More! Magazine Radio Advertisement

This is a radio advertisement for More! Magazine that I found on YouTube, as I am also advertising a magazine I thought it would be a really good insight to see how other publications have advertised theirs through radio.

The advert is around 30 seconds long, the average length of a radio advert, and consists of two women having a conversation about a work party with one stressing out over what to wear, the other suggests she tries out this new nail polish that she got free with More! Magazine, hence the advertisement was using the freebie to promote the magazine.

Tesco Radio Advert

This is a radio advertisement for Tesco supermarket advertising their price drop. They have used the famous voices of Chris Clarkson and Julie Walters to attract attention. The advertisement has no jingle but the slogan “Every Little Helps” is well known regionally. The speed that Chris Clarkson was talking was unusually fast for a radio advertisement and was difficult to understand throughout, however this was effective because it emphasized the fact that lots of items have been reduced. The advertisement was 24 seconds long, which is the average length of a radio advertisement.

The 5 Do's of Radio Advertising

1. Plan your marketing activities. Remember that those who fail to plan, plan to fail. Planning is essential for your product to be successful, it is also good to do tests on members of the public to see what they prefer, as it will be them listening to it at the end of the day.

2. Take pride in your Product/Service and make sure that your marketing activities always reflect them in the best light. Identify what is special about them and stress what makes them different from your competitors. This way you will be able to persuade customers that yours is best.

3. Present a professional image. Customers need to trust your business and have confidence in your Product/Service. Also, always remember that Customer Care is not a cost to your business, it is the most undervalued asset. The more customers feel valued the more likely they are to give you a good review to their friends and family, essentially generating more business.

4. Know your market. Ask your customers what they think of both your Product/Service and your company. Ask how you might enhance their buying experience. Asking costs nothing.

5. Experiment in your marketing activity. In the case of Radio Advertising, vary the message by using different wording and approaches (humour/shock/comforting) - you’ll never know if something works or not until you try it.

The 5 Don't's of Radio Advertising

1. Never copy the type of marketing carried out by competitors. Nobody likes copy-cats, especially consumers and your product will always look a poor second – be original and make your product/service unique.

2. Never overcomplicate your message. Keep it simple –don’t say in 100 words what you can say just as well in 50. At the same time be careful not to oversimplify and insult your customers by treating them like idiots.

3. Never over-exaggerate your Product/Service. It is important that you set your customers’ expectations and then also meet them, if your customer is to feel satisfied, otherwise it will generate bad publicity for your product.

4. Never talk about what your Product/Service can do – talk about what it can do for the customer. How can it make life better for them? People buy benefits not features, your product is more likely to be a success this way.

5. Never think that a good marketing strategy can sell a poor Product/Service. If what you are advertising is rubbish then all the marketing strategies in the world wont save it.

Jingles

A jingle is a short tune used in radio advertising so that the tune becomes instantly recognizable to the audience and they are more likely to remember it. Jingles that are most effective and the ones that the audience will find most annoying as they are more likely to remember them and tell people about them, therefore advertising the product through word of mouth. A jingle contains one or more hook and are a form of sound branding.

Time Slots

The best way to reach your target audience is by making sure your radio advertisement is played at the right time during the day for them to hear it, otherwise if they don't hear the advertisement then the whole point of it is a waste of time and resources.

For example, my target audience are teenage girls so Monday – Friday they will be at school from around 8.30am to around 4pm, so the best time slot for my advertisement should be between 6am-8.30am whilst they are getting ready for school, and from around 4.30pm-8pm when they are at home from school and studying. On the weekends however it wouldn’t matter what time the radio advertisement was played.

The Jigsaw Study

In 1994 Bournemouth University conducted a piece of research into the consumer’s (the audience) relationship with the radio called the Jigsaw Study, and interestingly seemed to conclude when examining radio commercials:

·         Commercial length: there was a greater chance of higher recall with 40 second commercials

·         Word Count: the total number of words gave no indicator of recall

The study generally concluded that the most successful ads employed drama, a story, and simple situations or relationships and distinctive voices, and the least successful were information-led ads, results regardless of the respondent’s age, gender or class.

Giving Commercial Radio a Voice

The Radio Advertising Bureau is an organisation funded by the UK’s commercial radio stations to help advertising agencies advertise effectively on the radio. In 2006 the Radio Advertising Bureau merged with the Commercial Radio Companies Association to form Radio Center, the industry body for commercial radio in the UK.

Radio Center gives UK commercial radio a voice, working with the government, policy makers and regulators as well as providing a forum for industry-wide debate and discussion. In recent years Radio Center have lobbied successfully to provide stations with more freedom in how and where they produce content; deregulation of commercial messages; tighter rules on the prominence of commercial brands on the BBC; and the removal of local media ownership rules. 

Getting Attention

Great radio advertisements grab and hold attention, usually through humor. They may also use sounds, compelling music or unusual voices to grab attention. The advertisement must tell stories or present situations the target audience can relate to. To keep an audience listening to the advertisement month after month, make them part of an ongoing campaign theme. The audience will listen for the newest versions, helping to extend a message more successfully than if you were to run unrelated advertisements. For maximum results, make a phone number or web address easy to remember and tie it in with your company name or message.

History of Commercial Radio

In 1973, some 18 years after the BBC faced its first commercial competition in television, commercial radio was launched. Stations were licensed by the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and were local, generally covering cities or counties. There was only one station per area, except in London, where there were two with different remits: Capital, broadcasting entertainment, and LBC, broadcasting news and information. The rest of the commercial local stations around the country offered a broad range of programming – from news and chat, through pop music to classical music and religion - and were all locally owned and run. Localness has, therefore, been an important feature of commercial radio since its inception.

By 1988, there were 69 local commercial stations, each broadcasting on both MW (AM) and VHF (FM). In that year, the Government permitted local commercial stations to offer different services on their MW and VHF frequencies. Following this liberalisation, a number of different formats were experimented with on MW by the commercial radio companies, but by far the most commonly adopted was the ‘Gold’ format, majoring on chart hits from the 1960s and 70s. The overall number of stations increased dramatically as a result.

In 1990, the IBA began to award licences for stations in areas already served by an existing commercial station. The aim was to increase the range of programming available to listeners. Early examples included Jazz FM and Kiss in London, designed to appeal to a different audience from Capital or LBC.

In 1991, the Radio Authority replaced the IBA as the commercial radio regulator and followed a policy of licensing stations to fill in the gaps in existing coverage, to offer smaller stations in areas already covered by large commercial stations and to offer regional stations, which could extend the range of programming available to audiences

National commercial radio began in 1992. Three stations were licensed, and their formats were, to some extent, decreed by Parliament – one had to offer music other than pop music, one had to have at least 50% speech content. These stations were Classic FM, Talk Radio (now talk SPORT) and Virgin Radio.

The general trend in regulation of commercial radio has been gradually to lessen the regulatory burden on radio stations as the competition for revenues and the choice for listeners increases.

The BBC launched DAB digital radio in 1995, and now offers eleven UK-wide digital radio stations (including five only available nationally on digital, and the World Service).

Since then, commercial operators have also made significant investments in digital radio. A national commercial multiplex licence was awarded to Digital One in 1998. Digital One launched its first national commercial services in 1999 and now offers eight services, including five available only on digital. Local DAB commercial services are now available from 46 local DAB digital radio multiplexes around the UK. Digital versions of the relevant BBC Local Radio or nations’ services are also carried on the appropriate local commercial multiplex.

BBC do not advertise on their radio stations unless it for programmes of events held by their company, so that means they are not a commercial radio station, for my radio advertisement clearly I would need to advertise it on a commercial radio station that is popular with my target audience, for example a station such as KISS or Capital FM.

Radio Advertisement Research

One of the ancillary tasks for my A2 portfolio is to create a radio advertisement for my magazine. A radio advertisement is perfect for advertising my magazine as my target audience are typically regular listeners to radio stations, whilst doing revision, in the car, or listening to podcasts on their mobile phones.

By researching radio advertisements I will be able to create the right advertisement for my magazine to raise awareness for my final product.