Transcript Radio Commercial Production Process

RADIO COMMERCIAL
PRODUCTION PROCESS
DANIEL ADAMS
PRODUCTION FACILITIES
Radio adverts can either be made in house by the actual radio company or made by an external
production house. For example if a local restaurant wanted an advert to be put on their local radio station
they wouldn’t be able to make advert because they don’t have the facilities. Therefore they would ask the
radio station to make one and pay for the creation of it as well as the airtime on that one specific station.
On the other hand, if a much bigger company wants to make an advert to air nationally, they aren’t going
to ask a radio station to make it because then it will only be played on that station. They would use a
production house to make an advert for them, give it to the company which then allows for the company to
give it to radio stations all around the country and pay for them to air it. A large company will want
country wide reach, whereas a local company won’t have the money so only a smaller area is needed for
them.
The same idea happens with music, if the company is large enough then they can pay the musician to use
their music, allowing them to use well known music such as chart toppers. On the other hand, smaller
companies will not be able to afford this, so they will pay a local radio station to make them a cheaper
advert with music that is created by them too. This is the exact same with any sound effects, except that a
larger company would get the sound effects while paying a company to make thier advert.
PRODUCTION ROLES
Creative Producer
The creative producer is the one who comes up with the ideas for the adverts that companies pose to them.
They work as the leader of the creation of the advert and make sure everyone is doing their part. They
also handle saying in touch with the company who has given them the work and make sure that they know
what is happening during the making of the advert.
Recording Engineer
The recording engineer is the person who is in charge of making all of the required sound effects, original
music and jingles that may be needed for the advert. Especially for the example of smaller companies
that can’t afford to pay for music that has already been created.
Copywriter
The Copywriter writes the scripts for the Radio Commercials. They need to be able to understand what
attracts a person to a radio advert and implement it into their work. They also have a hand in helping and
working with every other role in creating the advert.
PRODUCTION ROLES
Voiceover Artist
A Voiceover artist is a talent who will be used to voice a number of things. In terms of radio adverts they
may voice a narrator or character etc. The majority of the time it will be a voice actor that is employed,
however, a company may employ a celebrity with a recognizable voice to star in their advert. This can
provide many benefits for the company, with the largest probably being that it attracts fans of that
celebrity to a product that they may have never considered using before.
MUSIC
Music is useful to all adverts because it can do many things from attracting the listener to the advert or
even helping sell the product/service entirely. An example of this is when a larger company uses a song
that is in the current charts to accompany their advert. However, smaller companies will turn to music that is
affordably made for them by a local radio studio to put in their adverts. The music will tend to be more
catchy to keep it in the listeners head, but that isn’t always the case. It depends on the type of advert.
Music goes through a process to be used in a radio advert that depends on a number of factors, the
largest being money to spend on the advert.
If Coca Cola was making an radio advert to show that they are sponsoring the Olympics, they would more
than likely use a very popular musician/singer that has an Olympic themed song and pay them to use the
song in their advert. The production side has already been taken care of by the musician, so Coca Cola
wouldn’t need to spend money or time making one that might not be as popular as the one that they have
bought to use. The song needs to have a purpose, so in this example the songs purpose is to mostly
advertise the Olympics but to also draw in lots of attention to the product of Coca Cola. The style of the
song in this case would need to be upbeat and joyful because these feelings reflect that of the Olympics,
but also the brand of Coca Cola. Music is key to any radio advert and needs to be though about carefully.
MUSIC
Pastiche – Imitating the style of another artist (in terms of music).
There are many examples of this in music, but in terms of radio advertising it is more common and quite
crucial to smaller companies making radio adverts. If they can “borrow” already established music types
and cheaply make them it means that they can still make their adverts appealing and to a high standard
without paying the huge amounts of money that they would have to actually use someone else music. As
long as they don’t copy it exactly.
Functions
A sting is a short musical section that can be used, for example, to start or end an advert in terms of music
rather than words. So a small piece of music on the piano may be used at the end of the advert to
illustrate through sound that it is the end of the advert. A tag postpones the ending of a song, so in Radio
adverts it could be used if a company wants to add on a small section to advertise an offer for a product
on an already made advert. The original advert will end, then a musical tag may start to keep the advert
going to say advertise a two for one deal at a certain shop.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
Depending on the range of the country that the advert needs to have will be the main factor in deciding
whether a company will give their advert to a local sale team, a national or regional agency.
A local, small business will use the local sales team when making their advert because they do not have the
money to go to a national or regional agency. A local business will also only be advertising through their
local radio station and because of this the advert will only be relevant to the people close to the business.
There is no need to use a national or regional agency.
A national agency will be used when a company needs an advert to be made that will be relevant to the
entire country. Companies such as car makers of supermarkets will use these adverts. The company will
make an advert that relates to everyone in the country because the business is very large and is based all
across the country.
A regional agency is for advertisements that have a broader audience than local sales teams, but smaller
than the entire nation. For example, a company may be based in a few counties that are next to each
other so all of the people in the counties will be relevant to the advert. However, the people who live in
the counties where the company is not based will not be relevant to the advert because they live far away
from the company trying to advertise themselves.
FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
A financial consideration for any company making an advert is whether to pay
an artist to use their music. If so it will cost them money so it needs to be taken
into consideration for the cost of the advert.
The company will also have to think about when they want their advert to be
aired and how this will affect the cost. Breakfast and commuting times are the
most expensive because this is when the most people are listening driving to and
from work. Also, the longer the advert the more it will cost because it takes up
more time that could be filled elsewhere. This is why in a lot of adverts is “small
print” speech is needed, the narrator’s speech will be sped up a lot so that the
advert will be as short as possible but still have the necessary legal areas in it.