Meeting with advisor A from Pirate FM

Meeting with Adviso A; Pirate FM. senior media consultant (Truro). 05/10/09

Questions
1) What do you think makes a good radio campaign? What makes it successful?
It` s good to have an upbeat, positive feel to it.
People advertise in different ways. They either want to brand themselves or get a specific point across. You need a unique point; why come to you rather than your competitors? Think about the things people will look at when they` re looking at their options. What will make it appeal to them?

2) What are the issues surrounding copyright if we were to incorporate a well- known piece of music in our campaign?
You can` t just use anything because it`s usually copyrighted. At Pirate FM they have a library of music they can use. We would have to show them the type of music we like and see if they can find something similar.
3) How long is an average radio campaign?
10 to 40 seconds. Truro College open days always do 30 seconds. Reason to come along- contact- funy element / music.
4) Would it need to be recorded in a studio or using high-tech equipment?
Depends if we are actually going to broadcast what we produce or present it as a proposal.
5) Do you think that a radio campaign is more successful if it is linked to visual promotional materials and can you suggest any campaigns we might look at that have done this?
Yes. Will get back to you!
6) Can you suggest any successful celebratory campaigns that we could look at?
Generally celebratory campaigns are tailored more to the retail side, eg, celebrating 20 years, so 20 % off. They generally tie it in to an offer.
7) What methods do you use to measure the success of campaigns?
For something like this which is a 1 off it is difficult to measure the success of the campaign. With something like an open day you can measure it by how many people turn up.
8) What would be the costs involved with launching a radio campaign?
The cost for putting an advert together with Pirate FM would be £200/ year if they write the script. Then you can only broadcast it on Pirate FM.
Tagging idea; cost; £1500 per month.
9) Can you give us any tips in the process of putting it together?
If you have a go at writing the script yourself you always have to consider who your audience are, what you` re advertising, and why they would want to contact you. It` s good to have a link to a website. You` ll never please everybody with your style. People will always complain about something!
If you write the script they will have to check it first before it can be passed for broadcasting. Some scripts have to be RAC cleared. (Radio Authority Control.) They use production companies to sort out all of the copyright issues; authority,plagarism, licensing, etc.
Try to steer away from the fake conversation about why it` s so good thing; it can sound really contrived. The more natural the better. Snippets work best. It` s really hard to sound natural when you haven` t voiced something like that before or are reading from a script.
You could have a number of different commercials and rotate the adds. Start and end is the same, but with the middle bit changing. The different middles will then relate to different people.
The music will get people` s attention but don` t forget that the main thing is the words- the words bring the message.
intro - middle - end.
Try to get the content right and then think about the music afterwards.
You don` t need so much of a 'tag' because it` s a 1 off campaign.
Look at how you might expand upon it afterwards. What would you do next after your 10 year celebration? How would you take the branding you` ve created forwards?
It` s good to link it to an existing celebratory event or festival.eg; New year, New you.
You can get carried away with the creative; don` t let the message get lost. The message is the main selling point.
10) How does the timing of the adverts usually work?
Truro College generally advertise with Pirate FM. They advertise opendays, A Level results. They do 7 days a week, 7 commercials, between 7am and 7pm.
Anither idea is to use a tag. For example, on the 'school call' feature they run. Every time they do this activity they will say something like 'sponsered by Cornwall Scitt, now celebrating 10 years.' Then when they send out the certificates they will also send out information about Cornwall Scitt.
11)What would you say were your target audience?
Target audience covers quite a wide range. Pirate is probably quite a good audience for our campaign as they generally target the older - 25 to 54- customer. They try to vary the music to suit these 3 different audiences. They have 156000 weekly listeners; 1 in 3 people in Cornwall listen to Pirate FM. They have different transmitters for different parts of Cornwall; Truro College generally targets the West but they can do split transmitters.
12) What do you think are the selling points of using radio rather than another medium?
Radio is theatre of the mind. It gets into the brain in a different way. You can do so much with sounds and voices.
Radio catches people in their houses, in the shower, on their way to work, it` s very effective at subliminal advertising. Good if they are considering a career change.
Radio is the best method exisiting for subliminal advertisisng. That` s why politicians aren` t allowed to use it.