In this entertaining session, the world’s most awarded radio creative, Ralph van Dijk, talked through the best radio ads of the last year. Many had received multiple awards for their campaigns…
Firstly, we heard the The Every Man Meal advertisement from KFC. The ‘still a man’ quip was something that stood out and was easily quotable by audiences, a good technique in advertising. Ralph emphasised how it was important for adverts to entertain as well as inform. Too much advertising places numerous demands on the listeners. For a brand like KFC, instead, they need to make their consumers smile and act as an old finned, to match their brand positioning.
Unsurprisingly, a common theme for many of the advertisements cited by Ralph is that they draw the audience in, from hard-hitting campaigns such as Girls of Paradise, powerful because of its authenticity, or light-hearted efforts such as Quikrete, an intriguing listen. Consistency is also crucial to successful radio campaigns. Ralph suggested that once you find a theme to stick with it, and create an audio identity.
Ralph said that it is important for radio stations themselves to encourage advertisers to be brave and to expose their clients to the best creative work that has already run. Similarly, stations need to be active in intervening when they hear an advert that they don’t think will work and to help the client to improve upon this. If the campaign ends up being a failure, the agency won’t blame the advert that they created, instead they’ll blame the medium – radio. Ralph expressed that the sooner we focus on getting the message right, the sooner we’ll generate better results for our advertisers and our stations.
In advertising, consistency is key.
Brands should find a theme and stick with it. Create an audio identity, says @ralphvandijk #RDE17 pic.twitter.com/cOlqePPW0F
— Radiodays Europe (@RadiodaysEurope) March 21, 2017
