Mike Bettelli
by Mike Bettelli, Director of AC Formats, Jones Radio Networks/Seattle
Despite what you may have heard about satellite radio, web radio, HD radio or any other form of entertainment coming out of a speaker — there are going to be commercials somewhere to pay the bills and measure success. The Internet may rely on those annoying banner ads that are waiting for you to click, and the satellite folks may be counting on a $10 per month subscription to make their business work, but the formula for radio is still about spots, stop-sets and units per hour. How to put those commercial minutes together and not chase away listeners is a primary part of every PD’s job.
How Many Breaks?
Music intensive radio formats have long followed the strategy of playing as much music as possible before breaking for commercials. The balance of how many elements a listener will stick around for vs. number of breaks each hour will always be a tricky calculation. A general rule of thumb is three or four breaks an hour in AM Drive, and then two breaks per hour in other day parts.
How Many Spots Each Hour?
Selling radio commercials is a lot like filling seats on a jet. There is pressure to fill those seats before the airplane takes off. Once you are in the air (or on the air) there is no real value to that empty seat. That can force sales efforts aimed at filling the plane with discounted fares that fill you up from a quantity perspective but not for the kind of money you’ll make with a planeload of regular fares. How does this relate to radio? A station airing 18 spots an hour and squeezing them into two or three breaks will be inviting listeners to tune out. If the rates for those spots are discounted — it’s adding insult to injury. From the listener perspective, there is value in hearing fewer commercials and more music. If your station doesn’t have a policy on maximum number of spots each hour, or if you suspect spot rates tumble during low inventory times, spend some time with your GM and Sales Manager to sell the programming side of the equation.
Front Loaded Promos & Cluster Busters
What’s the strongest lead off to a stop-set? Most PD’s agree a well produced station promo is a great way to lead off a cluster of commercials. Promos can sound fine at the end of a break, but there are lots of good reasons to slot them in the first position. You are selling the programming of the station first and then moving on to business. The jock should always tease what’s coming up after the break (“…10 in a row coming up…”) and move immediately to the promo. If your break has four or more elements consider using a “cluster buster”. This is a quick four- or five-second station announcement that can simply get the call letters and dial position on the air, sell your station position, or tease what’s coming up after the break. Use the slot before the last commercial in the break to tease what’s coming up (“You’re :30/:60 seconds away from more of Seattle’s Hot Country on KMPS.”).
Arranging Those Deck Chairs On The Titanic
You look over the spots in a break and have to make decisions. Do you play the most produced spot first? Last? How about hard sell vs. soft sell? Do you want your air talent to back sell music and then segue into a spot they have voiced? Should :30 second spots play first? Here are some strategies that have stood the test of time in radio:
- Don’t transition from a back sell to the same voice on a commercial. It’s like fingernails on a blackboard. Make sure your air talent doesn’t do this. At best it sounds like the back sell is part of the commercial. That’s a listener negative.
- Play the most produced/best sounding spot first. And also play a good sounding spot last. Don’t you wish all commercials could qualify? The theory here is you lead them into the break with some interesting audio… and coax them along at the end of the break with the same.
- :30 second spots usually work best at the beginning of a break. Not everyone will agree with this, but it seems to work. If you run a cluster buster just before the last element then a :30 as last in the break it’s a positive (“You’re :30 seconds away from more hit music.”). We all agree that national advertisers who connect two :30’s together and call it one :60 second spot…are not fooling us!
- Tempos and variety count in breaks. Never put two “hard sell” spots back-to-back. Try not to play humorous spots back-to-back. Keep “soft sells” away from each other. Just like music scheduling¾ tempo and variety will give you the best chance to hold on to audience through a break. Work with your traffic person to set up some rules for spot placement that can work even during voicetracked or “jockless” dayparts.
Your Production Director Deserves A Raise
Well… within reason anyway. Make sure the person in charge of putting commercials together has a good system in place for spreading out the local production of spots evenly among your staff. Much like a PD oversees the music on the station – the Production Director should be monitoring the quality and types of material that come into the production room. Is there a full time copy writer on your staff? In most stations the copy is written by the sales staff – then re-written in the production department. Keep your Production Director on the lookout for updating production libraries and maximizing the material you have to work with. Is there a system in place to log when a particular track is used? If hit songs can “burn” imagine how the same music bed must sound to listeners on a series of different commercials!
A good Production Director should be like a casting director…choosing just the right talent for the project. Can you imagine one actor playing every role in a movie? The same voice on every commercial will create listener tuneout and fatigue. Look into talent sharing production banks if you are short staffed.
What Listeners Really Think About Commercials
In a focus group a few years ago I had the opportunity to watch listener reaction to different types of commercials and other “non-music” elements. The strong message from that research was that creativity and quality do count. The group was turned off by loud “hard sell” spots and seemed to warm up to good production, humor and “soft sell”. Your production director has some control over what finally gets on the air, but the responsibility lies with the PD, GM and Sales Manager. Strive for quality and variety. Don’t leave this important part of your station to chance.
I’d love to hear from you! E-mail me at: mike.b@jrnseattle.com
Mike Bettell is Director of Adult Contemporary Formats/Consultant, for Jones Radio Networks / Seattle. Reach him at 206-508-8113 or mike.b@jrnseattle.com.
