Advertising messages from the ether
Radio Advertising: The production of radio spots is a multifaceted process and requires careful planning.
Since Roger Schawinski's Pirate Radio Days
The private stations have become a serious competitor of
Radio DRS. But their existence is still hard: In the
In contrast to the public radio stations, which are supported by
fees are financed, they must cover one hundred percent of their expenses.
cover through advertising revenue. "Fortunately, the
Private radio today is a medium that is taken seriously," explains Remo
Civatti, head of the Radio Zürisee Werbe AG branch in Uster and
Managing Director of Silverspot GmbH. With a four percent share in the
Swiss advertising pie, however, the potential does not yet seem to be at all
to be exhausted. Innovation and creativity in the production of
Spots are therefore indicated.
Different forms of advertising
Good classic radio spots grab attention, entertain,
inform or stimulate the willingness to buy. They announce
upcoming open house events at the local car dealership,
point to the new course program of a continuing education institute or the
new opening hours of the furniture store or inform about it,
which cinema is showing the blockbuster that has just been released. Image spots
on the other hand, are suitable as a classic sales promotion measure. Since they
are usually produced without reference to a date, they can be used via
be disseminated over a longer period of time. Besides these
main forms, there are various special forms. These include
Combinations of main spot with a preceding teaser or a
downstream reminders, each of which is supported by at least one other
radio spot can be separated from each other.
Sponsorship is becoming increasingly important, for example when the weather, the
Traffic news or the upcoming soccer world cup from a company
be "presented". In the radio programs can be used for this purpose headings,
vessels or entire broadcasts are sponsored. Compared to the
However, in the case of sponsorship, advertising spot is only a company mention plus
identification is possible ("Dealer X from Y presents ..."). At
the design of the sponsoring appearances, which usually take place over a longer period of time.
time, media law restrictions must be taken into account.
pay attention.
Creation of a radio spot
The spots usually look as if they are produced quite loosely,
but there is a great deal of know-how and experience behind it.
Based on the briefing by the customer and an implementation idea
of the spot producers, a text is formulated. Where less is usually more
is: "Many customers want to fit far too many messages into a far too
short radio spot," Remo Civatti knows from experience.
Because a
average listener can only absorb three to four key messages,
the central message is often not perceived in overloaded spots.
This is where the consulting expertise of a radio studio comes in. The most important room of a studio is the announcer's booth, in which the
invited speaker performs his or her rehearsed text in a soundproofed
environment to the best.
The spoken text is recorded by means of a high-quality microphone
digitized and is then ready for further processing. Besides the
Recording in the broadcast booth, radio studios also provide so-called
outdoor productions. These spots produced in interview style
are recorded directly at the customer or also in the radio studio
and are intended to convey an on-site atmosphere to the listener.
Most often, the radio spot producer organizes a suitable spokesperson,
but the customer can also take care of a speaker - or even
put themselves in front of the microphone. But the choice of speaker has its
pitfalls: "If you want to produce national commercials, you should
consider that in German-speaking Switzerland, prominent speakers in other
(language) regions of Switzerland are, at best, completely unknown," says
Civatti, who sees the use of regional dialects as a particular
challenge and uses it accordingly as a stylistic element.
To find the right voice, for example, the studios reach into
from the list of speakers listed on www.vps-asp.ch, or they
rely on exclusive voices. The latter are mostly people with a
acting training, which, if desired, can also be provided exclusively with an
Studio collaborate. "Popular," says Remo Civatti, "and often very
expensive are dubbing voices of internationally known actors."
Dramaturgy and editing
The control room and editing suite are of central importance. Here are
the spoken text on additional audio tracks with further acoustic
elements are mixed in. These are, for example, jingles (a short and memorable
melody/sound sequence, which is often used as an acoustic logo), the
Music carpet (a dramatizing musical background of the
spoken text) or a soundscape (prefabricated,
purchased or studio-recorded elements). Often it is just
these sound elements that make a spot unique and create a
enable recognition. Important are these the radio spot
complementary elements, because they help the listener to remember the
to stay. Civatti regrets that these soundscapes are far too
would rarely be required.
Music can also be used as the background of a radio spot.
But while "mood" music - which radio producers in
digital libraries combined music pieces - often in the price
of a radio spot is included, should be used for standard or current
Music first prizes as well as the rights to broadcast at the
Suisa (Swiss Society for the Rights of Authors and Publishers)
musical works) are obtained. The cost of musical works
depend on the topicality of the piece as well as the popularity of the
Artist off.
Who does what?
From requests for orders to be produced within hours,
to nationally broadcast radio spots, the production of which is spread over
extends over several weeks, a wide range can be found. With the
Planning radio spots should therefore take two weeks for realization
be included in the calculation. Of course, quick shots are possible,
especially with such a fast medium. But here, too, nothing works
about careful planning, testing and implementation. Too often it comes
amateurishly produced commercials that meet the qualitative demands of the
of the customer are not sufficient, polished up in the studio for expensive money.
need to be.
For the production of radio spots offer different large
Radio studios offer their services. They take care of the
professional preparation and make the radio spot available to the digital
file. The way to the broadcast of a radio spot leads thereby
mostly via advertising pools (see box). While airtime can be purchased from the
private radio stations can be booked directly without any problems, but offer the
advertising pools in addition to greater reach over the whole
more favorable conditions.
A radio spot is created
Step 1: Inquiry and initial clarifications by telephone as to whether it is an image, event, open house spot, etc..
Step 2: Further discussion in the radio studio or at the customer's premises.
Step 3: The offer and a rough schedule are prepared.
Step 4: The media plan is drawn up. It is determined how often the spot will be run and where it will be broadcast.
Step 5: The spot will be
produced: The speaker or interviewee is on location. There will be
two to three proposals/variants with different emphasis and
Background (carpet) created to set the direction
(theatrical, provocative, informative). At this point the
Text to be released. In the case of an external interview, the
radio journalist to record the spot on site.
Step 6: The spot will be
compiled, cut, adjusted, breaks set or
shifted, etc., until it is finally produced and available as a
digital file is available.
Step 7: The customer gives the approval.
Step 8: The file is forwarded to the radio stations or the marketer.
Music/Radio at your fingertips
Those who are superficially interested in (radio) music can go to the
For example, you can log on to Pandora, a music service owned by Yahoo.
Enter favorite song or artist and will be
Songs supplied, which have similar musical elements.
Spoken editorial contributions, on the other hand, can be viewed by users in the
Internet as podcasts download. Besides Apple iTunes, on whose
Software the "podcasting" goes back, there are here also more
Provider.
Both variants finance their services with advertising on their
websites, superimposed radio advertising or demand fees for the
Download.
The scene of pools and marketers
If radio spots are also booked directly via private radio stations without any problems
can be made, the mostly radio station-initiated
or founded pools offer opportunities for supraregional or even
nationwide broadcast. In addition to the French, Italian and
German Switzerland oriented radio pools, there are pools for the
agglomerations and for tourist areas. Leading marketers are the
IP Multimedia (Schweiz) AG, which belongs to the Goldbach Media Group, and
Radiotele AG. Other marketers include the companies
Spotpromotions and Covermedia.
Jürgen Franck
