15

Making commercials

The purpose of an advertisement is to sell things. It is not there simply to amuse people or to impress the chairman's wife; it is designed to move goods off shelves, cars out of showrooms, and customers eagerly towards services. The radio advertiser must use a good deal of skill in motivating a target audience to a specific action. The effective advertisement will:

   interest

   inform

   involve

   motivate

   direct.

Most commercials are made by advertising agencies in conjunction with specialist production houses. They arrive at the station, mostly by ISDN line or CD, and need only transferring to the most suitable operational medium – generally a computer. However, producers may be called upon to make local commercials for which the elements to be considered are:

   The target audience – for whom is this message primarily intended?

   The product or service – what is the specific quality to be promoted?

   The writing – what content and style will be appropriate?

   The voice or voices – who will best reinforce the style?

   The background – is music or sound effects needed?

The producer must also be familiar with the station copy policy or code of practice governing advertising. Regulatory standards form the essential background to commercial production.

Copy policy

‘I've bought the time. I can say what I like.’ Unfortunately not. A client does not have free rein with the station's air but must comply with a set of rules, a copy of which should be readily available to all potential advertisers. In Britain the Communications Act 2003 makes the issuing of such rules the duty of Ofcom, which is also charged with enforcing them.

The principle is that all advertising should be ‘legal, decent, honest and truthful’, and that nothing should ‘offend against good taste or public feeling’.

Ofcom's Code of Advertising Standards and Practice, and Programme Sponsorship sets out the rules, including specific prohibitions on advertising, which:

   could be confused with programming

   is on behalf of any political body

   shows partiality in matters of current political or industrial controversy

   unfairly attacks or discredits other products

   includes sounds likely to create a safety hazard for drivers

   makes use of product placement in programmes

   exploits the superstitious or plays on fear

   is on behalf of any body which practises or advocates illegal behaviour

   makes claims that give a misleading impression.

No advertising is permitted within coverage of a religious service, formal royal ceremony or a schools’ programme under 30 minutes. Programme presenters must not endorse a product in a presenter-read commercial. The Code lists those categories where central clearance of copy is required, and includes detailed sections on financial advertising – investments, savings, insurance, etc. – alcohol, advertising for and by children, the advertising of medicines and treatments including contraceptives and pregnancy-testing services, charity advertising, appeals for disasters and advertising on behalf of religious bodies. It bans the advertising of cigarettes, guns and gun clubs, pornography, the occult, betting and gaming, escort agencies, products for the treatment of alcoholism, hypnosis and psychoanalysis. It also lists the current legislation relevant to broadcast advertising. The Code is essential reading for anyone involved in British commercial radio (see the CD, Ch 15-1).

In the USA, radio advertising regulation is chiefly through the self-adopted code of the National Association of Broadcasters (see p. 323). This is similar to the Ofcom rules and has points to make about the use of words ‘safe’ and ‘harmless’ related to pharmaceuticals, the presentation of marriage, and the sensitivity necessary in the use of material relating to race, colour or ethnic derivation. The advertising of hard liquor (distilled spirits) is prohibited. In addition to the National Code, network and local stations have their own policies that conform to State laws. Some of these are very detailed, defining terms such as ‘like new’, ‘biggest’, ‘factory fresh’ and ‘guarantee’.

Public Service Announcements made available to charitable and nonprofit organizations without charge must conform to the same standards as the paid-for commercials and also require approval by the commercial department. Stations may define the standard of language acceptable – where payment is on wordage there is a temptation for advertisers to supply copy in ‘telegraphese’. Copy policy is not a fixed and immutable thing. It goes out of date as standards and fashions vary. The commercial producer must therefore keep abreast of these regulations as well as being aware of changes in the law itself.

The target audience

Only on the very smallest station will the producer be required to sell airtime. The qualities of persistence, persuasion and patience belong to the sales team, who will negotiate the price, the number of spots and the discount offered by the Rate Card. The placing of the spots will of course crucially affect the rate charged, and is something the producer also needs to know for two reasons. First, because the transmission time must be appropriate to the intended listener and, second, because it may affect the written copy. Clearly there is no point in broadcasting a message to children when they are in school or to farmers when they are busy. Nothing is gained by exhorting people to ‘buy something now’ when the shops are shut. If you are selling holidays, who makes the purchasing decision for which type of vacation? What precise age buys what type of music? Which socioeconomic group do you wish to attract for a particular drink?

To sell its airtime effectively, a commercial station needs to know about its audience. Through independent market research, it has to show why it is better than its competitor at reaching a particular section of the public. What age groups does it attract? How much disposable income do they have and what do they do with it? To what extent do they buy coffee, cars, furniture, holidays, magazines, mortgages or insurance? And what kind do they buy – expensive up-market or ‘cut-price’?

If you are the manufacturer of kitchen equipment you want to spend your advertising budget where it is most likely to pay off. So which is the best way of reaching newly married couples setting up home? A radio station with a well-researched audience profile is much more convincing than an amateur with a hunch.

The product or service ‘premise’

In 30 seconds, it's not possible to say everything about anything. So identify one, or perhaps two, key features about the product which mark it out as especially attractive. Choose one of these – its usefulness, efficiency, simplicity, low cost, durability, availability, value for money, exclusivity, technical quality, newness, status, advanced design, excitement or beauty. There are other possibilities, but a single memorable point about a product is far more effective than an attempt to describe the whole thing. In the case of food and drink the key phrases may be more subjective – easy to prepare, made in a moment, satisfying, long lasting, luscious, nutritious, economical and so on.

Now develop a short statement which connects the product's intention with a known and desirable effect. This becomes the ‘critical premise’ or consumer benefit, and often comprises a subject, an action verb and a result. Here are some examples:

Clean breath helps personal relationships.
Disinfecting your bathroom gives you a safer home.
A slimming diet makes you more attractive.
Serving rich coffee impresses your friends.
Driving while drunk kills innocent people.
Unsafe sex increases the risk of AIDS.
Inoculation against disease can save your child's life.
An energy breakfast promotes a successful day.

This is the writer's hypothesis and is the essential first building block for any radio spot. Before going further, test it out on other people. Do they believe it? Does the action genuinely link the cause and the effect? Is the end result something that people in your target audience want? This brings us back to the point that effective advertising is grounded on thorough, relevant research. If the premise is shown to be true it is now necessary to connect the product firmly with it.

Whether the object of attention is a January sale, a fast food shop, a cosmetic cream or a life insurance policy, the client and producer/writer together must agree the primary feature to be sold.

It is important to consider the overall style or image to be projected. Is the impression required to be friendly, warm and domestic or is it unusual, lively and adventurous? If the idea is to convey reassurance, dependability and safety, this should be communicated in the writing, but also in the voicing and any music used. Every element must be consistent in combining to support the premise and associate the product with it.

Writing copy

This is the heart of it, and it's worth remembering two things – (1) well-chosen, appropriate words cost no more than sloppy clichés and (2) radio is a visual medium.

First impressions count – the ‘primacy’ and ‘recency’ effects referred to under ‘News’ are no less important here. The opening sentence should immediately identify the setting – the location, persona, key selling point or product. This can be greatly helped by well-chosen effects:

The American copywriter Robert Pritikin has pointed out the value of specifically writing for the eye as an aid to product recall. He wrote a now famous illustration of radio's ability to help the listener to visualize even something as intangible as a colour:

Here the listener will personalize the images in response to the ideas presented, and the key point about this paint is not its value or durability – it is its yellowness. Everything is geared to communicate its bright liveliness – even the shortness of the sentences. On reading the piece, any good producer will be able to hear the appropriate voice for it and, if need be, the right music.

Creating something visual to produce a memorable image leading to product recall demands great imagination – especially for the more mundane. After all, as an on-station producer, what would you write for a local windscreen repair service?

In a few seconds of airtime the script must gain our interest, make the key point about the product (in the above case, immediacy) and say clearly what action the listener must take to obtain it. This is especially important for station-produced marketing promotions aimed at potential buyers of its own advertising spots. Here the voices wittily imitate two well-known cricket commentators:

Advertising based on familiar radio programmes obviously strikes a chord with the listener, given the right placing. The next example also imitates BBC commentators, the writing parodying the sports style. This is one of a series of ads making use of this device:

This approach, once the format, style and characters are established, is very effective in promoting the brand name. The time may come when, for a national product, the name need not be mentioned at all. The advantage is that the listener joins in the game and is almost certain to say the product name to himself – as in the famous ‘Schhhh … you know who’ campaign. Here, Duracell batteries use only one voice – the same, somewhat tired, ‘ordinary’, older man's voice which was used for a time in all their radio ads, plus their ‘sound logo’, used on TV as well:

Voicing and treatment

Casting a commercial is a make or break business. Doing it well stems from having a clear idea of the overall impression required. Professional actors may be expensive but are much more likely than the station's office staff or the client firm's MD to provide what is required. They have greater flexibility, vocal range and, above all, are ‘produceable’. Once they know what you want, trained performers will produce consistent results. And you will certainly need it done many times, if only to get the inflections, timing – with effects and music – absolutely right.

Advertising for a charity generally calls for a serious uncluttered approach. Listen to the example for the Marie Curie Cancer Care organization on the CD, Ch 15-2. And here's another striking piece of no-nonsense writing without music or effects. The one voice has to be quiet, strong, tough and compassionate. It mustn't be associated with any single professional or social group. The speed of delivery is important.

In production, vocal inflection, emphasis, pace and projection are infinitely variable. Even though you start with a clear idea of how a piece should sound, you may want to try it a number of ways. It's generally worth asking your speaker what sounds right or comfortable to him or her. Should it be confidential and relaxed or more excited? What emotional content is appropriate? Should you ‘shout’, literally, to call attention, for example, to a new store opening.

There are times, however, when the end result is not the product of creative artifice and technique, but comes straight from reality. Here is the very real voice of genuine anguish – not an actress with words written for her – but the halting voice, careful and controlled, of a mother who had been interviewed after her son was killed in a road accident:

The serious public service commercial such as this in particular needs the right voice – one that registers immediately to have impact. The presentation must reinforce the content. Here's a particularly good example of that, where the actual sound of the commercial is the message.

Many countries run advertising about the problems of AIDS and sexually transmitted disease – sensitive to the cultural context. Here's an award-winning British example from the Health Education Authority.

The producer has a range of techniques to alter a voice: filters, digital effects, graphic equalizer and ‘presence’ control to change the tonal quality or to give a more incisive cutting edge, compression to restrict the dynamic range and keep the levels up, multi-tracking and variable-speed recording to increase the apparent number of voices, echo for ‘space’, phasing effects for mystery, and so on. Beware of gimmicks, however. If one is tempted to use technical tricks to ‘make it more interesting’, check the writing again – are the words really doing their job? One of the most effective ads I ever made was also the simplest. For a station in the tropics, its purpose was to sell a new iced lolly on a stick:

Run fairly frequently, because of its low cost, the phrases – or versions of them – could soon be heard all over town. An ad has to be right for its own culture. No matter how clever or complicated an advertisement is, it is never good on its own – only in relation to what happens after it is broadcast.

Music and effects

The main role of music is to assist in establishing mood. The biggest trap is to use a track from the library simply because of its title. The label may say ‘Sunrise Serenade’, but does it sound like an early morning promise of a new day, or is it cold, menacing or just nondescript? Music in the context of the radio commercial must do what you want – immediately. If in doubt, play your choice to a colleague and ask ‘what does this remind you of?’ On your own you can convince yourself of anything.

The right music will almost certainly not be the right length. If you want the music to finish at the end, rather than to be faded, some judicious editing will be needed under the speech.

This was certainly the case in a witty ad using Mozart to promote holidays in Jamaica – in a British context, a sensible guess at the tastes of the socio-economic target group likely to be interested in this type of holiday:

As for effects, it would be hard to imagine a more dramatic use of sounds than this:

A word of warning about adding new words to a well-known song. Make sure that the music is out of copyright, or at least obtain written clearance from the publisher before proceeding. Publishers can be very sensitive about parodies of the work they own. All published music used in advertisements should be cleared in the same way that the station deals with its other music. For ads and promos, Performing Rights and Copyright Societies will normally make special arrangements rather than insisting on details of individual use. Producers working in this area will find invaluable the various libraries of non-copyright music.

On a technical point, make sure that the music/speech mix is checked for audibility in both the mono and stereo versions. The point made earlier is crucial – it may not be satisfactory to broadcast the same mix, in terms of relative level, on stereo FM as on mono medium wave.

Sound effects, like music, have to make their point immediately and unambiguously. They are best used sparingly, unless the impression required is one of chaos or ‘busyness’. The right atmosphere effect to set the scene, manipulated and added to at appropriate points in the script – as in the ‘cricket’ example earlier – works well. Producers should not be misled by the title of an effects track or what it actually is. It is only what it sounds like that matters. And again, there is an armoury of techniques, from filters to vari-speed reproduction, for altering the sound.

Stereo

Commercials that deliberately exploit the stereo effect are relatively rare. There is the British Airways example, which intersperses phrases from their music logo – the Flower Duet from ‘Lakmé’ by Delibes – using a sitar on the left and a piano on the right, eventually bringing them together under the speech line:

Even more pointed is this advertisement for the SEAT Arosa car. It doesn't make much sense on medium wave mono because of the two voices apparently speaking together, but it's clearly written and nicely produced for FM stereo.

Humour in advertising

We all like to laugh, and there is a perfectly logical connection between our liking an advertisement because it makes us laugh and liking the product which it promotes. The brand name endears itself to us by being associated with something that is witty and amusing. But the danger is twofold – if the joke is too good it may obscure or send up the product, and if it is not good enough it will not stand up to one hearing, let alone the repetition that radio gives. The answer lies in genuinely comic writing that does not rely on a single punchline, and in characterization that may be overplayed but which is nevertheless credible. The good commercial has much in common with the successful cartoon drawing. Even so, exposure of such wit should be carefully regulated. It is probably best to create a series of vignettes in a given style, and intermix them across the spot times to give maximum variety. The listener will enjoy the new jokes as well as welcoming old favourites – further, the hearer will recall the product long before the ad gets to it.

Some of these commercials are full-scale dramas in their own right. As has been said in another chapter, if the station facilities and expertise cannot properly undertake this kind of work, it is better to succeed with something simpler than embark on the complexity of a major production such as this:

A radio commercial is trying to sell a real product or service: the advertisement itself must therefore have reality, however outrageous its style. In the end, people must believe it.