Radio Advertising – Be memorable for the right reasons

February 3rd, 2012

OK…..everyone remembers the poor guy that misses the crucial penalty in the shoot out. Chris Waddle, Stuart Pearce, Gareth Southgate, David Batty…..oh the list goes on.
Everyone remembers missed penalties,

And in the same way, everyone remembers bad adverts.

But you don’t hear Chris Waddle crowing about how wonderful it is that he missed his penalty!!

So why do some advertisers seem to be proud of producing intentionally annoying and bad adverts??

Memorable Doesn’t equal Annoying

There’s a lot to be said for radio advertising scripts and adverts that are distinctive and catchy. But being annoying is like taking your brand and lighting a match to it.

With brilliant radio advertising creative – you can be memorable and catchy and charming and gorgeous and attractive……without annoying anyone (apart from your competitors)

Memorable catchy Sung Jingles are making a comeback – the RAB themselves have been using this approach within their sophisticated ‘Britain Loves Radio’ campaign

Sonic Identities – have been little understood for decades but are now becoming an everyday currency in our work and daily conversations with new generation Marketing professionals.

Consistent Ad Characters can generate rapport for your brand – not just notability through annoyance

Then there’s Strap Lines that can charm, Offers that can stand out, Humour that can make us giggle hours later, Famous Music that takes us back, Imaginative creative that just blows us away.

There are so many ways to make radio advertising great.

Which is why at Radio Experts we build all of our client’s radio creative campaigns from the ground upwards. Understand the brief, understand the target, understand the brand. Place the ball on the spot and smack it into the top corner.

Anything else is just annoying.

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

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Radio, Radio Advertising | No Comments »

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

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Radio, Radio Advertising | No Comments »

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

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

Radio Marketing – your killer turnkey marketing solution

October 27th, 2010

So you’ve got all you’re ducks in a row, thinking outside their box, trying to come up with a win-win situation to clarify the bigger picture? !

No, well why not? Okay so marketing is not the jargon led minefield that it once was, but it is still hard to successfully hit the perfect target market for your product. With so many platforms consumers have access to on a daily basis where do you start?! Banner advertising, a press promotion, television adverts, guerrilla marketing at a bus stop…….Egg Advertising on an Omelette Panel……..ok, I made that one up…….but where do you stop?

The answer is, you stop at Radio advertising. Radio has a proven track record marketing products and greatly increasing awareness of a brand. Not only that, radio marketing can greatly increase the effectiveness of all of your other marketing. Think simply of your customers browsing the internet, when the radio in the corner mentions your site name and your offering. Result – they click. Radio offers a potent mix and delivers powerful results – especially for online click through.

To talk to us about the power of marketing on radio, placing banner ads on radio station websites or using a service we’re really excited about ‘Radio Experts On Demand’ (with platforms like Spotify). Just get in touch.

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

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Radio | No Comments »

Capital FM rolls out across the UK

September 16th, 2010

Well the big news is that Global are continuing in their industry leading charge to roll a smaller number of bigger radio brands out across the UK.

Hot on the heels of their Heart roll out (Heart went from 3 to more than 30 stations in the blink of an eye), they are now rolling the Capital brand out to 8 additional stations. In the future we won’t just be listening to Capital in London but also in Scotland, North East, Yorkshire, Manchester, Birmingham, East Midlands, South Wales and the South Coast.

Sadly, it’s the Galaxy brand which will bear the brunt of the changes as it disappears and becomes Capital, other notable changes will see Capital become the on air brand for Red Dragon, Trent FM, Ram FM and Leicester Sound.

Just like the Heart roll out, the changes will be met with a degree of despair in some quarters and it remains to be seen whether the brand roll out will simply aid Global to cut costs or whether it will actually build audience after the initial honeymoon period.

The UK radio market is travelling faster and faster towards a smaller number of brands, each of which have less middle of the road averageness and more national scale with niche targeting. From a media planning point of view this means that we’re losing the niche geography to some extent but we’re gaining the niche demographics on the other hand. And although we’re losing some geographical identity, we’re not really losing the ability to pick and choose where we want to place our radio advertising and where we don’t.

As radio media planners and radio creative experts, we welcome stronger more niche targeting. Knowing what audience a station gives you makes it easier and easier to deliver great focussed results to the right brands on the right stations. We watch with continued interest.

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

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

The Radio Strikes Back

September 7th, 2010

As a London based company, we’re all affected by some of the marvellous delays on the tube, none so much as today, with the walkout of over 800 tube staff in a dispute over safety or coffee or something.

So, we all spent the early hours of the morning falling asleep on somebody’s shoulder on the ‘sardine tin’ bus getting to the office or donning the trouser clips and hopping on the London hire bikes .

But now we’re all here…..at our desks…..in various stages of dishevelment (is that a word?), who do we turn to in order to get us home?

The answer, of course, is that we listen to the radio. Our cuddly friend in the corner is pumping out up to the minute updates on the changing situation as radio becomes our critical ally in the battle against the dark forces of the tube strikers.

Wouldn’t this be a great time to advertise on radio your bike brand / hotel chain / train company / stiff drink????

At Radio Experts, we’re always on top of what’s up, what’s down and what’s not even left the tube station in the UK radio advertising marketplace. And because we’re such a committed bunch, you can rely on us to get to our desks, come rain, wind, sleet, snow or London Transport meltdown (conditions apply).

Now….how am I going to get home?

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

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

Radio Expert talks Radio Advertising on BBC Radio Five Live

August 12th, 2010

Once again the media industry turns to Radio Experts for expert comment on all things radio. Click here to listen to our Managing Partner, Tim Cowland speaking to Peter Allen, Aasmah Mir and Radio 5’s near 7 million weekly listeners.

The subject was an anti terrorism radio campaign and it appeared on the afternoon drivetime show (5 Live Drive). As you can hear, Tim didn’t pull any punches as he fought the corner for the commercial radio industry.

Well done Tim!


Posted by Tam McGregor, Marketing Co-ordinator at Radio Experts, a London based specialist radio advertising agency. office@radioexperts.co.uk

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

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

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

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

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

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

Tags: , , ,
Posted in Radio Advertising | No Comments »

« Older Entries