Finishing on a High Note

As was discussed last month, the beginning of the radio ad is the most important part and must be used to engage listeners and get them excited and interested for the rest of the ad.  Once you have engaged your listeners you will need to deliver your message and your brand information to the listeners.  Most advertisements use the end of the commercial to deliver these messages to the desired consumer. 

Many times the closing is the weakest portion of an entire ad.  This is unfortunate because many key brand messages are missed or ignored by listeners when the closing of the ad falls off.  The same energy and excitement that exists in the body of a successful ad tends to disappear when the key brand information appears at the end.

Another common purpose of the closing is a call to action.  Engaging the consumer emotionally during a call to action is even more important than to engaging the listener during the delivery of brand information.  A call to action can be difficult for most listeners to react positively to.  This comes as a result of the fact that a call to action asks the listener to actually do something.  As a result, finishing a radio advertisement with a call to action that receives positive emotional response is the best possible way to close a successful radio advertisement.

So the question is, how can you retain emotional engagement through the end of a radio advertisement?  Unfortunately it is not easy.  Many ads have to end with legal disclaimers and suffer as a result.  Not to mention, consumers expect the end of the ad to be riddled with company messages, slogans and aforementioned legal disclaimers.

The best way to capture the listeners’ attention is to give them something that they do not expect.  If most ads end with polished radio advertisement voiceovers, then go the other direction.  Use an everyday person who uses a conversational tone and conversational language to deliver the message.  If most ads end in a dull, fast-paced manner (legal disclaimers), then use an exciting or humorous sound effect to close the ad instead.  Any time you are able to keep the listener from predicting how the ad will go, they will stay more interested and engaged and the ad will be more effective.

Phone company ad appeals greatly to listeners – until the end:  One recently tested ad for a phone company had one of the most successful opening halves of any radio ad we’ve ever tested.  The ad included a number of successful elements that have been discussed in previous elements.  There was humor in the form of a bad karaoke singer, dialogue discussing product benefits, and a natural conversational feel.  The combination was delivered seamlessly and resulted in an incredible amount of engagement and very high appeal.  That was until second 40.  At this point a professional radio announcer takes over to deliver the message in the final 20 seconds and the engagement completely disappeared.

The narration portion of the ad completely lost the attention of the same listeners who were enthralled by the beginning of the spot.  Not to mention, some of the narration message was repeating conversation in the dialogue from the beginning of the ad.  If the average listener does not pay attention to key benefits that are discussed in a conversational dialogue, then they will certainly not pay attention to the same message during a narrative.  Narrators are professional and they deliver the message in a concise and efficient manner but unfortunately, the average listener has trained themselves to ignore these messages.  When listeners believe that they are being sold to, that’s when advertisers lose them.

Continue the ad’s theme throughout:  Two other successful ads that we have tested were able to find some engagement at the end of their advertisements.  Throughout Sensory Logic’s testing of radio ads, the overwhelming majority of ads have no significant emotional response in the final 5 – 10 seconds.  The underlining similarity in the ads that were able to keep listeners engaged throughout is the continuation of a theme.  Many ads stop their theme in order to transition into narrative.

These transitions are generally a recipe for disaster.  To the listener, it almost seems as if the advertisement has already ended, and their emotional reactions reflect it.  Continuing to sprinkle in music, voices or even exciting phrases from earlier in the ad lends cohesiveness and keeps listeners interested.

Improving the final portion of a radio advertisement helps to ensure that brand messages, benefits, and calls to action are being communicated to potential customers in the best possible way.  The listener has spent most of their life subconsciously training themselves to ignore the back-end of advertisements.  Every effort that is made to combat their subconscious rejections is rewarded with improved brand recognition. 

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.