Want great audio creative?
In a recent SMI blog post, we offered some tips for producing a great audio ad. In this post, I’ll highlight some pointers from the Cumulus Media and Westwood One Audio Active Group’s full guide to Audio Creative Best Practices, along with our ideas on how to execute them.
Tailor the Ad to the Format
“For example,” Cumulus Media and Westwood One advise, “put country music behind your ad on country stations. Put rock music behind your ad on rock stations. Create different versions of your ad based on programming format.”
At SMI, we have seen success tailoring ads to various formats. Creating different ad versions that utilize different voice actors is one way to maintain listener interest across a variety of audiences.
“Some DR ads truly can be a ‘one size fits all’ as it pertains to a universal message that performs across genres, region, and demographics,” said Christina Baeten, SMI’s Director of Client Services. “Others may require some nuancing so that you get the same good performance out of a Country station in Tallahassee as well as a Sports station in Chicago. Similarly, what works on satellite radio may not translate to streaming radio and vice versa.”
Use Consistent, Unified Creative Across Different Media to Deliver Impact
At SMI, we gather extensive data on a campaign’s performance, whether an ad is running on broadcast, streaming, satellite radio, or podcast. Once a campaign’s winning ad is determined, we conduct a thorough creative analysis to determine why. What messaging, tone, voice, music, etc. led this ad to outperform the others? We then apply those learnings in the concepting of future creative across the campaign whenever possible.
Humor Can Engage but the Jokes Wear Out Fast
According to Cumulus Media and Westwood One, engagement in humorous ads erodes over multiple exposures.
“An engaging ad is priceless,” said Baeten, “and humor is just one of many ways to do this. It can be risky to use humor with audio ads where there’s a limited amount of time without visuals to help sell the product/service and the theme. If you do want to use humor, limit the time spent on the joke, and make sure it’s an easy and direct tie-in to the brand. The entertainment value of an audio ad can translate into memorability of the ad (and joke) but not necessarily your brand.”
A Nielsen study of 500 advertising campaigns across all major media platforms found that creative drives almost 50% of ROI. If you’re looking to improve your ROI, invest in great audio creative today. Contact Strategic Media, Inc. to hear your brand on radio or podcasts.