Radio Commercials

Crafting Effective and Engaging Radio Commercials

Powerful copywriting and masterful production are essential to the success of any advertising campaign. On radio, that requires a specialized set of skills, different than those used in digital design or television production. The process starts with you, the client, defining exactly what you want a radio listener to do after they’ve heard your radio commercial. From there, every word, every sound, is orchestrated to deliver that outcome. Effective radio advertising is not about crafting the most clever script or producing the most listenable commercial. The primary objective is to deliver the most powerful combination of words, sounds and music to evoke one very specific reaction that will change the way someone feels about your brand or compels them to call your phone number, drive to your store or visit your website.

Here at Digital Broadcasting Network, we’ve developed an overkill system for creative brainstorming and ideation. Five, professional, radio copywriters tackle every project, generating a wide range of creative concepts, viewpoints and scripting styles. If we’re writing for a specific radio personality, we’ll capture their style in cadence and intonation. If we’re producing the ads, we’ll tap into our pool of 500+ international voice actors to bring your message to life, get your message heard and inspire action.

Key Elements of Successful Radio Commercials

Time and experience has taught us the dangers of sacrificing results for the sake of creativity. No matter how “straight” or “crazy” the finished product is, the commercial has to work. We rely on four essential elements to drive the success of every radio commercial:

Grab the listener’s attention in 3-5 seconds
Promote only the strongest benefit(s) to make your brand essential
Provide an irresistible offer to make listeners take action
Deliver an urgent call to action to respond immediately

For direct response radio advertisers, this call to action generally prompts and inspires a listener to make a phone call or visit your website. For branding advertisers, that usually means changing a listener’s attitude towards your brand to inspire present and future purchase behavior and recommend your brand to friends and family.

Controlled Experimentation

Certain radio ads will generate better results than others. Once we identify which of your ads performs best, we can establish that as your “control ad” and test against it to improve performance and maximize your ROI. Some of the best options include testing:

Radio Personality Reads vs. Produced Commercials
Authoritative Announcer vs. Gal/Guy Next Door
Straight Read vs. Testimonial
Different Ages and/or Genders for Different Stations
Specific Messages for Different Days and/or Times

As an advertising agency 100% focused on radio, the writers and producers at Digital Broadcasting Network have created thousands of scripts and commercials for just about every conceivable product and service. Let us help you take your brand to market, profitably, on radio.