Terry Muchoki
PSI Kenya
The Alliance for Malaria Prevention
Workshop on Behaviour Change Communications
Bamako, Mali 21-24 September 2010
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Considerations when developing a great
radio ad
a) Great advertising
b) What constitutes an effective ad?
How do you get there?
Production and design of radio ads
Placement of radio ads
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Great advertising is a process managed by you.
It involves art and luck, but you limit your
dependency on these by managing it as a discipline.
What defines great advertising?
1. Memorability (does the *target remember it)?
2. Persuasiveness (did it convince the target to act)?
*understand your target audience- what/when they listen to radio, what
makes them listen to radio?
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Spend time developing the brief.
Think through and discuss with those who can challenge.
Try to force yourself to get it to just a few pages.
Focus. The more you give up in your communication objectives, the more
powerful your core message will be.
Meet and share the brief with the agency.
Regardless of their capability, if they don’t understand the brief,
you will fail.
Meet again one week later.
After they have translated the brief into their own internal brief or
strategy, the idea is to play back to you what you have said so that
everyone is on the same page will all elements of the brief.
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Give them time to come up with the concepts.
It takes a week if not three. Two weeks is usually enough.
Review and evaluate concepts.
Go back to the criteria of effective advertising. Talk about good and
troubling things. Ask for a day if you need time to evaluate. Then
provide feedback.
You pick. Use testing to check concept appeal.
Now go to production. Get estimates. Costs are key. Agree on as
much as possible up front. Attend the shoot. There are a million
questions, and artists sometimes sacrifice strategy for art.
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Production and design
of radio ads
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The first step is to identify a studio and negotiate the
cost. The longer the ad, the more you pay. Go through
the studio’s portfolio to hear ads they have done in the
past. Get your advertising agency to give you contacts of
studios.
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Identify voice-overs. (i) Select voice-overs (i.e. male
voice-over (mvo) or female voice over (fvo) that meets
your specifications from the studio database. (ii)
Determine voice delivery style.
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Call in the artists you have selected to the studio and
brief them.
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Let them rehearse the scripts for a few minutes and
make adjust your execution strategy if needed.
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Start recording, bearing in mind that the first few
recordings will be rehearsals. (You will be listening to
their voice intonation.) Once you have done a few takes,
then you can proceed and do the final recording.
Remember, it’s not always smooth sailing. Sometimes it
takes time to achieve the desired results. You may also
have to replace the selected artists at times if the desired
results are not achieved.
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Selecting music –– Music is used to set the mood for a production. It can
create a feeling of excitement, tranquility, suspense or sadness. The
following four types of music can be used in audio production: Theme,
Background, Bridge, Fill
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Selecting sound effects – The use of sound and sound effects works much
the same way as music. The purpose of sound effects is to enhance the
spoken word. Creative use of sound can help develop a vivid picture in
the mind of the listener.
Decide what image you want to convey. The image portrayed in your ads
should mesh with what your products are all about.
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Pretest to see if the target understands you. Their feedback gives you
ammunition for the next step especially when the donor wants to change
the small stuff.
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Radio activations – where the presenter talks about the
behavior live on air, or an adoption of a trivia element
where the listener who calls in with the correct answer
gets a prize. This gives credibility to the product or
behavior because of the association with presenter.
Presenter mentions – these are prerecorded
commercials
Vox pops – prerecorded testimonials from the target
audience
Live links – from the ground where the activities are
ongoing
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1.
Determine your radio marketing campaign budget. You have a limited
budget to spend on radio commercials. You must determine your radio
marketing campaign budget before you do anything else.
2.
Identify the target radio station--the station your best customers most
often listen to (Hint: Ask them).
3.
Identify which programs on the target radio station your target audience
most often listen to.
4.
Meet with the radio station you identified and select the most effective
ad package your advertising budget can afford. This ad package should
focus on the most popular programs of your best customers. Identify
times when there is less clutter.
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5.
Place the spots in rotation (if more than one) at the
end or the beginning of each transition during the
show (usually at the top or bottom of the hour).
6.
To measure the success of your program, measure
how often radio listeners act on your call to action.
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