Making pitches over the airwaves

TUNING IN

How often have you seen an ad in print or a commercial on TV that is confused? It's been known to happen.

The poor communication results in poor results that in turn result in the agency working over again on the brief (if it is lucky).

Cartloads of money could be spent fine tuning research, ideas and creatives into effective communication. Everyone is having breakdowns, especially the people signing the cheques.

Now take the same scenario on radio. And if you are in any way connected with retail advertising, as a client, agency or broadcaster, pay special attention.

Let us assume a creative for radio does try to capture what the client brief says. The problem could be the client brief itself.

More often than not, this includes the size, shape, colour, price, models, availability, benefit and a number of flowery adjectives along with addresses and phone numbers for product availability. All this crammed into 30 seconds.

If you are unlucky, zipped into 20 seconds. If it is a really bad day, the client will want the phone number repeated two times in the same 20 seconds. And the completely unfortunate will find that the client wants his son to do the voice over.

From his point of view, the retail client is trying to maximise returns from radio and even trying to slip in a `confidence building exercise' for his son on the side. It is the easiest thing to pamper the client and produce something that he goes gaga over.

When the creative finally goes on air, it could prove to be a disaster: the communication is crammed, scrambled, confusing, difficult to retain/ comprehend and does not connect with the listener. The radio spend does not produce adequate results. End result? The client asks the following set of questions:

1. My brief was complete, so what went wrong?
2. The execution was very good, I enjoyed it, even approved it, so what went wrong?
3. The station has a very good audience, so why didn't it bring in results for my product?

The quick conclusion: I don't know why, but radio doesn't work for me.

Radio takes a hit, thanks to the fact that the retail client doesn't have a budget to involve an agency of even minimal repute. So, bottom line, what should a client do to avoid these pitfalls?

Given that quality issues lead to doubts regarding the medium, your best bet is to ask the most concerned player: the radio station. The creative team at a radio station may not be able to execute the best commercial for you, but that doesn't mean they don't know what works for radio and what doesn't. Use their advice, judiciously.

Small, independent, producers for radio advertising are setting up shop in metros where there is a business need. They have studios, sound equipment, contacts with voice and musical talent and the ability to deliver finished creatives practically overnight.

Many of them will soon become critical players in the business. But for the moment, because most of them are home-grown operations, their ability leaves much to be desired.

In the medium to long term, what this issue really boils down to is the need for developing outstanding talent that understands radio. Agencies are attempting to do so.

Sometimes, it does feel like a chicken and egg situation: how long will radio need to demonstrate results before creative talent gravitates towards it, or will the creative talent grab the opportunity now and propel radio to its true potential?

While this is a somewhat challenging decision to make, the fact is that these are the most outstanding times to be in the business of radio. And any step you take can only be a step forward.

Arun Katiyar is station director of Radio City, 91 FM, Bangalore. His email ID is arunk@myradiocity.com