podcasting Archives - Media Partners Worldwide

Writing Radio Ads that Work

Media Partners Worldwide — Thu, 06 Oct 2016 18:32:31 +0000

Because the power of radio relies so heavily on the quality of the copy, it is in your best interest to find a writer who recognizes this medium and understands how to target your specific audience. Here are some tips for writing ads that will work and generate sales. 1. When Hiring a Writer The best writers are those with broadcast experience. Radio relies on skill and salesmanship so you need someone who has an understanding of direct response marketing. You also need to be willing to spend some money, as good writers aren’t cheap. When hiring a writer, remember to let them write. Good writers will listen to you, but they will also do what is necessary to create the best ad to sell your product. Don’t get in their way and take over the project. Let them do what you hired them for. 2. Timing Most radio spots are broken up into 30 second or 60 second segments. 60 seconds gives you twice the amount of time to get listeners attention. 30 seconds are usually good for well known products or a simply offer. We typically advocate for a 60 second commercial, as you need to mention the phone number or call to action, such as go to your website, at least three times. A 30 second advertisement is usually too short to include everything you need. 3. Call Now! Since the main focus of direct response advertisement is to make the phone ring with inquiries, everything in the spot should prompt the listener to pick up the phone and call. Offer free consultations, free information or limited time offers to instill a sense of urgency in the customer. You want them to ACT NOW. 4. Selling Comes First When you only have 60 seconds to work with, every single second counts. Get the listeners attention, make an offer and generate a response. That is your objective. A good way to test if your ad is concise enough, remove the product from the copy. If you still have a complete concept, then your ad isn’t selling. The product, website, offer, phone number or selling idea should make up the entire spot. 5. Know Your Audience This is key in any form of advertising. With radio, you have two options: Talk Radio and Music Radio. With Talk Radio, your audience is ready to listen. Catching the listeners attention or blending into the surrounding talk are two ways to infiltrate talk radio. You want to encourage further listening. With music radio, your ad will be an interruption. Your spot must peak the listeners interest before they can change the station. 6. Choose a Creative Format There isn’t a set way to write a radio ad, however, here are a few creative formats that have been proven to work and get your listeners calling. Straight Announcer- With a clear, straightforward copy and a strong, direct voice, nothing could be simpler for your ad. The announcer should speak as if addressing one single person. Asking questions such as “Have you ever…?” or “Wouldn’t you like…?” helps create a personal connection with the listener and makes the ad feel less like a lecture. With the right voice, this effortless approach can pull listeners in quickly. Dialog – A typical example of this type of format, involves two people conversing with one another. One person is excited about a product or service and wants to share this information with the other person, who knows nothing about it. That person asks questions, while the other relays the information, thus divulging your product or services main information. If you have voices that match your demographic, speaking in a believable way, then this ad will come across as a testimony or referral, which is great for business. Person on the Street– Asking real people what they think of your product is a great attention grabber. Get the person you are talking to on the street to describe how the product worked in their own words, or how it benefited them. Ask if they would recommended this product to others. Listeners will hear real people giving their true opinions and this will act as a testimony to your product. You can take this one step further by having the person on the street address the audience directly. Add in a celebrity endorsement or an experts opinion works great as well. Vignette– This creative format, starts off with a short life scene exhibiting a problem. Then it cuts to the announcer who will describe your product as the solution. Time permitting, the life scene will continue, this time to show how your product has made their life easier. Make sure to return to the announcer to end the spot with a call to action and your 800 number. 7. Establish name identification early and often Give the name of your company, service or product early in the spot. Since you only have 60 seconds, you want to establish everything your listener needs to know about your business as quickly and efficiently as possible. Repeat this information at least three times throughout the ad. 8. Use a memorable or relevant 800 number Most radio isn’t interactive, like podcasts and apps like Pandora where you can click to call or purchase right from your phone. Most listeners are in the car or at work when they hear your ad. Therefore, they need to be able to remember your phone number if a phone isn’t within their reach. A special 800 number relevant to your product, is very helpful. 9. Call to Action Answer the question that listeners might have: “What do you want me to do right now?” Of course, you want them to call! Don’t be subtle about it either. For example, the announcer could say, “For a free brochure on how to get rid of extra weight fast, call 1-800-LOSE-FAT.” 10. Limited Time Offers People respond well to limited time offers. It provokes a sense of urgency and urges a call to action. People don’t like to miss out on good deals. Establishing a deadline forces an immediate response. I hope you found these tips for writing radio advertisements helpful! For more information, call us at 800-579-3031.]]>

The post Writing Radio Ads that Work appeared first on Media Partners Worldwide.

Google steps up to podcasting…

Media Partners Worldwide — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:38:37 +0000

The Download on Podcasts: Google steps up to podcasting, but not enough Posted on October 28, 2015 by Brad Hill The announcement from Google that it would add podcasts to its Play Music interactive music service shines a light into the gloomy and under-competitive realm of podcast discovery in Android devices. But it’s a relatively dim ray of light compared to the bold discovery paths that Apple provides to its audio users. Most podcast listening is mobile. Most podcast discovery, downloading, and streaming occurs via the podcast category in iTunes, which is carved out in the Podcasts app which appears on all iOS mobile desktops. Apple’s gigantic first-mover advantage with podcasts has widened its lead in the mobile era. This column has complained before of Android’s gaping lack in this department. Android is, by far, the global leading mobile operating system, and offers no built-in acknowledgment or discovery of podcasts. Existing third-part apps like Pocket Casts and Podcast Addict provide solutions, but users must seek them out, download and install them — in other words, they are already podcast fans with some fluency in how discovery and acquisition work. While the podcast category has grown dramatically, with 33% of the 12+ U.S. population having listened to a podcast at least once, and 10% listening weekly, according to Edison Research, consumption is dramatically skewed to Apple products. Back to Google’s announcement, posted by Elias Roman, who headed Songza when it was acquired by Google, and now is Product Manager of Google Play Music. Adding podcasts to Google’s music subscription product is a smart move, roughly in parallel with Deezer’s acquisition of Stitcher, Spotify’s intent to add podcasts, and Rivet Radio’s recently announced build-out of podcast shows. Elias Roman’s unique selling point is that Google Play Music will leverage (Songza’s) content discovery algorithms to recommend podcasts based on user habits. This is all good for Google Play Music subscribers, but is not the solution that the immense population of Android users needs. The competitive thrust is aimed at other music services, not at Apple. It is the Android operating system which needs a podcast solution, not a Google app within the operating system. So, while we’re eager to see how Google Play Music’s podcast library develops (and happily, loading in a podcast is much easier for podcast owners compared to Apple’s daunting set of requirements), we’re doubling down on our memo to Google: Make a podcast portal, and bolt it into Android. Help bring podcasts into the mainstream.]]>

The post Google steps up to podcasting… appeared first on Media Partners Worldwide.

Pandora gets exclusive streaming distribution for Serial's 2nd season

Media Partners Worldwide — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:01:36 +0000

Pandora gets exclusive streaming distribution for Serial’s second season Posted on November 2, 2015 by Brad Hill Pandora announced today that it will be the “exclusive streaming partner” for the second season of hit podcast Serial. In 2016 the agreement will extend to This American Life, the public radio program which distributes its shows as on-demand podcasts, and which is the creator of Serial. This initiative is a new programming dimension for Pandora, and a potential source of new audience for Serial. “Pandora reaches millions of people who never listen to public radio or download podcasts,” said Ira Glass, host of This American Life. “This’ll get our shows to them.” Because long-form narrative podcasting is so different from the normal song library of Pandora tracks, the service will carve each Serial episode into five-minute bites. Pandora calls this “chapterized” content, and promises it will make it easier to listen in portions, and return to a previous leave-off point. The chapters will play continuously for those who want whole episodes. The launch date for the second season of Serial is undisclosed in this announcement. Season One will likewise be poured into Pandora on November 24, for binge listening over the Thanksgiving holiday. Serial will still be downloadable from iTunes and other podcast aggregators, while Pandora enjoys the exclusive pure-streaming rights. Without question, the partnership has unique value for all stakeholders. Pandora jumps on the podcast train. Serial gets exposed to an audience of 78-million monthly users, some of whom have probably heard of Serial but have never figured out how listen to a podcast. And those users get the benefit of easy discovery and playback in an environment they know and love. Interestingly, this agreement also gives Pandora a block of interactive content that can be accessed and heard on demand, unlike its entire non-interactive music library. Users just add the “Serial” station, and can listen to as much as they want. When users create station based on a music brand, the first track is usually that artist or brand, and then the Music Genome kicks in with a playlist of which the user has limited control. Spoken-word podcasting is free of music licensing restrictions, and can be thoroughly interactive and on-demand.]]>

The post Pandora gets exclusive streaming distribution for Serial's 2nd season appeared first on Media Partners Worldwide.

Pandora gets exclusive streaming distribution for Serial’s 2nd season

Media Partners Worldwide — Thu, 05 Nov 2015 03:01:36 +0000

The post Pandora gets exclusive streaming distribution for Serial’s 2nd season appeared first on Media Partners Worldwide.

Radio Investing in Podcasting

Media Partners Worldwide — Tue, 04 Aug 2015 21:25:10 +0000

By David Alpern With apologies to Samsung’s tag line, it looks like the “next big thing” may be podcasting. This week Hubbard Radio announced that it is taking a 30% stake in a Beverly Hills based podcast network. Legacy radio broadcasters are anxious to snap up the next evolution in audio media. Sources estimated Hubbard’s investment at $10 million. Just last month E.W. Scripps bought Hollywood podcasting network Midroll Media. PodcastOne is an advertising network for more than 200 podcasts, which deliver 400 online casino million impressions per month. Some of its celebrity podcasts are hosted by Shaquille O’Neal, Adam Carolla and Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi as well as well-known public radio programs “Freakonomics” and “Radiolab.” Podcast audiences at this moment remain relatively small but are registering incremental annual growth. 17% of Americans listened to podcasts in January 2015, up two points year over year according to the Share of Ear study published by Edison Research in February, and reviewed previously here on the Media Partners Worldwide blog. Traditional radio broadcast companies are investing with the belief that the podcast industry is on the verge of explosive growth and point to the platform”s potential by citing the success of NPR’s mega-hit episodic podcast “Serial” that re-examined a young man’s murder conviction and has been downloaded over 80 million times since it debuted in 2014.]]>

The post Radio Investing in Podcasting appeared first on Media Partners Worldwide.

Piolín: Hispanic Podcasting Breakthrough Talent?

Media Partners Worldwide — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 16:14:04 +0000

Clay Gibson observed about a story of great potential significance making news this week: Eddie “Piolín” Sotelo, one of the most popular morning talents in America and host of the prior top-rated morning show radio program in Los Angeles, signed to do a daily podcast show with PodcastOne. While this Piolín podcast is likely not quite the kind of turning point that the hiring of Howard Stern was for Sirius Satellite Radio, it has the possibility to greatly raise the profile of podcasting among Hispanics. Until now, podcasting is much better known among Whites and African-Americans than among the Hispanic population. The Infinite Dial 2015 report stated that awareness of podcasting is being significantly held back by the low number among Hispanics. And while Hispanics are slightly less likely to be online or to have smartphones, this does not explain nearly all of the difference in the graph above. The better explanation is a lack of compelling programming, especially in Spanish. The hiring of a Spanish Radio superstar like Piolín for a daily podcast might change things.]]>

The post Piolín: Hispanic Podcasting Breakthrough Talent? appeared first on Media Partners Worldwide.