Whether your business has experience running radio advertisement campaigns or is interested in embarking on this media method, one thing is for sure: You want to make sure that you are airing the best quality ads for your campaign as possible.
At Zimmer, we are rooted in radio and know what it takes to make a quality ad campaign. When you work with radio professionals, a bulk of the work and responsibilities you will not need to worry about, as you give technical and creative liberties to our team. But, there are definitely some things you and your business should know about that are key to understanding if you want to execute a quality radio ad campaign.
Before we dive in, we have to mention that while these principles are universal to most campaigns, there is a difference between action campaigns and awareness campaigns, and you should make sure you are familiar with both when you are starting to develop your campaign. And if you are looking to take a deeper dive into understanding the difference between the two, be sure to download our free eBook guide below!
- Action Campaign: Meant to draw listeners to your business for a specific purpose — your call-to-action. These types of campaigns must be compelling and are usually shorter, high-frequency campaigns, intended to incite some type of action from your audience.
- Awareness Campaign: Intended to, as the name implies, make listeners aware of your business, thus improving brand authority and authenticity. Usually used over the long term to develop customers who are loyal to your brand.
So without further ado, here are some foundational principles to follow in order to ensure your radio ad campaign is the best sounding and most effective campaign it can be:
Your Campaign Should Be Consistently Captivating
If you can get stuck in someone’s brain, you’ve done your job. And a great way to do this is to make sure your campaign stays consistent. Most listeners have to hear something multiple times for something to really stick!
Your radio campaign will be made up of multiple, individual advertisements. So, a great way to make these ads consistent and to stick in listener's heads is to make the messaging of the ads the same, but change the story in each. This idea of consistency ties in with branding as a whole. So be patient and wait for your campaigns to work! Think of it like pushing a car to get it going. When you're staying consistent with your efforts, it can be hard to feel like things are kicking off, but once it does, it is so much easier!
Your Campaign Should Use the Bricks & Mortar Method
Our team has a method we like to use in order to stay consistent when developing radio ad campaigns. This method is one we learned from the bestselling book, “Brandsformation” by Chuck Mefford, and it is one we have implemented for years with great results. What is the Bricks & Mortar method exactly? Think of it like this... As with a brick wall, wherein the individual bricks can vary but the mortar is uniform and unifying, the “bricks” of a campaign are talking points that can vary, while the “mortar” is made up of brand identifiers that never change and unify the bricks into a cohesive campaign.
- Mortar: There are some audio components you change and some you don’t. The things you don’t change are the parts that comprise your “mortar”. A jingle is an example of a mortar component you don’t change if you don’t have to. If it never changes, you begin to recognize it – and, most importantly, if it gets played enough you won’t forget it. Here are some elements in your radio ads that can be considered "mortar":
- Slogan
- Style
- Music
- Jingle
- Bricks: Once you’ve identified your ad style and selected the right components for your mortar, you can create an ad “template” that stays the same every time. Now all you need are “bricks” to swap in and out of that template. Your bricks are any talking points about your business, product or service that can (and should) be changed to keep you relevant in the minds of listeners. The following are all elements within your radio ads that can serve as your "bricks":
- New Product or Service
- Recent Changes
- Limited or Seasonal Offerings
- Testimonials
- Products and Services
By following the principles above, you will be laying the foundation for a great-sounding and effective radio ad campaign that yields results. This way, listeners want to hear what’s coming next, and it makes your creative ads stick with customers time and time again. Be sure to check out our FREE guide to take a deeper dive into learning more about the building blocks of a radio campaign, and subscribe to the Zimmer Communications blog for more helpful information!
