Christmas on BBC Radio 4

January 3rd, 2012

Well we’re back from our fab break with stories to tell. We’re particularly proud of one of our Experts and his family who not only spent time helping others this Christmas but also found themselves whisked off to The Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 for the December 29th show.

The show focussed on volunteer communities at Christmas and went out to the show’s phenomenal 7 million plus listeners. You can hear an extract here or it is available here on the BBC iPlayer. Happy New Year!

Posted by Tam McGregor – Logistics Officer at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. You can follow Tim Cowland on twitter @timcradioexpert

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Breaking the radio promotion boundary

February 17th, 2011

Hats (and pants) off to BRMB, Orion’s flagship radio station for Birmingham, who’ve gone one step further than their famous promotion last held in 2006 when they ran a competition to choose two strangers prepared to get married to each other.

This time the love-matching BRMB team have returned to the basic idea of strangers getting married – only this time it will be a naked wedding. Youch, I wouldn’t want to see the photos of the dancing.

Bit in this age of ever-decreasing localness and radio stations that trophy celebrity over on-air creativity, I take my hat, pants, socks, vest and cravat off to BRMB. Good radio breaks boundaries and great radio creates memories that last for a lifetime.

So well done BRMB, I hope they’re naked wedding promotion is a massive success. And quite frankly, its something I’d rather listen to than watch!

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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Will Wi-Fi on The Tube affect radio listening…..duh!

November 11th, 2010

London, the tube. A miracle of engineering, great for transport but terrible for radio.

Why? Because you can’t get a radio signal underground.

At least you couldn’t get a signal until now.

Experiments with piping wi-fi through the tube platforms and tunnels are being tested and we can expect roll out over the next couple of years in the run up to the 2012 Olympic games.

Big news for radio hours in London.

The uptake of station player apps and listen live mobile devices has been huge in London, I see people doing it every day (they do wonder why I’m looking over their shoulders!) Here’s a snap of someone I saw this morning listening to TalkSport on his iPhone.

talksport listener

So with wifi pumped through the tunnels, online listening becomes easy.

So let’s look at the maths for London’s radio consumption here, back of envelope stuff…….

Approximately 2.7 million round trip tube journeys a day amounting to around 3.1million traveller hours. 55% of the tube network is tunnels or approaching tunnels, so at least 1.7 million radio listener hours a day are up for grabs. Assume no more than 20% of tube passengers listening to radio this way (and that’s a really conservative estimate believe me – ever noticed how many people listen to iPods on the tube?), we’re looking at 340,000 extra listening hours a day, 2.4 million hours per week.

London’s weekly total radio reach is around 16 million, so 2.4 million more hours increases the pie by a tasty 15%.

Final piece of the jigsaw for me is behavioural / modal. With the radio adverts I write, I know when I’m talking to people in cars and I know when I’m talking to people at home and at work. Now I’ll know when I’m putting advertisers in front of listeners who are on the tube, on their way in to work or coming home from work.  Coffee ads in the morning, takeaway ads in the evening etc…..!

I love the way radio advertising is all becoming more and more targeted. It makes campaigns more focussed and results more exciting.

15% more listenership hours in London with wifi on the tube. Yes please!

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist  radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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Here Come the Brands!

October 29th, 2010

For about two years now, at Radio Experts we’ve been shouting from our Kings Cross garden rooftop that when it comes to Radio, it’s the quasi national and national brands that are really driving the marketplace forward.

Smooth, Magic, Kiss, Heart, Real, Talksport, Classic,

Absolute, Total Star…..etc….you get the picture

And as of this morning, the new RAJAR results are out. The new results show good increases for more or less all of the quasi-national and national radio brands.

With a stunning performance from Talksport, bagging close to 3 million weekly listeners and sharp rises for Absolute Radio (it’s good to have you back – where have you been?) as well as really strong gains for the Smooth Network and a modest gain for Heart network.

With the new Capital Radio Network rolling out in January, there’s more to come from the age of big brand radio.

In the micro markets, Magic came out top dog in London once again with 2.149 million weekly listeners, Magic’s biggest ever result.

Global Radio’s Capital FM and Heart 106.2 swapped places in London, with Capital coming in second thus winning that little family battle.

In Manchester, Key 103 enjoyed a rise in reach, which throws the gauntlet down to Capital FM’s already challenging plan to launch their brand in Manchester in January.

Birmingham and the Midlands saw Heart West Mids and Heart East Mids go up hugely in hours, begging the question as to whether the Heart brand will be more sticky than ever before. BRMB was slightly down.

Glasgow and Edinburgh resulted in drops for market leaders Clyde 1 and Forth 1. Smooth Glasgow picked up some of their scraps and Galaxy Scotland performed well, a proud result for the brand that is about to disappear and become Capital.

In the South it was Wave 105 (Southampton, Bournemouth, Portsmouth etc) that took top honours, delivering its strongest ever result with reach now well exceeding 350,000 listeners.

There are lots of stories to unpack in this quarter’s RAJAR, watch this space. For information on any station or area and what this could mean for your radio advertising please just ask! We’re a friendly bunch.

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist  radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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So Is the radio ad good enough to run?

August 10th, 2010

You know the situation. You get a selection of scripts from Radio Experts. Which one, if any, do you choose? Which one is right for the brief you gave and the objectives you have?

Believe me it’s not easy and I’ve been writing commercials for radio for a very long time.

So you read them through. Do any of them make you sit up? Do any of them make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end – no, seriously?

Or are they derivative, dull, or trying desperately to be either witty or clever?

The first point is: never run with an ad you are not happy with and you are not prepared to justify to others in your company.

The second point is: is the script you feel most comfortable with as good as it could be? Could it be tweaked or worked on some more. The probable answer is yes.

The third point is: if you have doubts and someone says it’s ‘all in the production‘, press them because although there may be some truth in that claim, good radio adverts start with a good script.

The fourth points is: forge a relationship with the creative people writing for your company or brand. Get them to understand you and your brand better, get them involved in your marketing so they can better see what it is you’re trying to achieve as a whole.

Now read the scripts through again. Do any of the scripts still stand out? Not sure. Then maybe sleep on it. Or ask questions. Work with the creatives to squeeze every last drop out of the idea and achieve true radio excellence. Because excellence is what you deserve every time.

And it’s what Radio Experts aim to deliver. Every time.

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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Tune into Radio Experts FM

July 29th, 2010

We’d all like to have our own radio station. So technologies like Spotify , Last FM, We7 Radio and others all allow you to access this world of Radio On Demand.

And just as we would all like to have our own unique radio station, so it is that every client would like to have radio commercials that are unique to his company and his brand.

Commercials he can call his own.

Which brings us back to Radio Experts, whose experience and expertise has helped clients across a wide range of disciplines: estate agents; tourism and travel; house developers ; private health insurance.

Clients who benefit from innovative planning, precision air time buying and stimulating creative.

Clients who demand to use a specialist and therefore expect the best.

Radio Experts has the client list and the testimonials to back up its specialist credentials.

Ask to see them. Even better give Radio Experts a brief.

Once you’re tuned to Radio Experts, you’re locked onto the best show in town!

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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Time for Eloquence

July 22nd, 2010

Before TV, radio was an all – powerful medium. Sir Winston Churchill used it to bolster Britain’s morale to help win the Second World War.

His eloquence has never been equalled in 70 years. Why?

Well a 30 second radio commercial leaves little time for eloquence. But that’s no excuse for not trying. I don’t mean using flowery and high falutin’ language as favoured by Churchill.

I mean putting the case for your product forcefully, each word carefully chosen. Choosing words that will get the desired response from your target audience, both emotional and practical.

It is said that Churchill re-wrote and re-phrased his famous wartime speeches many times and that before delivering them he rehearsed in front of a mirror!

Ask your creative agency to work and re-work a script, to re-write and re-phrase until you feel comfortable that what you’re signing off is saying exactly what you want to say to get exactly the response you want from your audience.

I had a client once who, if he thought I was getting a little complacent or a little slap dash , would take my proffered scripts and scrawl across them : CALL YOURSELF CREATIVE?

There’s no greater put down for a writer than that.

Try it sometime. Hopefully you’ll never need to do it with Radio Experts !

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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Our Fear of Silence

July 20th, 2010

We’re all just a little bit afraid of silence. By ALL I mean those involved in creating, approving and producing radio commercials.

We feel compelled to fill every second of the commercial length – after all, we paid for it didn’t we?

Of course, too MUCH silence could throw the listener, inviting him to re-tune his radio, because he will assume he has lost the signal.

However, in filling every second of our precious radio advertising airtime we are in danger of putting 35 second scripts into 30 second commercials, cutting out all the breaths and presenting our listener with  nothing short of a gabble.

Perhaps we should all take a deep breath: treat the listener with respect. No talking down. No talking too fast. Let’s engage the listener, have a conversation with our audience, pause for breath, talk one to one and at a pace at which your listener can take in what we say and respond accordingly.

Nobody wants to have the equivalent of a lull in the conversation but let’s not be afraid of something many of us secretly yearn for sometimes – the sound of silence.

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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When two can be better than one.

July 15th, 2010

Back in the 1970s in America, there was a comedy duo called Stiller and Meara who became spokespersons  for a wine called Blue Nun. Each commercial told a story, sometimes a little sad but always with humorous twists ,which ends in the couple sharing a bottle of Blue Nun wine. The equivalent today would be Gavin and Stacey making up over a bottle of Lambrusco.

The point is the scripts were witty, involving and the product was always the hero of the commercial, not just the two star voiceovers. OK, they had the luxury of 60 seconds but they got an unprecedented response from listeners who not only enjoyed the radio commercials, but also actually looked forward to the next in the series.

Perhaps therefore we should look further than the short term -consider producing more than one commercial and look for creative solutions that are also long term campaign solutions.

That way you build a bridge with the audience and who knows, it could be your commercials they start looking forward to.

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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Every Second, Every Word, counts.

July 6th, 2010

Normally, a radio commercial is 30 seconds long. Take off five seconds for a phone number or website address and you’ve precious little time to make your case, tell your story, woo your listener.

30 seconds -it’s a good discipline, meaning the writer has to make every word count.

And that’s the currency so that’s it – or is it? 40 seconds is a maybe sometimes but second for second a lot more expensive than a 30.  60 seconds – now that’s as rare as hen’s teeth. Imagine then 90 seconds.

The general rule is that wherever possible it’s the creative that should drive the ad duration, not the ad duration that should drive the creative.

If media is a frame and creative is a picture, well a frame that’s too small is going to cause you no end of problems!

Here at Radio Experts, our clients regularly call us to simply discuss their marketing challenge. We’re able to immediately tell them what ad duration or durations will best fit their objectives. It can save everyone a whole lot of time, in more ways than one!

Tim Cowland is a Founder Partner at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. tim.cowland@radioexperts.co.uk

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