I have been unwilling to compromise the front page of the business website for my ranting and raving or other musings. Now I’ll be able carry on about a variety of things without blurring the lines.

So as soon as is possible, the move and split is on

Splitting the sites

While the “your call is important to us…” style of message for your on hold system used to have merit, now things are a little different. In advertising, listeners/viewers are reacting in a negative way to the ads that are shouted. Still but the products, but cringe at the advertising. Some businesses think that is they ‘shout’ louder than the shouters they’ll get heard. WRONG!

The On-Hold message still is the most personable message you can give your customer. They called you, so your messages should tell them about your business, more options, different products, ideas, specials.

With specials, On-Hold with MacMouth Media, we create the messages in a way that you can change a message easily and cheaply when you have your on-hold messages in 1 file. When we provide your on-hold messages in separate files, the change is even easier.

Most of all, being relatable to your customer will keep loyal customers and create the stepping stones to more loyal cliental.

Now the reunion is on. http://www.weregoingback.com/ has all the details. But the way people remember the show & how, those who were in the movies, still are part of the culture. Even down the the 2 lovely ladies who sat in the Jacuzzi with the alternate 1985 Biff.

With the antenna problems I wonder if there might be a small hardware change in the short to medium term that might prompt me to wait till September before I switch, at minimum a free “bumper”.

I think I can say that the reception issues will not be as bag as the US reports, but still, why not use the numerical signal rather than strength bars. Its a common way to signify strength of signal, but why? (Thinking too, how do we know the other manufacturers bars are correct either). Either way, a %age might be another ‘Apple’ way.

With all the issues in mind, i thing that in the second round round of releases of the phone Australia & others will be better placed to judge the impact of the reception issues. It would need a miracle to improve the reception in my office. Here’s hoping !

The accident in Valencia, Spain for the European GP.

WOW…

The program or show that is proudly presented by…lets say “Rubber Dog Poop”

Sponsor of the new carpet cleaning show Pooperlator

is a vehicle to brand an image or business or the products that they sell to the show or a program element that is popular. so the Rubber Dog Poop gets recognized in relation to the “Joke of the Day” etc.

Production and programing people are constantly being harassed on a daily basis with sales teams asking for updated “credits” for programing elements to reflect a sale or event the client may be having. Its a trend that is worrying on several levels, in that the spots are being created by who are the imaging people of the station and that it is expected to do more than such a spot can be expected to do. More so when the client, who has spent very little in advertising dollars complains the campaign didn’t work. Sales then have the fear of Christ put into them by the bean counters and low and behold they get freebee’s galore to make it up to the client but this time in real commercial time Makes me laugh as they were obviously not advised correctly in the first place by the advertising consultant. Now the make-up ads are going where they really should go, in commercial time. The program or show that is proudly presented by…lets say “Rubber Dog Poop” is a vehicle to brand an image or business or the products that they sell to the show or a program element that is popular. so the Rubber Dog Poop gets recognized in relation to the “Joke of the Day” etc. The way that TV and more and more on radio stations use the “thanks to..” to raise extra revenue or as a value add to a poor spender to get them to spend. So the “Wedding Weekend” I brought to you by the “Boys only Club” … silly I know but you get my point. Problem is that not many get “branding” any more.. Sure we right the message, we produce the message, we broadcast the message. Placement is key and knowledge of your medium too. That’s why targeted ad placement on the net as an example gives an ad targeted to the person viewing. You can do that on radio, as I said, that comes from understanding your product and placing your client in that product. Thats my opinion and views from over 20 years in the producers chair.

Just a thought for the week, where the boyys get something from Reality TV

About the only thing worth watching at the moment..

Why listeners would rather go ‘bye’ than buy

MICHAEL LALLO

May 27, 2010

Super spruiker…Brunswick furniture dealer Franco Cozzo’s ads made him a local celebrity.

OUR talkback hosts can get a little shouty at times – but that’s nothing compared to the advertisements they cut to. Buy now! Limited offer! Don’t wait!

”It’s so wrong to shout on such an intimate medium,” says Ralph van Dijk, the founder and creative director of radio advertising agency Eardrum.

”Listeners form a bond with their station and then the ads come along and spoil it all by screaming at them.”

Of course, commercial stations wouldn’t exist without ads. Yet the tendency of advertisers to buy radio spots as an afterthought to their television campaigns – and their unwillingness to invest in the production of those ads – has led to a glut of commercials that range from bland to annoying.

Worse, most rely on a few tired tricks: silly sound effects, barked commands or a voice that changes tone (from, say, a squeaky nerd to a Barry White-esque lothario).

”Then there’s the overly enthusiastic conversation about a recent purchase,” van Dijk says, ”which concludes with someone saying, ‘Why, I’m going to buy one right now!’ And you hear their running footsteps.”

If you’re wondering why most ads sound identical, it’s because ”the same handful of people are used to voice everything – and most of those people sound the same anyway. They all have that [smooth-voiced] style that no one actually speaks in or they’re the really, really happy female who sounds Botoxed to within an inch of her life.”

It’s no surprise then that most of us lunge for the dial when the ads come on. But occasionally one will catch our interest, such as the winner of this year’s Siren radio advertising awards. The commercial, for a bladder weakness pad, consisted of 25 seconds of a woman’s infectious chortling with a simple ”feel free to laugh” message at the end. (To provoke genuine laughter, the advertisement’s director got a colleague of the woman to moon her.)

Some advertisers, however, eschew traditional ads in favour of hiring a host to read a script about their product. The theory is that listeners will think the program has resumed when they hear the host’s voice and will pay more attention (and that the host’s ”likeability” may rub off on their product). But these ”live reads” tend to backfire when the presenters sound uninvolved.

”Most of the time, the hosts are talking about things they’re passionate about and that comes across,” van Dijk says. ”But then they get handed a piece of paper and they give this wooden, unenthusiastic delivery.

”To go from [the supposed Labor leadership contest] Rudd v Gillard to ‘My, this coffee has such a fine blend of arabica beans’ sounds clunky and awkward. And all the listener is thinking is, ‘Poor bugger, being forced to talk about something he doesn’t want to.’ The problem is that people don’t actually listen to radio ads. They listen to what interests them – and only sometimes that’s an ad.”

mlallo@theage.com.au

Source: The Age

Ralph spoke to us about 12 months ago about the same thing, about bringing every day life into radio ads to entertain the listener.

I wonder if anyone listened, either we tried & just forgot or the client just wasn’t interested…

The battle continues..

Follow Ralph on Twitter http://twitter.com/ralphvandijk

Till then, our good friends who always get the phones first, we can but share around the web sites. Ars Technica

You should insist upon:-
Client getting the script 24hrs (the same as production) in advance of the session and seriously encouraged the client to practice reading it (them).
The reason the client is doing the ad and not a pro reader – many reasons for this, but bottom line, the client needs to sound the same, be the same on the commercial as the listener sees & meets in the store. So putting them at ease, telling them not to be “Posh” and get every T & B & P in the read, to be a ‘real person’, we need the genuine G’day or Hi it’s so important.

First impressions of a store or client is when the customer calls, we know that’s important. This is more important because this is the PRE-First Impression.
The Script – One major point we miss out on, is emphasizing to our clients is that Creative write the words, in their style, and when it comes to reading the script, the phrasing might not be the same as the client may like. So the client needs to know that the phrasing etc, is a thing they know best and we’ll trust them to make it ‘sound’ natural…
That’s the other point too, Natural, the read needs to be natural to be believable by the listener, that leads to listeners to buy the product or service…and leads to more advertising $ for us… and so on

To have all this placed on anyone’s shoulders 2 mins before they stand in a strange room, with a strange person (or 2) in front of a very odd looking microphone with a round thing in front of it (sure they saw one once before in the “We are the World” video clip) and then pile on all this advice, direction & STRESS!!
Better results come from being prepared. Prepare the client and get better results. For the client reading the commercial just as important for them as the final parts of securing that important sale!

Hope this helps a little