee you success.

Get them to participate in the discovery process. This is where the final approval begins.

Ask them ANA (Audience Needs Analysis)-type questions, probe for stories. When they reveal tidbits that would make good commercial stories, or share insights that will help humanize them to listeners, give them positive feedback.

Ask your client: ?What would you like prospective customers/clients to know/feel about you that they don?t know/feel now??

Don?t be afraid to talk about the advantages of print, but be clear that people make most of their buying decisions emotionally, and radio is unsurpassed at touching the emotions.

Don?t let them try to pack a spot with too much information. Listeners are multitasking moving targets who can only be expected to catch one idea.

Build a case for having unique commercials.

Review the insights that they?ve given you. Let them know that, based on their input, you?ll create a message that won?t sound like a typical commercial. Prepare them for something different, and then deliver it.

When you return, remind them of the previous discussion where you both agreed to launch a campaign that doesn?t sound like a series of typical commercials.

These suggestions will help put you and the advertiser on the same side of the desk, so it?ll be less of a buyer and seller relationship. You?ll both be part of a team working to win the hearts of prospective buyers.

If you?re a client, you can use the suggestions in this article to prepare yourself to do the best radio advertising you?ve ever done.

To get your very own free copy of ?Hedquist?s List of 244 Cliches,? email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) Pull Back The Curtain

3-7-2014

If a radio commercial is theatre, why do our listeners only hear from our clients what happens ?on stage,? in front of the curtain? It?s time to invite the audience ?backstage? to experience what creates the reasons behind the sales, events, discounts, promotions, free consultations, giveaways, bonuses, and services.

Give the audience the privilege of eavesdropping behind the scenes. There?s a reason why ?the making of?? episodes are so popular.

Some of the most productive questions we can ask our client are: What?s the worst, best, most unexpected, thing that?s ever happened in your business? What do you wish every listener knew about you but doesn?t?

Because these are the things clients don?t share with their existing or potential customers. Sometimes sharing the most revealing answers can make the advertisers more ?real? to your audience.

How do you do what you do? (Can be a powerful differentiator)

What happened to get the business here? (Can be an emotional story)

Was it a hobby that grew into a business? (Can demonstrate the passion the owners have for what they do) 

Was there a watershed moment in your life that led to starting the business? (Maybe they were angry, upset, or disappointed that a service wasn?t being provided and they decided to provide it)

Did you make a mistake or an accidental discovery and invent a product, service, or method of serving customers that was unique? Did you apply a technique gleaned from another business, like home delivery of food applied to the office supply business, or ER patient evaluation techniques to auto repair?

Pull back the curtain and let the audience in on what goes on behind the scenes. Do it with an announcer description, employee or owner interviews, or behind-the-scenes recordings of your client?s employees helping customers.

It?s a way to show the passion, commitment, dedication, or reasons for your client?s success?all reasons for prospects to go to them. It?s a connection unique to them that can help differentiate your client from the competition.

To get your very own free copy of Hedquist?s List of 238 Cliches, email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) Want A Better Commercial? Push It.

1-22-2014

?C?mon, give me 20!? I was just thinking how my army drill sergeant and the woman who three decades later led my poetry class used almost the same command.

Tough ol? Sgt. Blades at Ft. Benning had me hit the ground for pushups whenever he felt I wasn?t pushing hard enough.

Diane Frank, my gentle poetry mentor would circle one of my ordinary phrases and say, ?Push it further. Think of 20 more ways to say this.?

?Twenty!?!  How about five or six??

?No, give me 20. You can do it.?

Drove me crazy. Made me a better writer.

How does this apply to radio? Your audience is awash in advertising messages raining upon them from every possible direction. What could possibly pique their interest?

They?re like fish. Really bored fish.

The words don?t have to be unusual, just unusually juxtaposed. Combine them in unexpected ways to spark interest, to surprise, to seduce. What are you casting into that pond of listeners? A flashy lure that catches the sun, a delicate fly that dances on the surface of the water, or stink bait?

I?ve written before about the importance of your ?audio headline.? Listen to the first few words of your commercial. If they?re ordinary, they won?t capture your audience?s imagination. Time to push it. Come up with 20 more unexpected ways to open the spot.

Set a timer. Give yourself five minutes. You?ll be amazed at the dramatic, shocking, intriguing, or funny approaches waiting below the surface.
You don?t necessarily have to access a thesaurus, although that might help. Think of some twist on the familiar to pull people in.

It?s easy to write, ?At Downtown Jewelers we?ve got just the gift for that anniversary??

But it might take some pushing to write, ?She didn?t think you?d remember. She worried that, after 10 years, you?d lost the spark??

Instead of, ?Dr. Robinson makes your dental visit painless??

How about, ?The loudest sound in the room was my own breathing, I could feel my heart beating, my palms sweating, and that was from just thinking about the dental visit?then I remembered Dr. Robinson at Gentle Dental??

It only takes seconds to write, ?Metro Transit has the solution to your commuting needs??

Push for a few more seconds to get, ?Lost keys, morning panic, phone ringing, half a bagel, sip of coffee, traffic crunch, hair pulling, pressure rising, or?read the paper, sit in comfort, watch the scenery, get some work done, take it easy?on Metro Transit.?
Don?t give up too soon. Sgt. Blades? approach was brutal. Diane?s was much gentler. You can visit her at http://www.dianefrank.net/. I don?t think Sgt. Blades has a website.

C?mon, push it, and pull in your listeners.

To get your very own free copy of ?Hedquist?s List of 226 Cliches,? email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) The Secret Life Of Clients

1/6/2013

Beyond the business life of each of your clients is another life filled with stories, interesting facts, and material that just might make interesting and effective radio commercials.

I?ve talked in depth about going beyond the typical client-needs analysis questions and to do an audience-needs analysis to unlock good story material from your client.

You can go a step further and gather input that will give the audience a way to connect with the client as a person.

This technique won?t work with every client, but for some it?ll be the most powerful approach you could take.

As you get your client to open up, continue through the business, positioning, competition, and benefits questions into the realm of the personal. See if any of these topics and examples yields the stuff from which story commercials can be made:

? Former lives:
What career did your client have before their current one?
Did they grow up in a large family or were they an only child?
Did they have an overbearing sibling?
Were they adopted?
Did they/do they take care of ailing parents?

? Events, situations, circumstances that shaped their lives:
Did they come from a family that was financially or otherwise handicapped?
Have they overcome obstacles to succeed?
Were there any watershed events that changed the course of their life?

? Relationships:
We?re used to getting comments from employees and customers, but what about?
Family ? admired him; thought he was crazy; knew he?d succeed.
Spouse ? puts up with long hours taking care of customers.
Other business people ? suppliers who admire the client?s vision, persistence, or ethics.
Influences ? inspired by a teacher, coach, or mentor?
? Quirks, attitude
? Education
? Hobbies
? Philosophy

There may be more topics you can think of, but you get the idea.

As you uncover these mostly unpublicized parts of their lives, ask yourself: ?How can these insights benefit customers?? These secrets made them what they are today ? driven, compassionate, detail oriented, hard working, successful, talented, skilled, or multi-faceted. Now, tell their stories.

Your commercial stories could be in the form of interviews with relatives, neighbors, teachers, or suppliers. They could be produced like documentaries, or an episode of Biography. You could dramatize their stories with characters, music, and SFX.

You could have the clients tell their stories alone. You could intersperse their voice, or the voices of their relatives, friends, neighbors, or associates with narrated benefits for the audience.

You may find that these secrets can differentiate a business or put a human face and personality on an advertiser and keep their business from remaining a secret.

To get your very own free copy of Hedquist?s List of 226 Cliches, email me at jeffrey@hedquist.com. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) Six Commercial Ruts

12-4-2013

If your commercials sound like commercials, listeners will probably ignore them.

Here are some of the ruts we fall into, making our commercials sound like commercials:

1. We get it backwards. We start with the client?s name before we?ve given the listener a reason to remember it. Or we initiate the call to action before there?s a reason to respond.

-- ?Downtown Credit Union presents??
-- ?At Crestline Jewelers, we don?t just save you money??
-- ?Save this Saturday the 25th!?
-- ?One night only!?
-- Jack Frost Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep/Toyota/Isuzu/Hyundai/ Desoto/Studebaker, Pleasantville?s Number One dealer is changing all the rules?
-- Stop everything and write down this number!

Remedy: Give the audience a reason to respond, and then give them a way to respond.

2. We use clich?s, and speak in ?commercialese? instead of having a one-to-one conversation with the listener.

Remedy: Scan for clich?s and explain each in language people use.

Maybe your client does have a "friendly knowledgeable sales staff.? Is there a more effective way to make that point? Tell a story about how a customer?s problem was solved, about how the specialized training they?ve received will benefit the customer, or about the powerful guarantee the store offers to make sure the customer is completely satisfied.

3. We tack unrelated entertainment onto a spot, hoping to get the listener?s attention. Spots that start with a joke, followed by a pitch disappoint the listener. Unrelated humor doesn?t sell.

Be wary of stories where the name of another advertiser can be substituted. Attempts at humor that make fun of members of the target audience can be painful results-killing mistakes.

Remedy: Weave the entertainment and marketing together. Make the heroes of your story audience members who are empowered by the advertiser. If you poke fun, make the target someone your audience would poke fun at.

4. We ?announce? commercials and subject the audience to bad acting.

Remedy: Direct your talent to talk with your audience, not at them. Engage their imaginations. Don?t write beyond the capabilities of your available talent. Increase your talent pool.

5. We start jingles with the client?s name.

Remedy: Create original music that?s a song, not a slogan. At least save the client identification for later in the music.

6. We create spots that are predictable ? If you create a commercial that follows these patterns or myriad others, it?ll sound like a commercial and won?t do as well as it would have if it didn?t, but it will if it doesn?t, so don?t.

Remedy: Radio has the ability to ?sneak up? on listeners and engage their interest.

? Do the unexpected. Tell your audience something about themselves that they knew, but they didn?t know that you knew, or cared about. Surprise them.

? Start your stories in the middle. Throw away the first paragraph.

? Use unexpected spokespersons or characters to tell your stories.
? Use a variety of story forms ?? non-commercial-like ways to tell stories to get results for your clients.

? Create your commercial as if you were just recommending the
advertiser to a friend.

Jeffrey Hedquist has had lots of practice digging himself out of ruts at Hedquist Productions, Inc. To get your very own free copy of ?Hedquist?s List of 217 Cliches,? email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send them. Guaranteed to reduce commercial effectiveness.

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(COPYWRITING) "Feel, Felt, Found"

11-20-2013

?Feel, Felt, Found? is one of the ways salespeople overcome objections when they?re meeting with prospects. Now, the abbreviated sales interaction we call a commercial is slightly different because we don?t hear the person?s objection directly.

But we can anticipate the objection and counter it as part of our broadcast commercial sales call.

The shorthand version of this technique is: ?I know how you feel, I felt the same way, but what I found was??

Technique:

First empathize with your audience members, letting them know that you understand how they feel. Begin your commercial by describing the pain, discomfort, or dissatisfaction they?re experiencing. This one approach will make your commercials stand out because very few advertisers do it.

Then tell them how you or others have had the same experience, and that they?re not alone.

Next, explain that when you did what you want listeners to do, you found that your pain subsided and/or your life was improved.

Examples:

? I understand what you?re going through. Lots of people have felt the same way. And what they?ve found with this solution is that....

? You drive up in front of the big grey warehouse and start to have doubts. You step inside ? concrete floors, naked fluorescent lighting, very few salespeople?hmmm. Then you see the incredible furniture and the unbelievable prices plainly marked on each item and you realize you?ve stumbled into a treasure trove of bargains.

Feel:  How do you feel when you think about going to work on Monday morning?
Felt: Yeah, that?s what I thought. Millions of people experience Monday morning sickness when they think about going to that same old job again.

Found: I found a way out of the rat race. It?s called Career Helper?

Feel:  I?ll bet you feel stupid when you?ve forgotten a birthday or anniversary.

Felt: You?re not the only one. We all do it. Other than turning back the clock, is there anything we can do?

Found: There may be a solution waiting for you at Arnold?s Florist. It?s called the ?Please Forgive Me? bouquet. It comes in 3 sizes: ?Oops,? ?I Can?t Believe I Did That,? and ?The End of the World As We Know It.?  Just come in and tell Arnie you blew it. He?ll know what to recommend.

Feel: I?ll bet you?re like me. I hated starting another exercise program.

Felt: I?d begin with good intentions, but then a few weeks into it, I?d skip a day, then two, and pretty soon?

Found: I found though, when I had a partner to exercise with, it wasn?t so easy to skip. With ?Workout Buddy,? a program sponsored by the City Recreational Department, I have someone keeping me going, and I?m seeing some great results?

How this technique works:

By empathizing with how your target audience feels, you build harmony with them, creating rapport.

When you talk about how others felt, you expand the focus and make the audience member a part of a group so they don?t feel alone.

When they?re attached to that group, you move the whole group by telling how the person in the group changed their mind. Your audience, being attached to the group, should change their mind at the same time.

Jeffrey Hedquist knows you want to create better commercials more easily. Email jeffrey@hedquist.com and Jeffrey will send you a way to use an old Saturday Night Live sketch to create a powerful radio campaign. No charge.

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(COPYWRITING) Help Listeners Remember

11-1-2013

Want listeners to remember the advertiser in the commercial? Sure you do. Try using mnemonics?aids to memory.

How about the name of the store, service, product, owner? Hear any rhymes, plays on words, metaphors? For a campaign for Wright State University, we used ?Make the Wright choice.? Simplistic? Yes, but it worked.

Do any characters, accents, voices come to mind? How about a particular kind of music, or sound effect? There was radio campaign for Corbett Canyon which echoed ?Canyon, Canyon, Canyon? whenever the name is spoken by any of the characters or announcer. Even if you couldn?t remember the whole name, you might have just asked for the wine with ?canyon? in its name.

We created a very successful spot for Anderson Elerding Travel, that used a bell to emphasize the name Eler-?ding.? The client even used a visual of a bell in their print ads.

Building a direct response spot around the client?s phone number? Can you make it rhyme? How about singing the number?

Sure, some of these are downright corny, but they stick in the mind. We all have mnemonics lurking in our brain cells from years ago. I don?t think I?ll ever forget ?It?s ?Cott? to be good!? from New England?s Cott Beverages and ?What color Orange Ford do you want?? from Albany?s Orange Ford.

In every case, these devices make the spot unique to that client. You couldn?t just substitute another advertiser?s name in the spot and have it work.

Find ways to link the advertiser with a sense ? taste, smell, sight, hearing, touch ? and you?ll create a hook for the listener?s memory to hang on.

Want a proven way to break writer?s block for free? Email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send you a way to use an old Saturday Night Live sketch to create a powerful radio campaign. No charge.

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(COPYWRITING) Show, Don't Tell

10-16-2013

Don?t just tell listeners about your advertiser?s product or service, engage their imaginations and show them. Radio?s a great medium for product or service demonstrations.

In Chuck Blore?s classic commercial for Zee paper towels, he used the repeating sound of paper towels being torn from a roll throughout the spot to make the point that Zee had more sheets than the competition. It worked better than just describing that feature.

Other idea starters: How can you adapt these for your clients?

New vehicles lose an average of 20 percent of their value the instant they are driven away from the dealership. When coupled to the average yearly depreciation, the first year's loss is anywhere from 25 to 35 percent.

(Best done in stereo with sounds and voice moving side to side.)
Spokesperson:  The car on my left (horn or engine rev) looks identical to the car on my right (horn or engine rev), except the one on the left sells for 35 percent less at Honest John?s Pre-Owned Cars. You see, someone else has absorbed the depreciation on this car so you don?t have to. Which car would you rather buy, the one on the right?or the one on the left at 35 percent off?

Meet the twins ? Tracy and Stacy.
T&S:  Hi.
Both have curly red hair. But as you can see, with today?s high humidity, Tracy?s hair is...
SFX: twisty, crunchy sounds
T: Hey!
While Stacy?s hair looks...
SFX: musical chorus of female voices AAAhhh!
S: Thanks.
Stacy got her hair cut at MopHead.
S: Yup.
Tracy wishes she did.
T: Yeah, whatever?

Assume the listener is right there with you, seeing, feeling, tasting, smelling, and experiencing it all.

SFX: waves, tropical music
Just look at that sunset. Feel the warm tropical breeze on your skin?
SFX: blizzard
Oh, is it still winter where you are?
SFX: waves, tropical music
Smell the hibiscus blossoms? Taste that fresh key lime pie?
SFX: blizzard, sneezing
Y?know, you?re only one click away from a vacation in the tropics. Visit BobsTropicalVacations.com.
SFX: waves, tropical music
The islands are waiting for you.
SFX: blizzard, tires spinning on icy pavement
As soon as you uh?
SFX: tires spinning again
?are able to go online.

Compare the sounds of someone in pain (before experiencing the product or service) and the sounds of pleasure (after experiencing the product or service). Show changes in attitude, confidence, physical changes, relationship changes ? there are lots of possibilities.

Stop telling?start showing.

Want another way to ?show? on the radio for free? Email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send you a way to use an old Saturday Night Live sketch to create a powerful radio campaign. No charge.

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(COPYWRITING) Take That Commercial Apart!

10-2-2013

One of the ways to improve your skills in any field of expression, whether it?s visual art, poetry, songwriting, filmmaking, or writing is to analyze the work of the masters in each medium and discover the principles that make the piece successful.

Will it work for radio commercials? In my experience, yes. Whether you use it as a way to break writer's block, or as a continuing method to improve your writing, this exercise may be useful.

Pick a great spot, take it apart and analyze its structure. Summarize what?s happening in each line of copy. Use that structure (not the content) to create your own spot.

With writer's block, if you weren?t able to generate results in right-brain mode, this switch to left-brain mode can take the pressure off.  As you pick the commercial apart, ideas may emerge which will enable you to construct your own.

Example:  Here?s an analysis of one of my favorites. The advertiser had just merged with another company and was changing its name.

Two characters (A & B); quirky tone

A: Has a big announcement to make.
B: Skeptical, mentions a previous ridiculous announcement from ?A.?
A: Doesn?t react, simply starts to relate the big news about the advertiser.
B: Interrupts with the news before ?A? finishes story.
A: Ignores ?B? and makes the big announcement.
B: Reiterates that ?A?s? news is common knowledge.
A: Ignores ?A?s? comment and goes on to say how surprising the news was to ?A.?
B: Attempts to interrupt?
A: Goes on to build a case that ?B? should acknowledge the change about the advertiser.
B: Reminds ?A? that ?B? already has.
A: Thinking ?B? still needs to be convinced, makes another point.
B: Starts describing benefits of the change, hoping that ?A? will understand that ?B?   knew about the change all along.
A: Concludes that ?A?s? oratory skills persuaded ?B.?
B: Gives up objecting and agrees.
A: Convinced of newfound persuasive abilities, asks for approval of a personal favor.
B: Favor has so little consequence to ?B?s? life that ?B? gives approval.
A: Compliments self on persuasive abilities.
B: Sarcastically agrees with ?A.?
A: Does a callback to previous ridiculous announcement mentioned by ?B? at the beginning, including advertiser.
Announcer: Short reiteration of news about advertiser.

Condensed version: ?A? presents big news to ?B? who already knows about it.   Conflict: ?A? ignores ?B?s? responses and plows ahead with ?A?s? own agenda.

Oh sure, it may not look funny in this form, but the commercial, from one of the masters of radio, was entertaining and delivered the message effectively.

Sometimes, finding just one structural trick or interesting premise will open up the gates for you.  For instance, hearing an interesting conflict, noticing repeated callbacks to an earlier statement, and especially observing how the entertainment and marketing are woven together.

There are hundreds of successful commercials out there. You can learn something from each of them. Now you have an organized way to break the code on what made them successful and apply it to your own work.

Want another way to break writer?s block for free? Email me jeffrey@hedquist.com and I?ll send you a way to use an old Saturday Night Live sketch to create a powerful radio campaign. No charge.

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(COPYWRITING) Exaggerate!

8-30-2013

Often, when we?re stuck for words when writing a commercial, we need to step back and forget the script, and think about the idea. What about the product, the service, the store, or the people inspires us? Often, tasting, touching, researching, or using a product or service will help us discover the most powerful point to make.

What?s the most surprising way you can make that point? Often it?s by exaggerating. Take the most salient benefits and play the exaggeration game with each of them. If you have kids or can find someone else?s children willing to play with an adult, engage them in this exercise. They have great imaginations and will be much less inhibited than we are in coming up with exaggerations.

Start with the benefit: ?Getting a new auto loan from our bank is so quick that??
Now list as many possibilities as you can think of:
?you?ll have an answer before you can hang up the phone
?we?ll call you on your cell phone while you?re on your way out of our parking lot
?your nails won?t have a chance to dry
?you won?t even have time for fast food

You get the idea.

You can also develop the idea from exaggerating problems that can be solved by the advertiser:

?You?re so tired of waiting in line that?? ?You?re so fed up with high prices for bottled water that?? ?You?re so frustrated with complex cell phone plans that?? ?If I could just find a reliable blacksmith around here??

?Create-It-Yourself Pasta Bar has so many combinations of noodles, veggies, condiments, and toppings that?? "?you?ll feel like the Leonardo DaVinci of dining, the Picasso of pasta, the Michelangelo of meals?"

Now, don?t just state the exaggeration as you?ve written it; use it to develop stories about people your target audience can relate to. Try to keep your stories focused on making one powerful benefit per commercial.

Exaggeration offers lots of opportunities to lighten up and if the image you create is distinctive enough, it will stick in the minds of your audience members and may inspire them to quote it to your client.

Exaggeration is a powerful way to bring a big idea to life. ?It can make writing a good commercial so easy?your friends won?t believe you did it yourself?you?ll have to exaggerate how much time it took you to write it?it?ll make gravity seem like work?you?ll be making more money than you know what to do with??
Using Virtual Creative Department is like having a huge creative staff on call that you don?t have to pay salaries to. Ask Jeffrey Hedquist at Hedquist Productions, Inc. email jeffrey@hedquist.com for the outrageous details.

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(COPYWRITING) Collect All 6,528,927 For Radio Spot Inspiration!

8-23-2013

Need ideas? Techniques? Inspiration? Entertainment? 

Go to your audio library. You know, that reference library of sounds, commercials, talent tapes, radio shows, humor, and audio theatre that you (or someone you know) has been collecting over the years? 

It may be a completely organized, categorized, and cross-indexed digital audio folder or just a big box of outdated media stacked on a shelf, but it?s (or could be) one of your main sources of writer?s block breakers.

Let?s see, here are episodes from the BBC?s Goon Show, some stuff by Flanders and Swan, of course Monty Python. Oh look, some cuts from the Adventures of Chickenman, The Tooth Fairy, and tons of recordings of the old radio dramas, mysteries, comedy, adventure shows, variety shows, serials, and soap operas.

Aha! Here?s that old Lord Buckley record, right next to some of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy, and comics like Shelly Berman, Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright, Jeff Foxworthy?boy, aren?t you glad you kept these things?

Of course you are! You?re a radio writer. You go here to refresh your ears. Now you make notes as you listen. You find applications for each style of delivery. It?s a good place to learn timing, techniques, and fresh approaches to audio storytelling.

Oh, sometimes you wish you had all the Firesign Theatre, the best of Stan Freberg, the National Lampoon Radio Hour, Bob & Ray, Jean Shepherd?s radio shows, Stiller & Meara, and Nichols & May. No problem. Most of this is now available digitally and much of it is even waiting for you at your local public library.

By now you probably read Audiofile regularly and get the catalogs from the ZBS Foundation, Lodestone, Audio Partners, and Radio Works from Sue Media. You?ve collected gems from regional audio theatre companies like Great Northern Audio and the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.

You keep all this next to your samples from advertising award shows like the Radio Mercury, CLIOs, IBA, and maybe even some regional award shows, as well as recordings you?ve gotten from the RAB.

And you know that if you ever wanted to replenish your stash of ear candy, you could just go to the Web, click on your favorite search engine, and check out general categories like storytellers, old-time radio, audio theatre, radio commercials, or any of the names you might find in an article (ahem) on building an audio reference library.

Even listening to a sample from any of these genres for a few minutes can be enough to put you in a different space where you can find interpolations that will spark the imaginations of the audience that hears the commercials you?ve created. You are pretty darn clever.

To learn How To Sell More On the Radio Using Stories, visit http://www.hedquist.com/stories

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(COPYWRITING) Collect All 6,528,927 For Radio Spot Inspiration!

8-23-2013

Need ideas? Techniques? Inspiration? Entertainment? 

Go to your audio library. You know, that reference library of sounds, commercials, talent tapes, radio shows, humor, and audio theatre that you (or someone you know) has been collecting over the years? 

It may be a completely organized, categorized, and cross-indexed digital audio folder or just a big box of outdated media stacked on a shelf, but it?s (or could be) one of your main sources of writer?s block breakers.

Let?s see, here are episodes from the BBC?s Goon Show, some stuff by Flanders and Swan, of course Monty Python. Oh look, some cuts from the Adventures of Chickenman, The Tooth Fairy, and tons of recordings of the old radio dramas, mysteries, comedy, adventure shows, variety shows, serials, and soap operas.

Aha! Here?s that old Lord Buckley record, right next to some of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy, and comics like Shelly Berman, Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright, Jeff Foxworthy?boy, aren?t you glad you kept these things?

Of course you are! You?re a radio writer. You go here to refresh your ears. Now you make notes as you listen. You find applications for each style of delivery. It?s a good place to learn timing, techniques, and fresh approaches to audio storytelling.

Oh, sometimes you wish you had all the Firesign Theatre, the best of Stan Freberg, the National Lampoon Radio Hour, Bob & Ray, Jean Shepherd?s radio shows, Stiller & Meara, and Nichols & May. No problem. Most of this is now available digitally and much of it is even waiting for you at your local public library.

By now you probably read Audiofile regularly and get the catalogs from the ZBS Foundation, Lodestone, Audio Partners, and Radio Works from Sue Media. You?ve collected gems from regional audio theatre companies like Great Northern Audio and the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.

You keep all this next to your samples from advertising award shows like the Radio Mercury, CLIOs, IBA, and maybe even some regional award shows, as well as recordings you?ve gotten from the RAB.

And you know that if you ever wanted to replenish your stash of ear candy, you could just go to the Web, click on your favorite search engine, and check out general categories like storytellers, old-time radio, audio theatre, radio commercials, or any of the names you might find in an article (ahem) on building an audio reference library.

Even listening to a sample from any of these genres for a few minutes can be enough to put you in a different space where you can find interpolations that will spark the imaginations of the audience that hears the commercials you?ve created. You are pretty darn clever.

To learn How To Sell More On the Radio Using Stories, visit http://www.hedquist.com/stories

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(COPYWRITING) Clear & Simple Calls To Action

8-7-2013

Clients, advertising agencies, producers, broadcasters, and writers (me included), have all done it. It?s a common, but detrimental mistake: Including more than one call to action in a commercial.

Multiple CTAs can work in print and can occasionally work on TV, but attempting it on radio can delete your effectiveness.

It happens when we mistakenly assume that people are poised, writing instruments in hands, awaiting the vital information that will change their lives. Most of your listeners are engaged in other activities ? driving, talking on their cell phones, working, cooking, performing craniotomies?

Giving them a choice of ways to respond is a bad idea. Hopefully your message is compelling enough to make them want to respond. Now, make it easy for them.

When you?re advertising consumer products, the task is fairly easy. These products are usually available at many locations. People need only ask for the item or have the message that you?ve reinforced in the commercial brought to mind at the point of purchase.

With other kinds of advertisers there are several response vehicles to consider. The listener can call, vote, write a letter, visit a location, attend an event (concert, seminar, free demonstration), or visit a website. Often, in an attempt to cover the bases, we include them all. It?s like throwing several objects to someone simultaneously. Rather than catch even one, they?ll lose focus and catch none. Toss just one object to them and they?ll probably catch it.

You only have 60, 30, 15, 10, or 5 seconds to elicit a response. Don?t confuse your audience. Narrow their choice of responses to one.

Only minutes ago I left the recording studio having recorded a series of radio spots for a major national advertiser created by a large international advertising agency. The spots included two calls to action: a 10-digit non-memorable phone number and a moderately long URL. Both repeated twice. In my not-so-humble opinion, including both will reduce their response rate significantly, but in this instance I was only the hired voice, not the advertising consultant.

If a website and/or telephone call (this should be rare) are the only ways for a prospect to respond, then create and air two versions ? one with the phone number and one with the URL. See which pulls more responses. It?ll usually be the one with the website.

Don?t include both in the same commercial. Dividing the mind will divide your results.

To learn How To Sell More On the Radio Using Stories, visit
http://www.hedquist.com/stories

Jeffrey continues to discover ways to help you help your clients make money at Hedquist Productions, Inc. Phone 641-472-6708. E-mail jeffrey@hedquist.com. For your free subscription to our idea-packed newsletter visit http://www.hedquist.com.

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(COPYWRITING) Seven Critical Story Questions

6-26-2013

Let?s say you?ve unearthed lots of stories from your memories or from your clients' recollections. You?ve turned the best of them into story commercials, but they could still use some tweaking.

Here are Seven Questions to ask yourself to help you find the focus in your stories. These are variations on the ones I got from my friend Andy Goodman www.agoodmanonline.com.

1. Who?s the protagonist?

Just as a car needs a driver to get it where it?s going, stories need someone, a main character, to drive the action. This person (or group of people) is called the protagonist, and traditionally structured stories follow protagonists in pursuit of clearly defined goals. Ideally, make the protagonist the audience member or someone with whom your audience will identify.

2. What?s the hook?

Want to draw in listeners? Begin the story where the audience is. This is your story?s ?hook?? the description of a place, circumstance, or premise that everyone understands and with which they readily identify.

3. Have you kept it interesting?

Predictable stories and predictable radio commercials are boring. If the audience members get bored, they?re gone. Have your characters change or evolve during the commercial. Let your dialogue demonstrate the transitions. Don?t describe them.

4. Where?s the conflict?
 
There is no drama without conflict or contrast, and comedy, for that matter, also falls flat without it. Unfortunately, most ads have no conflict, and lose listeners.

5. Have you included telling details?
 
Good stories have enough detail in the music, sound effects, dialogue, and delivery to set the scene and bring life to the commercial. Specifics are more powerful than generalities.

6. What?s the emotional hook?
 
What emotional need(s) does the advertiser solve for the listener?

Your audience subconsciously enters into a contract with the storyteller. They want an emotional experience that makes their time worthwhile. An emotional story will imprint more strongly in the listener?s memory.

7. Is the meaning clear?

Finally, your story should have a crystal clear reason for taking this particular journey. Listeners don?t need more information, they need to know what it means. Your commercial story should make listeners feel like they fit in there somewhere and make it clear what they can do to benefit.

Wouldn?t it be nice if you could apply seven questions and find focus in your life? Thankfully, you can at least do it with your radio commercials.

Jeffrey Hedquist has used these questions to find focus in commercials and in life at Hedquist Productions, Inc. Got a question, challenge or comment about commercial creative? Email jeffrey@hedquist.com. http://www.hedquist.com

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(COPYWRITING) Writing To Voices

6-19-2013

Sometimes it?s easier to write a commercial if you have specific voices in mind. Hearing those voices in your head helps you to write from their point of view.

Even if you only have a limited stable of talent available, like a radio station staff, imagine each of their personalities. As you write, you are essentially speaking for them. How would they express themselves? How would they react? How would they tell a story? 

Where else can you find voices to give you inspiration for writing? Listen to CDs of actors voice samples or downloads from the Web. Think about your relatives, your friends, voices in radio or TV commercials, voices in movies, voices overheard in restaurants, public transportation, or in retail stores.

The ideal way is to capture these voices is to record them, then you?ll have audio samples to refer to. If you can?t do this then write a short description of the person?s voice at the time you?re listening. Interesting voices are everywhere: the gum-chewing store clerk with the nasal twang, the fast-talking investment broker, the laid-back surfer dude at the coffee shop, the nervous kid who delivers your newspaper, the opinionated guy who drives the snowplow. Each of these characters has their own personality, their own story, and their own perspective on life. As you listen to their voices or read their descriptions, ?become? them and write from their hearts.

With your client in mind, listen to your collection of voices until one or two of them ?speak? to you. Now listen to all the samples you have of those voices. Picture who they are and where they live. Create a story about them and then write your commercial in their voices.

As you write a commercial from a character?s point of view, you?ll find that as it develops you may change the characters? personalities from what you originally had in mind. You?ll see your commercial story take on a life of its own. Just go with it and see where it takes you.

The final step in this process is recording the commercial with either the voices that inspired you or similar voices. The actors of course will have their own personalities and may bring something to the commercial that you hadn?t envisioned originally. Be flexible enough to adapt your script to the changing point of view.

Like any story, your commercial will evolve. Don?t try to hold on too firmly to the original idea.

Let the voices in your head create a commercial to touch the hearts of your audience.

Jeffrey Hedquist has been hearing voices and inventing stories about them for years. Send professional help to Hedquist Productions, Inc. Phone 641-472-6708. Email jeffrey@hedquist.com.

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(COPYWRITING) Inspiration to Write!

6-12-2013

Need ideas? Techniques? Inspiration? Entertainment? 

Go to your audio library. You know, that reference library of sounds, commercials, talent tapes, radio shows, humor, and audio theatre that you (or someone you know) has been collecting over the years? 

It may be a completely organized, categorized, and cross-indexed digital audio folder or just a big box of outdated media stacked on a shelf, but it?s (or could be) one of your main sources of writer?s block breakers.

Let?s see, here are episodes from the BBC?s Goon Show, some stuff by Flanders and Swan, of course Monty Python. Oh look, some cuts from the Adventures of Chickenman, The Tooth Fairy, and tons of recordings of the old radio dramas, mysteries, comedy, adventure shows, variety shows, serials, and soap operas.

Aha! Here?s that old Lord Buckley record, right next to some of Doctor Who, Hitchhiker?s Guide to the Galaxy, and comics like Shelly Berman, Bob Newhart, Bill Cosby, Mort Sahl, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright, Jeff Foxworthy?boy, aren?t you glad you kept these things?

Of course you are! You?re a radio writer. You go here to refresh your ears. Now you make notes as you listen. You find applications for each style of delivery. It?s a good place to learn timing, techniques, and fresh approaches to audio storytelling.

Oh, sometimes you wish you had all the Firesign Theatre, the best of Stan Freberg, the National Lampoon Radio Hour, Bob & Ray, Jean Shepherd?s radio shows, Stiller & Meara, and Nichols & May. No problem. Most of this is now available digitally and much of it is even waiting for you at your local public library.

By now you probably read Audiofile regularly and get the catalogs from the ZBS Foundation, Lodestone, Audio Partners, and Radio Works from Sue Media. You?ve collected gems from regional audio theatre companies like Great Northern Audio and the Atlanta Radio Theatre Company.

You keep all this next to your samples from advertising award shows like the Radio Mercury, CLIO?s, IBA, and maybe even some regional award shows, as well as recordings you?ve gotten from the RAB.

And you know that if you ever want to replenish your stash of ear candy, you could just go to the Web, click on your favorite search engine, and check out general categories like storytellers, old-time radio, audio theatre, radio commercials, or any of the names you might find in an article (ahem) on building an audio reference library.

You know that even listening to a sample from any of these genres for a few minutes can be enough to put you in a different space where you can find interpolations that will spark the imaginations of the audience who hears the commercials you?ve created. You are pretty darn clever.

When Jeffrey Hedquist isn?t creating, he?s listening at Hedquist Productions, Inc. Phone 641-472-6708. Email jeffrey@hedquist.com. Visit http://www.Hedquist.com for even more inspiration from our free newsletter.

(6/12/2013 9:18:02 AM)
Jeffrey is so right! We need that creative input. We need to know what worked and can work for you in the audio vein. We also need to know other things too. The way I stimulate my brain is to go to Wikipedia and hit the Random Article button....You'd be surprised at what comes up. Somethings, completely useless but sometimes you'll set off that little spark you are looking for.

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(COPYWRITING) Writing To Music

5-30-2013

How many times have you heard a piece of music and been inspired? How many times has music brought tears to your eyes? How many times has music made you chuckle or smile? How many times has music triggered great memories?

The power of music lies in its close link to our emotions. One of the reasons we love our favorite movies so much is the music scoring.

Oftentimes a song from our past will bring us back to the moment we first heard it. With this catalytic power, it?s no wonder that more and more writers use music as a tool to help them break writer?s block and improve the emotional depth of their writing. The next time you create a spot, don?t just select music in the production phase to complement the words you?ve already crafted. Let the music help you create the words.

Try this: select several pieces of instrumental music and, with the client information at hand, simply listen to each one and see where it takes you. Begin writing while listening and continue for at least two minutes. Don?t try to make sense out of the story yet. Just write what the music inspires you to write.

You?ll come up with ideas, thoughts, feelings, and emotions that you wouldn?t ordinarily have thought of without listening to the music. At the end of two minutes you may have a complete commercial, the concept for a commercial, pages of possible campaigns, or random ideas. You should at least have the start of a commercial.

The music has allowed you to bypass the thinking process and write from your heart, your gut, your emotional center. This is good, because that?s the level on which listeners will react to a commercial.

If the music you?ve chosen inspires you to write something cogent, continue to refine the commercial. If not, pick another piece and continue the process.

Don?t be afraid to pick music that doesn?t seem to match your advertiser. Sometimes that can be the most inspiring.

At first, that gentle harp piece may not seem to fit with the amusement park you?re writing for, but give it a chance. That military march wouldn?t have been your first choice for the fast food restaurant. That world music piece with the children?s choir may not seem like a natural fit for your car dealer, but listen to it and start writing anyway and see what happens.

Each piece of music will have rhythms, chord changes, melodies, and hooks that will be natural complements for the words you write. After using this technique you may find that the blending of words and music in your commercial seems more natural than if you had just added the music as an afterthought.

I?ve been teaching this technique in seminars for 25 years. Now a new generation of writers is discovering its ability to break writer's block. Craft your words listening to music and you may find your advertisers singing your praises.

To guess what kind of music Jeffrey Hedquist was listening to when he wrote this, contact him at Hedquist Productions, Inc. Phone 641-472-6708. Email jeffrey@hedquist.com. For a free newsletter full of techniques for creating more effective radio, go to www.hedquist.com.

(5/31/2013 4:09:40 PM)
Good advice! I've been doing that for years with spots & jingles. Find the most fitting music first and the the style and rhythm will carry the message like a hawk ahead of a Summer storm.

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