A Step By Step Guide To Radio Commercial Production
By Roy Sencio
Radio Commercial Production is fun and easy… well maybe because I like it so much it comes off as more of a hobby than something serious like a job.
I have been producing radio ads and doing voice overs since 1993, that would sum up to almost 15 years…. wow, has it been that long?
These are the steps I usually take in producing radio commercials for our clients, granting this is the entire creative process. Sometimes clients already have copy that they would like us to simply produce, but the truth is most clients are not copywriters, so it would be best for us professionals in the field to be proactive about the process and really start from scratch.
Step 1 – Research & Analysis
You cannot possible sell a product if you know nothing about it, it’s competition, target market, its strengths and weaknesses, etc. You have to know the product inside out. I know it sounds a little complicated but the thing is, radio commercial production is not simply about writing copy, recording and sending the finished material to the radio station. There is a lot more to it than that.First of all, you have to write copy that works, copy that catches a listener’s attention and keeps that attention long enough for your radio commercial to deliver the pitch and the call to action.
If there is available information or data on past radio campaigns and radio commercials, it would be best to study them. The thing about advertising and marketing is, it actually is easy, contrary to what most people think. It is just a matter of making informed decisions based on facts, and constantly tweaking to find out which chances yield better results. When you make decisions out of assumptions or notions without hard fact to back your actions, then you are flying blind and wasting your advertising budget.
Step 2 – Copywriting
With all the information you have gathered, studied, and analyzed… you may have now a couple of conclusions. You can now prepare a project or mission statement and declare, you want to put together a radio commercial that is this and that, because this works based on past data, or your customers react favorably to this kind of commercial, etc. Always present a basis for your proposal, the rationale behind the copy.
Prepare two different pitches and two different offers, to alternate and identify which one works best. To do this, it would be best to also present two different contact methods in order to evaluate results. For example for one offer or call to action, 1800 number A is used, and for the other offer, 1800 number B is used. That way, you can measure which offer appeals more to your audience, based on the number of call ins for each number. Split test… marketing is constant testing to find which brings in better results.
Some clients rarely practice this, but it is best to do small tests on copy before going all out on a campaign. It is important to split test copy, offers, etc. Only then will you know if your copy can sell. Once you know which works well, develop and plan out the strategy. This testing is however done at a later stage, I just had to mention it now since we were talking about the copy.
Step 3 – Production
This is the part where you find the right voice actors for the parts on the copy or for the narrative. This is also when someone puts your radio commercial together, combining elements such as voice, background, effects, etc.
Step 4 – Testing
I like to refer to this portion as the mini campaign, a test period where you allocate a certain amount of money to test the effectiveness of your offer. This may not have anything to do with you if you were just a radio commercial producer or supplier, but you have to think like an agency who wants to ensure that the finished product you are giving to a client is something that will really benefit them. The trick is to let your mini campaign run and very specific times of the day for an identified number of days and with a predetermined success metric. You just simply want to find out which turned out better results, A or B, and then finalize.
Step 5 – Finalizing material
The results of your test will show which copy performs better and which didn’t. Prepare a final material that is based on the copy that performed. This is what you shall submit to your client as the final material.
Of course, those were just broad strokes of an otherwise long process, however I hope you got the idea and now have a guide in radio commercial production for advertisement that do work.
