Few people if any write radio commercials for a hobby. Most are professionals paid to do it and all without exception work to a given creative brief. Called a radio commercial in some countries or a radio spot in others, the radio advert must answer a given brief and achieve the set aims of the advertising activity or fit its part in the overall marketing and advertising campaign.
Template for a Creative Brief
Giving someone seeking directions a complicated route with a myriad of twists and turns to get to their destination would likely only help them get lost further. Similarly with a creative brief, the radio writer or ‘creative,’ needs clear simple instructions. So there is little point in trying to make the briefing process more complicated than it need be. A brief should be precisely that – BRIEF. It should primarily ask three simple questions.
- Who are we talking to?
- What do we want them to do?
- Why should they do it?
This is a set of question very familiar to most people working in the advertising, marketing and promotion industry. Some may complicate it slightly further but essentially this is the information that starts the process that results in a radio ad or radio campaign.
How to Define and Outline the Target Audience
Ask some companies who their customers are and they may respond: “Everyone.” The net result of trying to hit everyone is that usually they are all missed. Identifying the core market and therefore the target audience is the first step. This target is the customer or audience profile relevant to the brand and can be identified in a number of ways:
- By age
- By sex
- By social grouping
- By where they live
- By a certain set preferences
The brief conversation should also focus on the habits and perceptions of current customers, and potential new customers.
How to Establish the Aims of Radio Advertising
If the aims of the advertising are unclear in the creative brief, then the target audience can hardly be expected to respond. This is the:”What do we want them to do?” questions. It can cover a number of desired options of the target audience, to:
- Buy the product or good or service
- Visit a given (and hopefully easy to remember) website address
- Visit the store or stores, and the addresses similarly should be easy to remember.
- Call a telephone number, and it should be memorable
- OR just be more aware of the brand and have a firm idea of what the brand’s values are.
It’s human nature generally to find the easy option. To do what’s easy instead of what is perceived to be difficult. Especially in response to advertising. A radio listener couldn’t hope to remember far less do all of the above, so the brief should focus on the most important.
Find Out What Listeners Want
The old line of “what’s in it for me?” is never more applicable than in asking a radio listener to respond to radio ad. Finding out what the listener wants from the product or service advertised can often be narrowed down with the answers to the following questions.
- Why should they do what the ad is asking them to do?
- What’s in it for the listener?
- What’s the USP (Unique Selling Proposition) on offer?
- What’s the CPD (Competitive Point of Difference) to other products or services?
- What makes the offer unique to the listener?
Research into Radio Listening Habits
Extensive research over the years by the radio industry has refined and revealed a mass of information about the radio listener and listener habits. It’s fair to say all listeners listen by choice, when and where they want to, and will switch radio stations as it suits them. By focusing the creative brief on the listener and not the product or service being advertised, the listener is more likely therefore to listen and act in a way that not only suits them, but will also achieve the initial aims of the creative brief.
Dan McCurdy - Dan McCurdy is a freelance writer producer creative and lecturer. Dan is one of the UK's most experienced radio writers and producers. ...
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