Programming: We'll Be Right Back

Steve Hamley investigates the art of radio commercials

Commercials abound on all radio stations — even if on Radio One they're just advertising other programmes. London's pirates also feature a large number of home-made ads, but their makers don't always realise the techniques they're using.

Commercial Components

Radio adverts have three main sections:

Building a need or problem
Giving the solution
Getting the listener to use that solution

Let's take as an example an advert for Radio Today. First we've got to tell you why you need it. What's the main reason for buying the magazine? Probably because it'll tell you what's on when on the airwaves. So we come up with something like...

Are you making the most of your radio? Do you know where you can find jazz on a Sunday morning or rap on a Friday afternoon? You can listen to over 50 radio stations in London, but do you know where to find them?

We now come to the easy bit, giving the solution...

If not, then you aren't reading Radio Today.

Now the most difficult part, getting the listener to use the solution...

Radio Today is the guide to radio in London, telling you what you can hear when, along with news, features and interviews. Pick up a copy at the Virgin Megastore or call 01-400 8282 for more information.

Take a listen to just about any radio commercial and you'll see it follows the same form.

Commercial Types

There are five basic types of radio commercial, which you'll probably recognise some classic examples of straight away. Not all adverts fit into just one type though. They may be a mixture of two or more types.

STRAIGHT-SELL: This is like the Radio Today advert above. Simple and direct, making it easy to pick out the three components.

MUSICAL: Adverts which are using music to get across their message are best produced by specialist jingles companies. However, music is often used to help accent phrases. These days it's common on many small stations to have a music bed to fill in behind the voiceover. However, this doesn't make for attention-grabbing ads, though it does makes cuing easier at pirates using simple cassette decks to play the commercials — the music at the end will just continue until the next one starts.

"There's a limit to how many times an advert can be played and remain effective"

TESTIMONIAL: A favourite on Independent stations this one, best explained with an example...

I used to have endless problems finding what I wanted on the radio. I'd pick up a really great soul show one week and then forget how to find it again. I then discovered the solution — I bought a copy of Radio Today at the Virgin Megastore. It tells you all you need to know to get around your radio dial. For more information give them a ring on 01-400 8282.

It can be a very effective type of advert, especially if a personality does the voiceover.

INTERVIEW: This is much the same as a testimonial but with an interviewer added... 'Tell me, what do you like about Radio Today?'. If you've even tuned past Capital or LBC in the past year you can't have failed to notice those Jimmy Young washing powder adverts of this type — which have thankfully now gone.

DRAMATISATION: Rather like interviews, dramatisations are often also rather cliched...

MARY: Hello June.
JUNE: Hello Mary.
MARY: What have you got there?
JUNE: It's a copy of the new Radio Today. It tells you all about what's happening on London's airwaves.
MARY: That sounds really great, I'm always forgetting what times that nice DJ Tee is on...

Some adverts turn the above types on their heads and work by spoofing them to get their effect. Remember those marvellously funny adverts they used to run on Kiss FM (stop twisting my arm Mr England). Comedy works well with adverts, as long as people do remember what the product is. It's important that the name is a central part of the humour.

Writing Commercials

Producing an advert will begin with the advertiser supplying information about what they're advertising and anything they specifically want the advert to include, etc. It's usually best that advertisers don't write commercials themselves or they sound boring, cliched or both...

Most people involved in writing radio commercials keep notes and ideas scribbled down somewhere, along with snatches of ideas on tape. If the advertiser has used radio before to great success, then those adverts may point to what may work this time. Once the idea is there, the advert will be scripted according to the length of the time slot — around 75 words for 30 seconds, subtracting 2.5 words for each second occupied by music or sound effects. Once written, it's into production and then on to the air.

Air Life

Like products in a supermarket, adverts also have a shelf-life — there's a limit to how many times they can be played and still be effective. After a certain number they cease to stimulate the audience into doing what the ad wants them to. Around a month is probably the most that heavy rotation commercials will be effective for. This contrasts with an ad on one London pirate which has been going out every hour for well over a year...