Ever have a great mix and then listened to it on-air and you can’t hear it at all or portions drop?  Thanks to Andrew for providing a great technical write-up…

I used to test-mix everything in mono, having spent a fair amount of time at AM and FM-Mono stations. (Music playback in stereo, spots in dual-channel mono.)

Recently, though I noticed material I do for a regional agency sounding very bad on local TV and radio. I have a stereo TV, so anything I mix on the Advents should sound about the same on the TV. Nope. Absolutely getting mono’d out somewhere in the chain. Huge drop-outs during vocal fx, nasty reverbs where there should be a stereo image, etc.

Mostly on one station, but sporadically on them all. So, I zagged, and am now shipping all TV audio with only the music bed in stereo - all fx,
  vocal elements, etc., in dual-channel mono.

Radio, until now wasn’t a problem, but on Rays stations I started hearing the same thing. He went through his system and still can’t figure out the issue. I ship the radio in stereo (music, fx, and vocal elements), but the playback is being summed. I’m noticing it from time to time on his competitors signals too.

Those of you that do out-of-market work, and can’t listen real-time to the audio being played, would well consider doing a mono text mix before you send your production out to make sure your clients are getting something that sounds right. Due diligence is part of customer service.

And, to clarify, “mono” is single channel audio. “Dual-channel mono” is the exact same audio on the left and right channel. “Stereo” is separate audio on the laeft-right pair.

photo credit: Marcus Vegas

Advertising is war…  End of Story…

Before television, when there was only radio, we as creative writers and producers did a fabulous job at describing a car enough to make someone want to buy it or at least, visit the showroom.

“Sell the sizzle”.

According to Marketing VP’s from Budweiser and Pepsi, the number one problem with radio is that agencies and station do not provide radio creative that sticks the message in the minds of their customers in a way that stay with them. To them, this is far more important than how many people hear the spot. They say radio creative is the key, along with making ads part of the content instead of an interruption. On the other hand, Business owners and CMO’s don’t want great sounding spots. They don’t want cutting-edge effects. They don’t want something trendy or shocking. They simply want the listener to remember the brand message with a desire to find out more, which in turn should sell product if their message is correct. If great-sounding spots do that, great. If, as in the case of “Head-On”, bad creative does that even better, that’s even better! The Saturn spots didn’t say a thing about the car that made me want to find out more. It did tell me I am wasting my time listening to radio since it won’t do the job…the same job they paid money to be on.

I think plenty of people are still happy with radio, and saying that it doesn’t work or that it’s less than the rest is counter-productive.  Radio still works, bad radio doesn’t. It’s like the industry has become complacent in the shadow of other forms of entertainment. Radio people are throwing their hands up and saying “there’s nothing I can do”, yet they’re not stepping up their game like the pioneers did back when radio was just beginning. Think about how resourceful and resilient people had to be in the early years of radio – now we take it for granted. On-air people and the creative staff are why people listen to radio – you can get your music and ads anywhere from the internet to t.v. to satellite, etc.

Man I love you guys! Let’s roll in the grass!

photo credit: Midnight-digital 

Recently we heard a report that compared car sales from Feb of last year to Feb of this year, sales are down 50%. FIFTY Percent.  Car dealers are now thinking a little differently about what to do to counter act this. They are looking for things that will drive traffic. for the Auto Dealers it’s no longer only about reach and frequency, it’s going to be about how you can drive traffic to them. Ideas for events, games, anything that will drive traffic.

I noticed he didn’t mention good creative.

Andrew passed along a comment that everything is down right now - except foreclosures. We have restaurants that have shut down permanently in this area because people have to hold what disposable income they have to pay the bills and buy groceries - which is another thing getting rather expensive.

Car dealers can think all they want on how to counter-act a sales slump - and they will not ever come up with the magic bullet. Why? People are not buying. Period. You will not - can not - convince them to buy when they don’t have the income to buy. End of story.

Car dealers - the ones continuing to sell cars - are continuing to do what they should do - reach and frequency. Remember - advertising DOES NOT sell product. It introduces and maintains awareness for a product or service. The consumer’s desire for that product or service drives the purchasing.

So these idiots can bring in as much of a circus as they want but it’s not going to sell more cars. Keeping awareness in the marketplace high FOR your cars, though, will slake the need for information when the desire to purchase comes to fruition.

One of the dealerships (locally) headed by the largest single-point Ford dealer in the nation knows this. They’ve slashed through the employees, firing en masse; cut benefits, cut, cut, and cut some more … but their agency has maintained a now ubiquitous presence in the market for the last seven years. You can not turn on the radio or watch television without hearing or seeing a commercial for one of their dealerships. Their advertising is high-creative, very labor intensive, flashy and loud. Everyone hates it or loves it. And it works.

And that’s not going to change. Because they understand that all the circuses in town will NOT make people buy, but reach-and-frequency awareness will keep their name top-of-mind when the consumer or businessperson is in the market to buy.

Thanks for the insight Andrew…

Justin

photo credit: tanjila 

Do production values count or should we focus on the content.  You wouldn’t believe how many people missed the boat on this question as it was presented to our producers group.  Each is as dependent on the other.  Thanks Roy for helping us wrap up the topic…  Who Really Cares?

There is another factor, however, that may be more important that the message and the production.  Frequency.

You need to schedule a lot of ads to make your production and message work.  All in all, you have to look at each client uniquely and help guide them into what kind of ad and schedule will work best for them.

Radio can set the world on fire. Ask H.G. Welles… or Don Imus… or the missionaries using radio in Africa to change people’s lives.  Until we start telling the story more consistently and effectively, we’ll continue to catch hell from snooty agency copywriters.

Furniture stores, car dealers, retail stores, grocery stores… they are the ads you hear on the radio the most… because they can offer great sales incenetives… and yes they don’t need to run those but for a day or 2 which is why their sale changes every week/month.  But for doctors, car repairs, lawyers, realtors etc… they have to rely on a good ad, TOMA and long term scheduling.