"The Best of Radio" Not Good Enough
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Prior to getting into today's discussion I need to ask one question: Will anyone at the Radio Advertising Bureau who knows what they are doing online please raise your hand? Didn't think I'd see any arms go up. OK, let's proceed.
Last week I found a press release from the RAB in my inbox. The email's opening paragraph hailed the launch of "a new website dedicated to providing professionals from advertising agencies, Radio stations and production houses with tools and resources to improve their creative execution." This being something I've requested for over a decade - an online destination that explains how to do radio advertising - I found "The Best of Radio" web site an intriguing concept and clicked the PR's link to become informed.
While believing that local advertisers and radio station staffs need help in writing and producing commercials, I don't think that (most) advertising agencies and production houses also need a primer on how to put together an effective radio campaign. ("The Best of Radio Library," which primarily features some national, very well done, agency commercials, bears out this latter point.)
You may guess by now that "The Best of Radio" left me puzzled. It's not just that I found very little guidance in constructing a good radio commercial, I also experienced a trip through RAB, again promoting what it is going to do instead of talking about what has been done. AG readers know that this is a hot button in my long list of "what the...?" moments as radio goes down the path of self destruction. Radio continually promotes what it is going to do, while my belief is that you're best off speaking about what you have completed.
Let's take a couple of sentences from the RAB's press release to drive home the above observation. The website will allow visitors to share their work, listen to award-winning spots and discuss Radio advertising. With a library of entered spots, the site will also include a social networking feature for visitors and Radio resources from notable Radio advertising organizations. Notice how these sentences are constructed in future tense.
As the NAB Radio Show gets set to open, it's apparent that this push to launch "The Best of Radio" was done in an expeditious manner (like the announcement of NAB's new President and CEO, former Senator Gordon H. Smith) so as to hit the spotlight prior to the radio industry's Philadelphia get-together. There's very little in this new web site that satisfies a desperate need to explain how radio advertising works, or how to construct a good radio commercial. This move shows that radio industry leaders still operate off the premise of "build it and they will come," and maybe they will - once.
After the initial visit though, just like the vast majority of radio station web sites, there's nothing at "The Best of Radio" to bring someone back.
One of the more curious pages I found was under the "Resources" tab. It contains three listings: The Radio Mercury Awards, Radio Heard Here, and Science Meets Creative - a series of videos produced by Sensory Logic. The last one has 2-2.5 minute videos that outline "Facial Coding, Research Through Facial Coding, Reading Facial Coding Research, and The Three Brains. I'm struggling to see how any of these offer a useful look into commercial production, given that a radio copywriter has no way of sensing which facial expression is displayed when a spot airs. (Note: Since writing these words, access to these videos has been limited to "registered" users.) The last video entry - titled "Highly-engaging Creative Brief" - showed items that should be used in creating effective radio advertising. Though it's a well thought-out list of items - see page 1 here, page 2 here - if you don't know them already, you shouldn't be creating radio commecials. Essentially, all of these boil down to what's been said here many times: Move emotion and you'll move product.
Many people will be attending this year's NAB Radio Show in Philadelphia, getting underway September 23. So, let's get a glimpse of the content by looking at the robust title of this conference: "The Dial and Beyond - Profit from what's now and what's next." Ideally, it's an indication of the new concepts attendees will experience and what the radio industry will implement after everyone returns home.
If you're going to be one of those walking the halls, also keep these two titles from the 2007 NAB Radio Show and the 2008 RAB Atlanta conference (respectively) in mind: 1) Opportunities - High Tech, High Touch, High ROI are on the horizon... 2) Bold Signals - On Air, Online, On Site. All three conference titles have energizing words, but these will not provide the radio industry with proper direction to make things happen, just like "The Best of Radio" web site.
The radio industry doesn't need a web site that's all Flash and no substance. Yet that's exactly what "The Best of Radio" is, a pretty face with no brains.
My prediction: Until radio industry leaders understand that the internet is not a promotional vehicle but a unique tool in conveying useful information through an exhaustive process of detailed planning and precise execution, this is another pull-the-wool-over-the-eyes approach at trying to prove competence. It will be nice when radio lets people follow its lead (read: links) to expand knowledge.
"The Best of Radio" will go down with the HD Radio Alliance web site as a bad attempt at fooling the audience. There's just nothing there that can be labeled a "tool" or "resource" to improve "creative execution" - despite any clever writing in a press release.
Publisher's Note: For those who subscribe to the theory that "those who can do, and those that can't teach," hear a sample of this "teacher's" work.
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