Radio: The Intrusive Advertising Medium
9 Yards Marketing
Sioux Falls, SD
Sioux Falls, SD
What do we mean by an "intrusive advertising medium"... and why is it vital to utilize in your local advertising?
"Intrusive" in regards to advertising means that someone can be communicated to just by having their radio ON. No other energy is required. You don't have to DO anything. You don't have to be flipping through a newspaper or magazine. You don't have to be surfing the web and trying to decide which business you're going to call first. No work on your part. Anyone with working ears can hear a radio advertisement. You can close your eyes, but you can't close your EARS. Make sense?
You can divert your attention from a visual ad in a fraction of a second. In fact, you may be close enough to a visual ad where it could reach out and touch you... but you still may not see it. You could drive by a billboard, and not see it. You could be on your favorite local news website and not see the 15 digital ads all around the page (they might even be blinking and flashing - but your brain has learned to ignore them).
But radio advertising is intrusive. It's a voice. It's sound. If you want it to stop, you have to physically do something about it. Sound is powerful. A baby's cry or laugh. A scream. A song. A child saying, "I love you, Mommy." Your favorite muscle car revving to 7000 rpm. Birds chirping. Ocean waves.
TV is also intrusive. But that intrusiveness could be capitalized upon more if the producers of TV ads would put more time and effort into the sounds and words instead of just the visuals. TV commercials are for bathroom breaks, going to the kitchen for a snack, switching the laundry, texting a friend, or checking Facebook. And the only thing that can halt or interrupt those tasks is a sound or voice that is pleasant, intriguing, disturbing, etc. Not the visual. Not the visual because our eyes would have to be locked onto a spot only a few feet tall by a few feet wide.
Good radio advertising writers have had to learn how to utilize the power of sound (well, some have). That's all we have - sound. And it's incredible what we can do with it. We paint a picture with sound. We can take a listener wherever we wish them to go - in their mind. TV can't do that. Yes, TV has some great advantages over radio. And radio has some great advantages over TV. I've just found more advantages over my years of experience... with radio.
If you're about to embark on creating an effective advertising plan, you must include an intrusive advertising medium in your mix. And please don't believe that you have to advertise in 34 different places in Sioux Falls. And don't believe that you have to reach EVERYONE. Extensive media mix is something in which I believe has lead to the downfall or unnecessary hardship for oodles of local businesses. Spending their entire ad budget, sprinkled across too many tiny audiences - without enough intrusiveness - most often leads to advertising failure. Zero return on investment. Money going out and not enough coming in...over long periods of time. You THINK that advertising in more places is how to get more bang for your buck. But the opposite is true. You need to focus your dollars on fewer ad mediums. Focus - that's what brings results. Not scattering aimlessly.
Just because radio is a wonderful, intrusive medium, doesn't make it automatically effective though. Just like your brain has learned to ignore so much other advertising gobbly-goo...brains also ignore bad radio advertising. The difference between intrusive and non-intrusive advertising though... is that with the intrusive kind, you at least have a chance to reach people with an advertising message. So, if most people choose to ignore your radio message, that's the ad writer's fault. The ad message failed to talk to the advertiser's "target" about something they actually cared about. Don't blame radio... blame the creator of the radio ads. And don't blame the radio production person who was given a few lame-brain, scribbly notes and instructions. Blame the person who sold the radio to the business without first understanding how to make the radio advertising WORK for that business. Like a lot of advertising greats have said in one way or another, it's not the ad medium that makes the big difference, it's the MESSAGE you put onto the ad medium.
Wanna do radio? Then, let's get started making a huge impact with it for you! Once it's chugging away for you on all cylinders, you'll wish you had started it years ago. You'll fall in love with it. And I'm not joking.
"Intrusive" in regards to advertising means that someone can be communicated to just by having their radio ON. No other energy is required. You don't have to DO anything. You don't have to be flipping through a newspaper or magazine. You don't have to be surfing the web and trying to decide which business you're going to call first. No work on your part. Anyone with working ears can hear a radio advertisement. You can close your eyes, but you can't close your EARS. Make sense?
You can divert your attention from a visual ad in a fraction of a second. In fact, you may be close enough to a visual ad where it could reach out and touch you... but you still may not see it. You could drive by a billboard, and not see it. You could be on your favorite local news website and not see the 15 digital ads all around the page (they might even be blinking and flashing - but your brain has learned to ignore them).
But radio advertising is intrusive. It's a voice. It's sound. If you want it to stop, you have to physically do something about it. Sound is powerful. A baby's cry or laugh. A scream. A song. A child saying, "I love you, Mommy." Your favorite muscle car revving to 7000 rpm. Birds chirping. Ocean waves.
TV is also intrusive. But that intrusiveness could be capitalized upon more if the producers of TV ads would put more time and effort into the sounds and words instead of just the visuals. TV commercials are for bathroom breaks, going to the kitchen for a snack, switching the laundry, texting a friend, or checking Facebook. And the only thing that can halt or interrupt those tasks is a sound or voice that is pleasant, intriguing, disturbing, etc. Not the visual. Not the visual because our eyes would have to be locked onto a spot only a few feet tall by a few feet wide.
Good radio advertising writers have had to learn how to utilize the power of sound (well, some have). That's all we have - sound. And it's incredible what we can do with it. We paint a picture with sound. We can take a listener wherever we wish them to go - in their mind. TV can't do that. Yes, TV has some great advantages over radio. And radio has some great advantages over TV. I've just found more advantages over my years of experience... with radio.
If you're about to embark on creating an effective advertising plan, you must include an intrusive advertising medium in your mix. And please don't believe that you have to advertise in 34 different places in Sioux Falls. And don't believe that you have to reach EVERYONE. Extensive media mix is something in which I believe has lead to the downfall or unnecessary hardship for oodles of local businesses. Spending their entire ad budget, sprinkled across too many tiny audiences - without enough intrusiveness - most often leads to advertising failure. Zero return on investment. Money going out and not enough coming in...over long periods of time. You THINK that advertising in more places is how to get more bang for your buck. But the opposite is true. You need to focus your dollars on fewer ad mediums. Focus - that's what brings results. Not scattering aimlessly.
Just because radio is a wonderful, intrusive medium, doesn't make it automatically effective though. Just like your brain has learned to ignore so much other advertising gobbly-goo...brains also ignore bad radio advertising. The difference between intrusive and non-intrusive advertising though... is that with the intrusive kind, you at least have a chance to reach people with an advertising message. So, if most people choose to ignore your radio message, that's the ad writer's fault. The ad message failed to talk to the advertiser's "target" about something they actually cared about. Don't blame radio... blame the creator of the radio ads. And don't blame the radio production person who was given a few lame-brain, scribbly notes and instructions. Blame the person who sold the radio to the business without first understanding how to make the radio advertising WORK for that business. Like a lot of advertising greats have said in one way or another, it's not the ad medium that makes the big difference, it's the MESSAGE you put onto the ad medium.
Wanna do radio? Then, let's get started making a huge impact with it for you! Once it's chugging away for you on all cylinders, you'll wish you had started it years ago. You'll fall in love with it. And I'm not joking.