Why bother with radio advertising?
The Radio Industry
History of Radio
Radio itself was invented in 1985 by Guglielmo Marconi who was an Italian inventor. The basic idea of the radio dates back to around the 1830's but due to the technological limits of the time, and the cost of developing a radio system postponed the creation of the radio by 50 years. Before 1920, the primary use of the radio was at sea, ships would use radio transmissions to send Morse code between ships. During the First World War, radio was an invaluable tool to the military as it let them send messages to the front almost instantly, this however was dangerous as the enemy could intercept these messages and use them to their advantage. After the war the radio became very popular and was bought extensively by civilians, this led to the creation of the British Broadcasting Company (BBC), which then led to radio spreading all over Britain. During the Second World War, the radio was mostly used for news about the war and music to keep the morale of the public up, it was no longer used by the military to the same level as during the first world war as it became too easy for the enemy to intercept the messages and use them, even if the messages were coded it became far too easy to decode them. After the war, the radio started to spread all over the world with America becoming a new superpower and as American music begun to spread, radios also became cheaper for people to buy.
The radio industry is a very valuable tool for media creators as they can reach a much wider audience with a larger return of investment than they would with more traditional ways of advertising such as newspaper ads or billboards etc.
Structure of the Radio Industry
The production department of a radio station consists of Production staff, operations staff and on air personalities such as hosts, co-hosts, anchors and radio jockeys. The production department makes certain that all program contents and commercials are timely produced and lined up for timely broadcast. Operations staff supervises the smooth operations of the radio station. The on air personalities deliver the contents the listeners and are the faces of the radio station. The creative department aids the production department with content support. The creative department consists of copy writers who write the scripts for the commercials and for the programs.
The Marketing/Sales department is responsible for generation direct revenue for the radio station by selling air time to advertisers. The department consists of several persons who perform different functions ranging from a sales head who supervises the functioning of the entire department to make certain the revenue targets are met. The department has a large number of sales men who approach advertisers and prospective advertisers to sell the air time and to negotiate the terms and the payment details with these advertisers.
The Accounts/Finance department of a radio station is in charge of handling all the revenues and expenses in a controlled environment. The primary function is to ensure that dues from advertisers are collected in a timely manner and similarly all payments like utilities, salary and others are done on time. it also handles all legal or financial matters relating to mobilising funds from the market. The finance department additional looks after departments like auditing and taxation.
The administrative department of a radio station is responsible for smooth management of processes of the radio station. Functions include managing logistics, managing proper house keeping, handling security measures at the radio station, arranging for travelling, boarding and lodging for radio station officials and guests.
Radio Advert analysis
Advert 1 - Star Wars Advert for London Cinemas from 1978
This advert uses one male narrator with a deep voice and a British accent. His narration is accompanied by the Star Wars theme and various sound effects from the movie such as blasters firing, and R2-D2 speaking. "Star Wars" was said 3 times in the entire advert. The purpose of this advert is to inform people in the London Area that the 1978 Star Wars Movie is still being played at the cinema with seats still bookable, as well as saying that the film is "great family entertainment" to persuade parents to take their kids with them. The narrator says at which cinema the movie is still being played. The narrator also calls the movie "The galaxies most popular movie" just to save time on explaining how great it is. Because this is an advert from 1978 the ways the advertisers looked at audiences might have been different. In this specific advert instead of just appealing to male audiences the movie is marketed as "family fun" as oppose to "fun for men" or something. However the sound effects of the blasters from the movie might have been an attempt to appeal to men as it is basically the futuristic version of gun shots. Overall as this was marketed to families rather than single individuals with specific interested, this adverts works very well as most people listening to it would be greatly interested. The advert opens up with the now classic sound of the blasters from the original trilogy and this sound effect became classic for being very different from a regular gunshot and different from sounds of laser of the time, opening the advert with this was a great move as the loud sound effect draws attention to the advert and it makes people listen. The choice of the narrator was also good as English audiences at that time would be more inclined to listen to a British accent rather than a American one. At the end R2-D2 speaking his robot language was also added as it would appeal to kids because R2-D2 was the cute mascot of the franchise which was used to make toys of the film, this would also help the idea that this is a family movie.
Advert 2 - Heinz advert
This advert also uses a British, male narrator who has a very smooth and inviting voice. There are no other sounds in this advert other than the narrator speaking. The silence in this advert makes it sound very calming and make the listener imagine the product the narrator is speaking about. The Heinz name was said only only in this entire advert and it was right at the end. This advert was most definitely made for breakfast radio which are the radio broadcast in the morning as people are preparing to go to work or they are already on their way there. It is of course made to advertise Heinz Soup and the way the advert is recorder, the way the silence is used and the way the narrator speaks would make anyone want to buy some Heinz soup, especially in the morning after getting out of bed and having a shower. This advert does what it was supposed to do very well because listening to it in the morning before going to work would make you consider buying it on a lunch break or something. Because this is a breakfast ad for a food product this is very clearly made for people who are 25+, this advert would definitely make them hungry for some warm Heinz soup while they're most likely bored out of their mind at work. The only elements in this advert are the narrator, the silence and the description the narrator gives of the soup, if someone is listening to this before their morning cup of coffee it would most likely make them close their eyes and imagine some Heinz soup.
The advert uses a very enthusiastic sounding black British male for the main part of the advert and a much more formal sounding white female for the required part at the end. The narration is accompanied by a drum solo at the beginning and in the middle as well as a upbeat orchestral piece that is used with most Halifax adverts. The Halifax name was said twice. The purpose of this advert is to appeal to everyday people and explaining to them the advantages of being with Halifax rather than with other banks, the advert never actually targets other banks saying specifically that Halifax does something better than all the other banks, but the listener might get that idea and be more inclined to get a Halifax account rather than Lloyd's for example. The target audience for this specific advert were definitely males between the age 30-45, Someone who knows and perhaps enjoys classical music but also likes rock music from their youth while growing up, The background music that went through most of the advert would be the classic music and the drum solo would be the rock music. Opening that advert with the drum solo rather than the classic music would also pull most men into listening since they might think its an advert for a rock concert rather than a bank.
Regulation in Advertising
The advertising regulatory system in the UK is a mixture of
- Self regulation for non-broadcast advertising
- Co-regulation for broadcast advertising
This means that the system is paid for by the industry, which also writes the rules, but the rules are independently enforced by the ASA. For TV and radio advertising, they regulate under a contract from Ofcom.
The UK advertising codes are written by two industry committees, the Committee of Advertising practice writes the UK code of Non broadcast advertising, sales promotion and direct marketing and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) writes the UK code of Broadcast Advertising. The system is a sign of a considerable commitment by the advertising industry to uphold standards in their profession. All parts of the advertising industry, advertisers, agencies and media have come together to commit to being legal, decent, honest and truthful in their ads.
ASA carries out many regulatory activities to make sure advertising stays withing the rules. ASA Actively checks ads in all media and regulatory conducts surveys of advertisements published by sectors where there is either unsatisfactory compliance with the rules of where there are concerns about the sector. ASA together with CAP work to support the industry to help it get their ads right before being published, by providing guidance, pre-publication advice and training in the industry.
Bibliography -
Advert 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Dz-RQEMkw
Advert 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrbCXCOU33k
Advert 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovb0Nq0XuMs
Information about regulation in the media - https://www.asa.org.uk/
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