E9: Nine guidelines on creative radio advertisingAt the RAB 98 Advertiser Conference, John Bartle, Joint Chairman of Bartle Bogle Hegarty, presented an acclaimed review of guidelines for better creative radio: these were based on interviews with successful and experienced radio writers, directors and producers.
The guidelines are summarised below, with comments from some of the experts interviewed.
Understand the environment - remember why people have tuned in, how ads intrude
Speak the listener’s language - avoid marketing-speak, treat listeners as real people
Engage and entertain the listener - make listening interesting, avoid the too-common weak humour
Keep it simple - advertising’s need for simplicity is even more pronounced with radio
Judge what you hear, not what you read - the written script can be misleading, ask to hear the ad in some form
Production values are important - production can be the deciding factor, ask for experienced people
Plan your production - it will need time, and all those involved benefit from pre-production meetings
Dare to be different - too many radio ads sound the same, be bold
Take it seriously - as seriously as any other marketing activity, you get out what you put in
Click here for more detail on the nine guidelines
Contributors
to John Bartle’s paper:
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"Many things, harmless-looking enough in print, sound very different read aloud" Lord Reith’s first programmes organiser (1920s) quoted in Crisell, Understanding Radio, Methuen 1986
| On keeping
it simple: BBC Radio 4’s Feedback programme (6 July 1997 and several times since) described how listeners suffered from a shared problem: they listen to the detailed Radio 4 weather forecast (around two minutes long), but then realise they don’t know what the weather is going to be like - they feel the level of concentration required is too high |