Let's Make Waves Again

When I first started in advertising, a much smarter creative who doesn't happen to be on LinkedIn, taught me the construction of a great radio ad. He said: "You don't list a whole bunch of information and then hit them with a joke at the end. It should go from A to B to C to D with a surprise E at the end." In other words, tell a story.

It helped my work immensely.

There were many award-winning radio ads years ago. One I remember most distinctly was a campaign for Hollywood video. It shortened films into 60-seconds (this was the blissful period when radio took the time to entertain you with a full minute of content). Here is one of those ads. Treat yourself to indelible theater of the mind.

https://soundcloud.com/adamchasnow/hollywood-video-60-second-theater-goodwill-hunting

Since that time, radio has been reduced to 30-second clips, and clients usually want to pack a lot of information into that 5-pound bag, if you'll forgive the mixed metaphor. This assumes you want to hear what they have to say. Along with a phone number repeated anywhere between 3 and 15 times. What a hugely wasted opportunity!

You have a captive audience in their cars, driving and mostly bored, listening to sports radio or music or news, and typically switching channels during commercials or tuning out until their show comes back on again. Here's a golden egg just sitting there for companies to stand out, to capture attention even amongst other radio ads. Because companies seem convinced that simply explaining what they are selling will work. The absolute worst ones will bore the heck out of you and then offer a little, corny joke at the end.

Are you listening, corporate America? Entertain us again. Marketing isn't selling to people who already want your product or service. It's telling people why they would benefit from your product or service. Weave a story that goes from A to B to C to D with a surprise E at the end. But then, I'm not the first one to say that.