It’s understood that generating great creative is an art form, but there’s some science behind it as well. Bob McCurdy, of Katz Marketing Solutions, created these key creative insights derived from five years of Ipsos Research, spanning dozens of radio commercials and thousands of respondents.
1. Strive for consistency of voice, music, or audio logo across campaigns. The listener should be able to immediately identify the commercial as the advertiser’s, even if engaged for only a few seconds. This also dramatically cuts down on misattribution, which benefits the competition. Why advertise for the competition?
2. Mention the advertiser’s name throughout. Listeners are not always riveted to what’s coming out of the speakers or earbuds.
3. Consider multiple voices or dialogue. This activates what’s called an “orienting response,” which is the automatic and involuntary allocation of cognitive resources in responses to “novelty” or “surprise.” A new voice or dialogue triggers this response.
4. Avoid unnecessary words. Be concise. Don’t provide the listener with a reason to tune out. Focus on one or two key selling points. An ad with four different selling points will succeed in making none. Work on mastering the art of reduction, making the ad as long as necessary but as short as possible.
5. Speak in a conversational tone. There are limits as to what we can process cognitively. Don’t speak so slow that the listener becomes bored and distracted, nor so fast that they can’t follow and become confused. The latter is the bigger issue.
6. “Reveal” ads, which put off mentioning the advertiser’s name until 30-40 seconds into the commercial, do not perform well. This approach wrongfully assumes that the listener is as interested and entertained by the commercial as the copywriter is. “Reveal” ads contribute little to “awareness” and result in a lot of wasted money.
7. Vary pace and tone. Avoid turning the commercial into “white” noise. Alter the “rhythm.”
8. Write the way people talk. Effective ads often feature broken sentences, half sentences, and non-sequiturs. Awkward wording and weird phrases capture attention.
9. Emotion, not facts, engage. A story is an effective way to generate emotion.
10. Avoid voices made for radio. They are easier to ignore, plus they sound like all the other ads.
11. Strive for a certain degree of edginess. A safe, bland approach leads to invisibility.
12. Humor. Is not easy and fraught with challenges, but extremely effective. Use with care.
13. Start strong. You have 3-4 seconds at the beginning of the commercial to grab the listener’s attention. End it strong. Powerful finishes reinforce the messaging.
14. Consider rotating more than one commercial but not more than several. Avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket in case one commercial doesn’t resonate.
To some, these 14 points could come across as rather mundane and painfully obvious. They would not be wrong. Fundamentals usually are mundane and often boring which is exactly why so few are consistently executed.
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