Radio Advert Research

Radio Advertisement.

One of the ancillary tasks for my documentary film, was to create a radio advert to promote the film and to be used as a resource to give out information about the film to a broad target audience. In order to grab the audiences attention and interest I needed authoritative and inviting narration and samples from the documentary itself.

There is a broad range of choices for type and length of radio adverts. With changes in the radio industry and better production technologies, the mode of commercial presentation has changed, and commercial advertisements can take on a wide range of forms. The two primary types of radio ads are 'live reads' and 'produced spots'.

Cousin to the ad-libbed commercial, 'live reads' refers to when a DJ reads an advertiser's spot on the air, delivered from a script, fact sheet or personal knowledge.

'Produced spots' appear to be more common. A spot is 'produced' if the radio station or an advertising agency record it for the client. Produced commercial formats include: straight read with sound effects or background music, dialogue, monologue (where the voice talent portrays a character, as opposed to an announcer), jingles, and combinations of these. Studies show that the quality of the commercials is as important to listeners, generally, as the number of ads they hear.

Whilst researching Radio Adverts I came across an advert for a documentary called "Fracknation". This was directly relevant with my project as it was a radio advert promoting a documentary film therefore it gave me useful insight into how my Radio Advert should be created. Although the target audience, topic and tone completely differs to my documentary, there are still some recurring elements within the advert that are accustomed to successful radio adverts, such as a powerful, authoritative narration. In order to attract the audience within this radio advert, they have used satirical humour and have left out samples from the documentary itself.

 Studies show that Radio Advertisement is relatively successful in its effectiveness. Due to advances within technology, advertisement has greatly adapted and a lot of it has moved on from radio advertisements. However, radio advertisement is often seen as a low cost medium, and its clear that is effectivness is still apparent so it could be said to be a cheaper alternative to that of printed or television advertisement. Studies show that radio ads create emotional reactions in listeners. In turn, consumers perceive the ads as more relevant to them personally, which can lead to increased market awareness and sales for businesses running ad schedules.