The Fab Five in Choosing Creative

How Great Thou Art
June 14, 2011
The Campaign Landing Page
June 23, 2011

The Fab Five in Choosing Creative

ChecklistThere are rules for everything.  Some we keep no matter what, like the rules of the road – or The Golden Rule – or the rules of dating (OK maybe not so much on the last one).

Yes, there are rules for choosing the right creative, at least there are here at The Radio Agency. In my role as Senior Account Manager, I am the middle man in this process.  On the one side is the client, who knows what they want (or at least
they think they do).  On the other side is the creative team, which is always right (didn’t you know that?).  I am the juggler who keeps all the personalities in the air while maintaining focus on the one thing everyone should be focused on—commercials that sell product!

Many clients want to be the next, “So easy a caveman can do it.”  This is possible if they have already invested tens of millions in national advertising and have built up the brand equity.  But odds are if they are just venturing into the world of radio advertising that won’t be the case.

Over the years, I’ve worked with two types of creative teams — the ones that want to win awards and the ones that want to sell product, so they live to write another day.  At The Radio Agency we live to write another day.  To that end, here are the five rules we live by when choosing which creative treatments to present to a client, always keeping in mind — When a listener hears YOUR radio commercial, what is the one thing you would like them to do?

  1. Each spot must grab the listener’s attention. The radio listener is usually doing something else when listening, so you must cut through the clutter.
  2. Once you have their attention, keep it by getting right to the advertiser’s compelling product benefit — the one that makes it stand out from its competitors.
  3. Make listeners an offer they can’t refuse — oh my, did I just say that?  Finding and promoting a strong product offer that is only available through your radio spot is another way to make your spot memorable to the consumer.
  4. Give your customer an easy call-to-action. Don’t make them jump through hoops to get to you. Give them a memorable phone number to call or a clever URL to log on to — one or the other, not both. Remember simplicity rules here.
  5. Be the expert when it comes to creative.  Don’t overwhelm the client with choices.  The first four rules are ours, so we know what works. Only present three or four creative approaches, that you feel are the strongest and stay true to your client’s brand to sell product.

Sure, we’ve won awards and we like to laugh. We like cavemen and jingles that stay in your head all day, snarky announcers and celebrity spokespersons. But they don’t all work every time for every client and it’s our job to know that.  The reward comes when clients tell us their radio campaign worked and it’s time to plan the next campaign.

Monica Caraffa is a Senior Account Manager at The Radio Agency. Please follow The Radio Agency’s Blog “Sounding Board” by subscribing to the email or RSS links above. Visit our website TheRadioAgency.com