Do you remember the last time a creative radio commercial made you stop in your tracks? Maybe it’s been a while (considering the incredible amount of bad marketing out there), but we’re sure you can remember a time when you heard an example of really great creative advertising on radio. Think about it, for just a moment.
What did you like about it? If you’re like most radio listeners, you liked that it told a great story. Radio can not only tell the listener a great story, but unlike visual mediums, it allows the listener to get involved in the story in a big way. Because there’s no visual aspect to radio, listeners are forced to imagine a scene themselves (a technique called Theater of The Mind). When they imagine, they actively participate. When they participate, they’re more likely to remember.
Because of these attributes, radio is an incredibly effective medium for creative advertising. When listeners participate in the creation of the story, they’re much more likely to remember it and relate to it. For advertisers, that means brand recognition and ultimately, new customers.
Now, can you remember the last time you heard a bad radio advertisement? We’re guessing not, because if you’re like most of us, you promptly forgot about it.
But successful marketers can’t forget about radio. Although digital advertising is growing at a rapid pace, in 2015, radio advertising was still at the top of the most powerful mediums in the U.S, with a reach of 59% of the population daily. Radio advertising expenditure topped $17 billion that year, and the medium will continue to be an important one.
The problem is not all of that advertising money was spent well. Radio is susceptible to a lot of bad habits in advertising, including the need of some marketers to jump on every single trend and the lack of some brands to establish a strong creative personality.
Don’t succumb to marketing peer pressure: Creative is an immensely important component of your marketing strategy. Consumers today have higher expectations than ever before — because of the internet, consumers know exactly what bad creative looks like, and it’s distracting! Today’s customers see creative in video, sound, and digital ads and they aren’t going to get fooled by bad creative. They’re being asked to buy more things than ever before and your creative needs to stand out to attract their attention and be effective.
Of course, creative isn’t everything: Even really creative, funny, clever ads might not mean much if consumers don’t remember the brand. That said, though, the creative advertising component of your brand marketing is your brand. If your creative is sloppy, consumers will equate that with a sloppy brand. You can have the right audience, right station, right schedule, and right offer — but bad creative will trump all of that.
In order to really learn how to avoid bad marketing, it’s important to work with a professional on your creative strategy. And choose wisely: A professional that understands quality creative is great, but a professional that understands quality creative for the specific medium — in this case, radio — is the best choice.
Creative professionals also need to understand your brand, your target audience, and be able to tell them a story in a way that connects.
Zimmer Radio & Marketing Group’s Creative Service Team can help.
We know your brand: We’ll spend time with you perfecting your brand story, understanding your goals, and working with you on your brand strategy. We also know radio: We’ve had years of experience working in radio and generating success for our clients. We know what works and what doesn’t.
Beyond that, though, Zimmer Radio & Marketing Group knows our listeners. You’ll know your customers best and with the added knowledge we have about our listeners, we’ll be able to design great creative that works! We align our creative advertising with customers’ goals: Great, funny, interesting, memorable creative is important, but not if it’s not going to solicit the action you need.
We also have proof we know what we’re doing! Zimmer’s Creative Service Team has won multiple Missouri Broadcasters Association awards for Best Commercial in the state. We’ve also been nominated for the Radio Mercury Award multiple times, for Best Commercial in the U.S.
Let Zimmer Radio & Marketing Group help you get the best creative advertising that will connect to your customers and make them stop in their tracks.
