Blending the secret ingredients of a radio commercial

For 3 years InSites Consulting has been testing 10 radio commercials a month, from a broad scope of advertisers in the Netherlands, in cooperation with the radio station Q-music. An aggregated analysis of this ‘ad impact’ research taught us that most radio spots seem unable to obtain a higher likeability score than 6.0 (on a 10-point scale), while a likeability score of 8-10 results in a 366% higher chance of buying activation compared to a likability score of 6-7.
However, it is not easy to create a radio commercial which is liked by radio listeners in the Netherlands. Only 17% of over 150,000 radio listeners in the Netherlands have attributed a score of 8 or higher to a commercial. The main drivers of a high likeability score are ‘Engagement’ and ‘Message conveyance’ and to a lesser extent ‘Processing comfort’. Elements of engagement are: being original, nice, innovating for a brand, spectacular, humoristic and warm. Message conveyance refers to the fact that a commercial has to be credible, contains useful information, has to be relevant and is important to a lot of people.
So what’s the secret? How can you create the ideal commercial, taking into account these main drivers? These questions answered by Tony Hertz during a workshop hosted by Q-music on the 31st of October 2013.
In a 5-hour workshop Tony Hertz started by explaining why in the Netherlands we seem to be unable to create more great radio commercials. Advertisers nowadays want their commercials to be short and created on a limited budget. Furthermore, a commercial should contain a lot of information, such as everything they offer, discount prices for all items, where and when to buy them and where more information is available. Of course the creatives have to make sure that all information can be memorized easily by radio listeners, as a result we have a lot of short-and-shouting radio commercials which score low on likeability. The potential of radio as a medium is not used sufficiently. Radio as a medium has 2 very powerful characteristics:

  1. It allows you to create emotions
  2. It has the potential to evoke personal image

Both these characteristics were the first two of the 7 secrets Tony shared with us in the workshop:

  1. Find an emotion to communicate
  2. Start with a picture
  3. Think about the people who will hear your commercial
  4. One ad, one message
  5. Consider the product, service or relation differently between stakeholders
  6. Design characters, not voices
  7. Produce with passion

Using these 7 secrets will help you create a likeable and thus impactful radio commercial. Do not hesitate and start concocting a perfect commercial or ask us for more information.

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