Being Interruptive Well

The beginning of a radio advertisement is without question the most important part.  As a result, much of the focus of radio ad creation should be on the beginning and how it will attract the attention of the listener.  As with television, radio listeners are so constantly bombarded with advertisements that they are able to filter out any messages that are uninteresting.  Knowing this, it is important to utilize variety and excitement to open the ad as often as possible.  This will be the most effective way of breaking through the listeners’ filters and building engagement from the word “go.”  Immediately engaging your prospective customers will improve the effectiveness of any radio advertisement for a number of reasons.

Most listeners have a filter which leads them to ignore the standard elements of radio advertisement.  Common elements to begin radio advertisements tend to include narration and soft music.  In our studies of radio ads here at Sensory Logic, beginning a radio ad this way rarely results in any engagement during the first 5-10 seconds.  By the time those precious seconds have elapsed, much of the audience has changed the channel.  Instead the key is to use auditory effects to capture the attention of the listener to prepare them for any messages that will follow afterword.

Of course it is not difficult to contrive any sort of noise to ensure that listeners are alerted to your particular ad.  However, engagement is not nearly as beneficial when the listener determines the interruption to be unappealing or annoying.  An advertisement can be improved the most by ensuring that the introduction is appropriate and appealing for the intended listeners.  As has been discussed in previous articles; positive appeal + high engagement = advertising messages with optimal effectiveness.

There are a number of ways in which advertisements have utilized openings to attract listeners, some of which were effective, and some of which were not.  Here are some examples of radio advertisement introductions which were both effective and some which missed the mark.

Children singing hit the mark on appeal and engagement:  To most listeners, the sound of a young child’s voice is appealing.  Children can make most people smile with their voices alone.  Also, the sound of a child’s voice clearly sticks out from the monotony of general radio dialogue.  Finally, it is easy to have children say things that will make people laugh and hence boosts the appeal for the advertisement (think Bill Cosby and “Kids Say the Darndest Things”). 

Possibly the best beginning to a radio ad that we have ever tested came from children singing to open an ad for a major European car manufacturer.  Seven of the first nine seconds of the ad resulted in highly positive emotional reactions from multiple listeners.  This overwhelmingly positive reaction level is off the charts and really brings listeners in to hear the rest of the messages in the commercial.

Allergy sniffles capture negative attention:  A general rule for commercial creation is that regardless of appeal, engagement is still better than no engagement.  Unnecessarily high volume is often a cause for low appeal to begin a commercial, but sometimes the attention grabbing sound also causes low appeal.  For example, the sound of bells ringing and coins clanking may be appealing to someone who gambles and plays slot machines.  However, the sound of a dog barking may not be appealing to all dog lovers - some of which are working hard to keep their pups quiet.

One ad that embodies this fact is an ad that we tested for allergy medication.  As is always the goal, the advertisement was immediately able to garner attention from its listeners.  However, the ad begins with a person who is very clearly congested and sniffling frequently.  The result of these sounds was generally low appeal despite high engagement.  The sound of a congested and sniffling allergy sufferer was definitely able to cut through the clutter, but, the fact that these sounds are universally undesirable for the listeners caused the appeal level to be negative.

Simple narration receives no attention:  There is no one advertisement that can be used as an example of why narrators do not build attention.  To be perfectly honest, the majority of the radio ads that we have tested were unable to create even sufficient engagement.  This is because most ads follow the same formula of using a professional narrator to fit in as much important information as a 30-60 second timeslot can contain.  The reasons why the old formula does not work has been discussed ad nauseam.  The audience has figured out the formula and knows what to avoid listening to.  Knowing this, it is important to use a variety of auditory elements to keep the audience listening.

Nearly every successful ad that we have tested here at Sensory Logic was able to receive above average engagement in the first 5-10 seconds of the ad.  The engagement level at the beginning of the advertisement sets the tone for the rest of the ad.  If listeners decide that their earliest snap judgments indicate that the ad is worth listening to, then the high engagement will continue throughout.  On the other hand, if the advertisement fails to deliver immediately, it will be destined to fall on deaf ears.

Dan Hill is the President of Sensory Logic, Inc. a Minneapolis-based consumer insights firm specializing in measuring non-verbal input through facial coding.  Visit the website at www.sensorylogic.com.

Dan is also the critically acclaimed author of Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds which will be rereleased by Kogan Page Publishing in early 2009.