I admit it. I have trouble listening to radio.
It’s my own fault. I worked in radio for 34 years so I hear it when announcers make mistakes others probably wouldn’t notice.
I hear when one song is repeated mistakenly within a short time period.
I notice when a pre-recorded weather forecast is out of date.
When you have been trained to listen that way, it’s almost impossible to change the way you listen.
But…
That’s not why I have trouble listening to radio.
It’s because most radio commercials, especially (but not exclusively) locally produced ones, suck like a Dyson.
And this makes me sad because I love radio.
If you use radio to promote your business (and I think you probably should consider it), don’t settle for poorly written commercials and run them anyway, thinking that they will work no matter what.
If the radio account rep presents an ad to you that is not as good as it could be, then DON’T ACCEPT IT.
If you think the ad sounds just like another commercial for another company, then DON’T ACCEPT IT.
If the ad presented to you has conversation in it that doesn’t sound real or authentic, then DON’T ACCEPT IT.
Push your radio reps to do better.
Push for authenticity.
Push for credibility.
Push for ads that sound like you.
(Or you can hire two of the best copywriters I know to write great commercials for you. They’ve got openings for new clients in 2015.)
If radio advertisers everywhere stop accepting mediocrity then ads will improve and we will all enjoy listening to radio more.
And that’s going to make me very happy.
Have you ever found yourself yelling at an advertiser for their lousy ad or critiquing an ad and talking back to the radio?
Phil, you must have been sitting in the car beside me to have seen exactly what I do.
A local car dealer buddy of mine paid good money to take a Dave Ramsey course. Apparently part of the deal was to get Dave to voice one of their ads. My buddy knows I write the best radio ads in town and he knows I’ll write ads for him for free (we go way back – our dads grew up together), but did he call me? Nooooo. When I heard Ramsey on the radio butchering a long and winding commentary with about eighteen points no one will remember, I went over the curb and damn near hit a tree.