creative Mind

Hot New Radio Campaigns

In advertising, the Jan/Feb season has become synonymous with the term ‘the calm before the storm and the calm after the storm’. Calm?! We think not! Here’s a taste of the brands currently harnessing the power of radio ON AIR…

Living happily ever active with Virgin & the ‘Cinderella’ medium

Lexus launches into 5^th gear with radio

I- Pledge of honour

Cell C makes a good call with 5FM

A glass and a …er…mouthful?!

To be quite Frank.net

Living happily ever active with Virgin & the ‘Cinderella’ medium

Those sticking to their new year’s resolutions might have walked into a Virgin Active gym lately and will have likely read; ‘everyone’s welcome, young or old, fit or unfit, it’s all good’. on the walls. This ‘philosophy’ is at the centre of the health club’s new campaign called ‘What’s Your Stuff’.

“The truth of the matter is that we’ve all got stuff – whether you’re somebody who exercises or not! We wanted to put this out there and let everyone know it’s ok”, explains Creative Director at Virgin Active SA, Nick Clarivette.

What better way to get those couch potatoes on the ‘mill (with headphones firmly in place – well, because radio’s mobile like that!) than through radio? Recorded at Jam studios in Cape Town, the campaign is currently flighting on 5FM, KFM, 94.7 Highveld and East Coast Radio, just to name a few.

And what do you know… even the Virgin Active staff (including Sir Richard Branson!) have made their ‘stuff’ public by having it printed across t-shirts as part of the campaign. What are you waiting for?! Join the movement!

Listen up:

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Title: Virgin Ministry of Stuff

Lexus launches into 5^th gear with radio

In an age where radio still often gets flack for not being ‘visual’ enough to do car brands(really now?!), Lexus SA are going against the …er… terrain with the launch of the Lexus IS 350.Gareth Paul ECD at DraftFCB says; “Radio’s one of the few mediums that actually reaches people when they are in their cars and when they may be considering purchasing another. I often look at the other cars around me and think about which ones I would like to own. This means I’m open to consideration when I’m being advertised too”.

Lexus are hoping this campaign will broaden the awareness of the brand, the new model and the fact that you could get a best in class performer at an affordable price.

And it’s working…Some of the best radio we’ve heard by far is their ‘Junior Exec to CEO’ ad. Talk about crisp copywriting and just the right amount of pace. Do yourself a favour and take a listen because this ad blasts car advertising right out of the showroom!

Listen up:

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Title: Reach your destination

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Title: From Intern to CEO

I- Pledge of honour

There’s nothing quite like striking while the iron is hot. Take the IMPERIAL Group for instance with their latest I-Pledge campaign. Launched in November 2011, I-Pledge is gaining momentum nicely (32 000 pledges to date), especially in the lead up to the Easter break and it’s easy to see why…

“The essence of the campaign is to raise awareness to individuals that safer, friendlier roads start with every one of us. By taking the I-Pledge, we’re committing ourselves to practising better road behaviour”, says the Group’s Niki Cronje.

Of course, radio represented the perfect medium for I-Pledge because it engages consumers while they are in a car, truck or taxi. (Her words – not ours!)

“It’s also a great conversation starter and when you communicate around an impassioned topic like our roads and driver behaviour it amplifies the conversation and awareness”, she adds.

If you’d like to get involved, you can take the pledge on www.ipledge.co.zaor find out more on Talk Radio 702; 94.7 Highveld; 5FM, 567 Cape Talk; Jacaranda 94.2, East Coast Radio and Algoa FM.

Listen up:

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Title: Car behind you

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Title: Pedestrian

Cell C makes a good call with 5FM

Long live radio! If you thought the days of finding your knight in shining armour or damsel in distress on air were long gone – think again! Cell C are making it easy for just about anyone to find love – even the youth- who, let’s admit it, can be so iffy about advertising;

“The target audience we want to speak to on this campaign is the youth,aged 18-24. They can be quite cynical about conventional advertising, so radio’s the perfect medium to communicate the Cell C brand and product offering in an unconventional way that engages with the audience”, explains Cell C Media Manager Binita Jhina.

And so ‘Cell C Hook Me Up’, as well as the ‘Cell C weekend Connection’ was born.Both campaigns are running concurrently for 8 weeks onGrant & Anele’s show as well as Rob Vember’s show from Thursday evenings.

“Dating and going out on weekends is something that’s important to this audience and Cell C together with 5FM will be making these wishes come true”, she says.

Well, there you have it. If it’s a hook up or ‘connection’ you’re after, Cell C’s the way to do it!

Listen up:

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Title: Controlchat 125

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Title: Welcome 25 Bonus

A glass and a …er…mouthful?!

You know what they say about chocolate… the darker the… no wait, was that old idiom about chocolate?Anyway…

Cadbury Bournville has taken their brand positioning; ‘Deliciously Dark’ to new frontiers with some breakthrough (and might we add, award-winning copywriting) on their follow-up radio campaign. Take a listen…but do proceed with caution as these are certainly not for the fainthearted!

Ogilvy Copywriter Chad Wright – who pulled these off with ‘partner-in-crime’ Jordan Tyron says;

“Well, we had these scripts and characters we really loved but we wanted to give them an edge. We played around with writing styles, rounds of pilots, casting and various endings. We eventually decided to give them an old school radio broadcast kind of feel, and to keep the story as open in the listeners mind as possible.Overall from script phase to final recordings, the campaign took almost a year to complete”.

The cherry on top of this deliciously dark tale is of course the spectacular Fiona Ramsay and John Whiteley who lend their voices in the most awesome display of talent.

These guys do come highly commended by the Creative Circle’s ‘Ad of the Year’ panel, so we’ll let Wright have the final word;

“Radio is all about the theatre of the mind, which is exactly what enables Bournville to tap into the darkest parts of your imagination. There are no visual cues, allowing listeners minds to wander. We absolutely love writing for radio and we’re lucky enough to have a fantastic client, who kept pushing the idea into territories we hadn’t considered”.

(Sjoe! These guys are living proof that crafting, crafting and re-crafting your radio ads will pay you over and over and over again!)

Listen up:

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Title: Back door

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Title: Counter

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Title: Clean

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Title: Finger

To be quite Frank.net

Nothing beats radio’s ability to deliver content as it breaks and while it’s still topical. Just ask Nando’s! Another brand that’s latched onto this, and is seeing the results is fast-growing insurance provider; Frank.net.

FoxP2 Executive Creative Director Justin Gomes says; “While the overwhelming response has been a positive one, we picked up on a debate about Frank’s voice on Talk Radio 702.The tone of voice is really fresh in a category generally defined by lofty metaphors and emotional blackmail. So of course, Frank won’t appeal to everyone – especially people who don’t want to think about death.

With two of South Africa’s top radio writers in their books, namely Gavin Williams and Simon Lotze, FoxP2 faced the challenge head on and presented new scripts the next day. These were then recorded with voice over artist Adam Behr that afternoon. “It obviously helps to be working with a CEO like Frank.net’s Lenerd Louw who is both decisive and keen to push the envelope”, adds Gomes.

And it seems this approach is paying off … On the number’s front, Frank.net sold R1-billion’s worth of direct cover in the first four months of operation and six months later, hit the R5 billion mark. (Source: Liberty Holdings).

Listen up:

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Title: Life Cove

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Title: Illness Protect

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Title: Salary Protect

Filed Under: case studies, creative, creative Mind, Featured Tagged With: hot new radio, virgin active, what's your stuff

Glocal Charts (local & global wins)

‘Think local, act global’ is a chant that’s no doubt fallen on your ears in recent times. With South Africa once again topping the Cannes Lion Radio charts, bringing home 10 awards, including the coveted Grand Prix, and raising the standards on our own doorsteps, we’re happy to report that Creatives really took this message to heart.

Read on, and you’ll find tips from award-winning Jenny Glover of Net#work BBDO, Grant Sithole of Draftfcb, Justin Gomes of Fox P2 and many more, including commentary from Cannes Radio Panel Jury President, Eugene Cheong. We’re sure these articles will help you tap into the relevant cultural nuances of our rainbow nation and inspire your creative communication. After all, the power of your radio campaign really does lie in the power of your message.

Creatrix does the best they can do for Koo – and Eskom

140BBDO puts Snickers on the D&AD map!

Frank.net – The thrills without the frills

Thath’ amachance, thath’ amawards!

Draftfcb CT goes for Gold at Pendoring Awards

Yes we Cannes!

Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind Tagged With: 140BBDO, Creatrix, draftfcb, frank.net, global, local awards

A view from the top

‘Frequency is everything’ – or so they say. ‘Radio is the most daunting of all mediums to create for’ – or so they say. In light of the ever-changing landscape, where everyone is expected to stay on top of trends, we’ve gathered some of the biggest industry guns, including Capitec CEO Riaan Stassen, LoweBull CEO Wayne Naidoo, Mediacom Strategist Ross Sergeant, Draft FCB ECD Neo Mashigo and lots more, to weigh in on these and other pressing media and creative issues and make sure you stay on top of your radio game.

Reasons why I did not touch that dial in 2010 – Rui Alves, Lowe Bull

Radio Creative: Time to raise the bar – Wayne Naidoo, Lowe Bull

An antidote to ‘creative’s block – to be taken daily – forever – Tony Hertz

True commitment to transformation will benefit radio – Ross Sergeant, MediaCom

Building a New Brand - Riaan Stassen, Capitec

Wooing the listeners – Luci Hirsch, Hirschs

Time for a shake up - Neo Mashigo, Draftfcb

Filed Under: creative Mind, insights

Let’s face it, no one likes to read a long-winded article, much like no one likes to sit in a studio all day, toiling over a couple of 30” ads, right? But what happens when the hundreds of thousands of rands invested in airtime are riding on the power of your message? What then?

Surely it’s worth slowing down and giving some focussed attention to the crafting and production element of your radio campaign?

We sat down with a couple of radio engineering and production experts who concur that when it comes to producing well written and engaging messages, you’re better off zigging while everyone else zags – The results in brand awareness and actual sales, as they’ve seen, are worth it!

Mashabela Creatives Founder,David Mashabela says;“Although there are a few advertisers who still enjoy selecting the right voice for a particular ad, getting the music that will capture the emotion they are trying to communicate or just want to be a part of the creative process that happens in the studio, they are, in 2011, fading out.The result of this is that more and more radio ads are starting to have the same tone and feel as super market newspaper inserts – just product and price.

Mashabela insists that herein lies the opportunity for involved advertisers and their passionate engineers to shine – a well written, well produced ad on radio stands head and shoulders above the crowd. And isn’t that just the thing that marketers are forever chasing after?

Executive Electronic Producer at an agency that’s become renowned for its award-winning radio work, Net#work BBDO, Tanja Rae thinks that what it ultimately boils down to, is still always an interesting piece of copy;

“Without copy that has a purpose, that evokes an emotion or likeability, you could have the best production team waiting to produce and still come up with pretty much nothing memorable.

Next step is to surround yourself with the best sound engineers, producers, voice artists and language supervisors. The beauty of living in a digital era means that engineers have all the library music, sound effects and a multitude of plug-ins, at their fingertips.

Yet, it still takes an excellent engineer to insist on going on a field trip to record the actual sounds of all the models of cars for a client, so that he can build up his sound effects library for that particular client’s future productions. This is called passion and I suggest finding an engineer that has truckloads of it.

Radio production is an exciting process, where, when all the stars align, there really is no limit to the pictures you can paint in the mind’s eye.

Filed Under: creative Mind, insights Tagged With: production

The South African advertising industry has long had a reputation for creating powerful radio campaigns, and has earned many international awards over the years. The award-winning work is excellent, but sadly, not a true reflection of the general standard of radio creativity in this country. There is in fact much work to do to improve our current use of this medium.

The reality is that we’re operating at two extreme ends of the spectrum – either producing international award-winning work, or work that feels like the newspaper classifieds translated into radio (dumping information without engaging or rewarding the audience in any way).

Radio is a fantastic medium – it is one of the big four in the media mix – along with print, television and outdoor. There is thus a need and an opportunity for us to give it the attention it deserves, and to focus on the craft of creating a good radio campaign.

Audiences can easily switch between stations, so the programme content, DJ line-up and advertising all need to work to keep the audience engaged. In short, it is critical that we realise the true potential of this medium, and raise the standard of our work. Radio should always engage the senses — it is theatre of the mind – and that will never change.

Wayne Naidoo

CEO Lowe Bull, Chairman Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA)

Filed Under: creative Mind Tagged With: lowe bull, Wayne Naidoo

An antidote to ‘creative’s block’ – to be taken daily – forever

Struggling to get the creative juices flowing? I’d like to share what you could call my ‘lightbulb moment’ – the basis for my Radio for Art Directors© sessions.

I’ve worked with the same sound engineer, the remarkable André Jacquemin in London for more than 30 years. Many of our spots were radio playlets (still are) and with stereo, we could place or move characters left or right, up or downstage.

There came a point, though, where I began to draw crude diagrams to indicate how I saw the blocking. This kind of thing.

I created these for André and I but I also showed them to agency guys to help involve them in the process. Sometimes I came up with adventurous stereo stuff with voices and sounds coming from all over, and diagrams made them much easier to explain.

I don’t remember when exactly I started drawing storyboards before the recordings, but it sure helped agencies get a feel for… well, the story! It also helped them sell spots to clients.

Although I sometimes hired real storyboard artists for important jobs, I mostly did – and still do my own scribbles – like this one for an anti-speeding spot I directed in 2009 for M&C Saatchi.

My light bulb took around 15 years to illuminate, but my visual approach to creating radio, e.g. the storyboard, is at the heart of the radio workshops which I’ve now taken to 33 countries. I’m thrilled to say that I get a constant stream – well, trickle, of e-mails from all over the world saying how it’s helped them approach radio writing in a new way.

Tony Hertz

Creative Radio Specialist

Filed Under: creative Mind Tagged With: Tony Hertz

Don’t you love it when they get it so right!

Cannes and Loerie Radio Lion Grand Prix winner and Net#work BBDO Creative Director Jenny Glover on giving radio the respect it deserves…

The phrase; What makes a great radio ad? has the effect of causing eye ticking and lip sweating. The thing is that every creative person worth their salt knows exactly what makes great radio.

So why all the bad radio then?

There’s a particular reason why radio has inherited a reputation for being the slag of all mediums. We give it unreasonable deadlines. It’s always rushed. We cram 60 seconds worth of content into 30 seconds, including a phone number and website, because as we know, listeners are camping out at the radio with a pen and paper, waiting to write out your phone number. We’ll even take a body copy from a print ad or flier and call it a radio script. Then we’ll get a really bad voice over, to deliver it in the most obnoxious style possible. There’s no love, no respect – we’re treating radio like a slag.

It, sadly, doesn’t end there. If there’s one thing that can kill great radio, it’s a client. They can be hemlock to great ideas. I do believe that years ago, there was a worldwide radio seminar that gave clients the magic formula for radio: pick a ridiculously unrealistic sounding announcer voice to read your print body copy then finish off with jazz or kwaito music. Hey presto! You’ve got yourself a radio ad.

Now, I wish we could place the blame solely on clients but alas, creatives are equally to blame.
You see, we can forgive clients for making bad radio. It’s not their job to push the envelope or challenge the medium. That’s our job. We’re the ones who need to guide them towards better radio.

And what do I mean by ‘better’ radio? Well, not every spot is an award-winning spot but every spot should be as good as it can be. Live reads can be well written and washing powder spots can have flawless production values. Stop treating radio like a slapper. Be kind to it. Show it some love. Create the kind of radio that you’re proud to put your name on – your real name.

If you want to wear the badge of Copywriter, work at it, which means you need to write and read a lot.

Jenny Glover

Creative Director, Net#work BBDO

Filed Under: creative Mind, insights Tagged With: Jenny Glover, net#work bbdo

Up close and personal with … the Programming Manager

Radio advertisers can learn a lot by understanding what frightens radio station programming managers the most, says Jason Brownlee. He should know. He’s tested the effectiveness of more than 400 radio case studies on RadioGAUGE…
In my experience, *the* most terrifying thing a Programming Manager has to contemplate is changing the presenter of his breakfast show. It’s no secret that listeners become very attached to their favourite DJs who weave themselves into the routine of daily life and become like real friends.

The second thing would be putting new music onto their playlist. People don’t like songs they don’t recognise and have been known to switch off from a station playing something unfamiliar and cruise around the dial until they hear a song they know and like.

Interestingly, the top 25% of radio ads in terms of creative effectiveness, as measured by RadioGAUGE, were on average 13% better at generating brand campaign awareness than the bottom 25% of ads. Top-performing campaigns often exhibited common attributes such as long standing creative strategies, familiar jingles, recognisable voices, regular characters and consistent story lines.

What am I saying then?

Here are three things, my points above prove;

1. Personalities need familiarity to be successful on the radio – presenters need to develop a rapport with an audience that, over time, will come to embrace them.

2. Music needs familiarity to be successful on the radio – as a song begins to break its way into awareness it builds familiarity within the minds of listeners, who will eventually take it to heart.

3. Commercials need familiarity to be successful on the radio – advertisers need to develop creative themes or templates that express the personality of their brand on the radio and commit to them over a long period of time.

Bottom line; building familiarity on the radio is crucial for any presenter, song or band that wants to cut through into audience consciousness and be taken into the hearts and minds of listeners. Brands that ‘find their voice’ on the radio build the strongest relationships with listeners, which invariably delivers the best ROI from the medium.

Jason Brownlee
Development Director, RadioGAUGE International

Filed Under: case studies, creative Mind, insights, insights and Trends, radiogauge Tagged With: Jason Brownlee, RadioGAUGE

One of the plusses of living in a multi-cultural country like South Africa is the diversity in language and customs. Admittedly, few media channels can compete with radio’s unsurpassed ability to connect with all listeners in all languages from Pedi to patois.

Sadly, advertisers and marketers who fail to take advantage of this or who fail to understand the segmented nuances of the black consumer sector are speaking to a homogenous nobody. They are likely wasting their money too by creating mismatched messaging and buying ill-placed advertising space by targeting what they assume to be ‘the black market’.

A flip of the coin and our research indicates that black consumers have a message of their own for marketers and their agencies – copywriters, take note;

What they’re saying is; “Look elsewhere for stories. We’ve moved on.”

Don’t do ads that reflect how things used to be. Have your finger on the pulse. Better yet – spend a week in the townships to really get a sense for how things change daily. Learn the language, or at least familiarise yourself with the lingo they’re speaking.

What they’re saying is; “Look elsewhere for stories. We’ve moved on.”

You can’t view the world from the boardrooms; “I’ve done my ads, I’ve won my awards” – is not going to work. Radio is alive. It allows you to adapt and evolve as quickly as these young people are.

The black consumer market is South Africa’s past, present and future. For this market, radio has always featured as the most trusted and accessible media after friends and ‘word of mouth’.It therefore makes sense for brands to be in there. With radio and a deeper understanding of the market, you can be that brand.

Lebo Motshegoa

Managing Director, Foshizi

Filed Under: creative Mind, insights Tagged With: Foshizi, Lebo Motshegoa

Frank.net – the thrills without the frills

FoxP2’s – dare we say – ‘frank’ approach to insurance advertising for Frank.net is not only refreshing, it’s a reminder to us all that an honest, well-crafted message will pay you over and over and over again! Executive Creative Director Justin Gomes has the figures and stats…

RAB: Tell us a bit about the awards. What impact do they have for you, your agency and local radio creative as a whole?

JG: Awards are always nice to win, but they’re the result of great work and not a means to an end in themselves. What is sad to see is, as soon as a radio campaign wins an award, creatives want to imitate the structure and sign up the VO before you can say; ‘Virgin Atlantic’.

South Africa has experienced a real radio renaissance of late and this medium is where we’ll continue to be competitive with the relatively level playing fields. We don’t stand much of a chance when it comes to big TV production budgets, but in radio, concept is always king. Neither the Frank.net nor the Mercedes Benz winning radio this year had much in the way of frills. Just great script-writing and voice casting.

RAB: What’s the thinking behind the campaign that really made it work?

JG: Frank.net is a brand that tells it like it is without any sugar-coating and the campaign needed to reflect that. So no bells, no whistles. Just the straight-talking voice-over of Adam Behr talking about subject matter other brands in the category aren’t comfortable talking about.

RAB: please share some top tips on writing for radio.

JG: Radio is the most unforgiving of mediums. There is no place to hide. An average print ad can hide behind pretty pictures, a TV ad, the treatment of a great director. But in radio, it’s all about your idea. So when you present your script to client service, gauge how you’re feeling while reading the radio script to them. Do you feel slightly embarrassed and self-conscious? If so, chances are the script should never get in front of the client, let alone on the airwaves where you know its heavy rotation could end up in road-death.

RAB: Your thoughts on the awards vs. advertising effectiveness debate?

JG: There is no debate. The most effective ads are creative. The agencies that try and pit creativity against efficacy are the ones that don’t have the ability to be creative. Frank.net sold a billion’s rands worth of direct cover in its first four months of launch and six months later, we’ve just hit the R5-billion mark. If your clients want to read more about it, refer them to the recent UK analysis that cross-referenced the Gunn Report [global creative league table] with the IPA Effectiveness Awards [the UK equivalent of theApex Awards] and you’ll see that, on the basis of a sample of more than 430 campaigns across 16 years, creatively awarded campaigns are seven times more efficient than non-awarded ones (Campaign, 17 June 2011).

Listen Up:

Title: Poor

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Title: Radiation

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Filed Under: award Applaud, creative Mind, listen Up Tagged With: frank.net, justin gomes