Crafting the Right Message for Your Radio Ad

If I were to say the same thing over and over again for a full minute to try and convince you to do something, would it work?

Or if I were to tell you briefly, in about 10 seconds the same thing, but instead of doing it over and over again for a minute straight, I did it once a day for a week, would that work?

This is one of the questions that I consider when making a recommendation for a radio advertising campaign on WOWO Radio.   It’s all about Crafting the Right Message for Your Radio Ad.  Let’s dig in:

Traditional radio ads are a minute long.  Some are shorter, like 30 seconds, a few are 15 or 10 seconds long.

Our attention spans are continuing to shrink as technology speeds up the rate we can get information.  Science says our attention span is now shorter than a goldfish. 15 years ago, we would pay attention for 12 seconds.  By 2013, that number dropped to 8 seconds.  Your goldfish has an attention span of 9 seconds.

What does this mean in practical terms for your radio ads?

In a 1 minute commercial, you had to keep the listener engaged 5 times for a 1 minute ad. Now that number has increased 50% to 7.5 times per minute, or you will lose them, mentally to something else, even if they are listening, they are not paying attention.

While there are still benefits to having your ad playing, even if the listener is not actively listening, (the subconscious branding affect), do you really want to bore your potential customers with your advertising?

Not the way you want to advertise!

This is one of the reasons, I saw an opportunity to help my clients and advertising partners to come up with an effective alternate to 60 second and even 30 second ads on WOWO Radio.

Instead of rambling on and on and on, what if we got straight to the point in about 10 seconds?   And instead of your ad sounding like a commercial with a music bed playing in the background, it was done live by the radio personality as part of their sharing the news, weather, or traffic reports, I discovered the value of these imbedded messages for my advertising partners.

I first transitioned into the advertising world from being an on-air radio personality by having a full time position of writing, creating, and producing radio ads and campaigns.  To be perfectly honest, creating effective one minute ads is hard.  Very hard to do and keep them from being boring or filled with cliches.  Remember what I said about our short attention spans?  Our brains need to be stimulated or we tune out.

There are some additional benefits to short messages on WOWO Radio.  For the price of a one minute ad, I can provide you with between 2 and 5 shorter messages.

Remember my original question?

If I were to say the same thing over and over again for a full minute to try and convince you to do something, would it work?

Or if I were to tell you briefly, in about 10 seconds the same thing, but instead of doing it over and over again for a minute straight, I did it once a day for a week, would that work?

Option 2 usually works better.  It’s our human nature.  It is more relationship based.  And if your marketing message can be conveyed in a shorter message, it is also a smart option.

So what is best for you and your business?  Longer or Shorter messages?  Or a combination? It is impossible to tell you without us talking first.

Here’s your invitation to contact me and start the conversation.