VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

DaveChristi · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:01 pm Post subject: Effective ads

If you're a business... and you're looking to do a little radio advertising... I've just learned some amazing new facts from a client of mine that may help you.

If you want effective ads:

1 - Always look at your ads from the perspective of the business owner. Make sure that the ad doesn't target the listener. You know all about YOUR business. Writing from the point of view of the listener who doesn't, makes you sound... human.

2 - Don't surprise the listener. Give them exactly what they're expecting... a radio ad that sounds like every other radio ad. Surprising the listener may cause them to stop what they are doing and pay attention to your ad.

3 - Don't offend ANYBODY. Make sure your ad is full of all sorts of safe... politically correct words. If you sell things like lumber, don't even MENTION it! You may offend environmentalists. If you're having a Christmas sale, call it a winter sale.

4 - Think FOR the listener. Your potential customers are obviously not smart enough to think things through to their obvious conclusion. Just because your ad contains sounds of a busy city street or chirping birds, do not assume that your listeners will figure out that this means "outside". Make sure your narrator says something like, "We're outside on a beautiful sunny day..." etc.

5 - REAL conversations will make you sound DUMB. Make sure that conversations in your ads reflect proper grammar and sentence structure. You got a solid B- in English. Don't let "real speech" creep into YOUR ads.

6 - People should NEVER be curious about you. By the time the ad is over, the listener should have sufficient information to form a complete opinion about your business before they ever come to see you. If they are curious, they may COME IN to your business and start asking questions. That would open up the opportunity for a dialog between you and a potential customer. They may even buy something (and who has time for that?).

7 - Don't ever run spots like these! EVER!

Bad Ad 1

Bad Ad 2

Follow my client's advice... really... I DARE YOU!

Explode

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Lizden · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 2:16 pm Post subject:

L.
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DaveChristi · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject:

(2nd link fixed Embarrassed

)
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Deirdre · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:52 pm Post subject:

So, he didn't like these ads you mean?

. . . the ones with aural white space, and engaging text?
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DaveChristi · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 3:55 pm Post subject:

Is that what I was getting at? Oh dear... I HOPE I didn't come off sounding bitter.
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Dave "Christi" Felton
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Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:01 pm Post subject:

melissa eX · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:24 pm Post subject:

PINTO!

Deirdre · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:27 pm Post subject:

Diane.

Sister Mary Maragaret will see you after class.
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Diane Maggipinto · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:30 pm Post subject:

oh, i know.

she and i like to smoke behind the shed.
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DaveChristi · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 4:31 pm Post subject:

I "wood" if I had my way.

I was told that no one in their right mind would run ads like those. They "didn't even have his address" in them.

He said he has owned 4 other business and he's always done the same kind of ads. I asked if any of those businesses were still open. He asked for a different producer. Gasp

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Dave "Christi" Felton
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Deirdre · Posted: Fri May 02, 2008 11:28 pm Post subject:

This is why I loves me some Dave Christie O yes I do.
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Lizden · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 2:51 am Post subject:

todd ellis · Posted: Sat May 03, 2008 5:33 am Post subject:

dave - i got thrown out of a city council meeting kinda like that once! good on ya!
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JimRon · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 11:19 am Post subject:

oh that is killer! thanks for that. hysterical!! i'm posting it in the sales office right now...

(and BTW great spots!)
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imaginator · Posted: Mon May 05, 2008 12:21 pm Post subject:

back in my radio days we had an obnoxious car dealer (with ads to match) who took every opportunity to remind us know-nothing slobs that he used to be in radio and knew all about spot production.

we were all aching to ask him, if he was so *#@%-ed great, what was he doing selling used cars. of course, we never did.
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