by Matt Swecker, Copwriter
Radio is a place where a writer can really let their copy shine. It’s also one of the hardest forms of media to do well–the notorious “theater of the mind.” So when it’s your first time working on a radio campaign, what do you do? Where do you start? Let me walk you through some of the strategies that have helped me along the way so far.
DO YOUR RESEARCH
First things first, it’s important to hear the difference between good and bad radio. To find good radio, listen to the award-winners. D&AD, Radio Mercury, and many more awards have a library of quality radio ads from recent years and beyond. Listen to everything you can. And bad radio, well, it’s a lot easier to find. Might I suggest taking a drive and switching on the radio?
So, what’s the difference between good and bad radio ads? Close your eyes as you’re listening. Are you drawn in? Does a scene unfold in your mind’s eye? Is the actor’s delivery effective? When all these things come together, radio is powerful, memorable, and emotional. And once you begin to hear what makes radio effective, it’s time to begin writing.
HAVE FUN
After exhausting some of the more obvious conceptual directions and needing fresh inspiration, I decided to have a little fun and see if I could write a spot in iambic pentameter. Think Shakespeare. When I finished it, I turned around and read it to our Media Director. How I imagined Garrison Keillor would. If Garrison Keillor were British. It made her laugh, and that’s all I was going for. Later, when I read it to the Executive Creative Director while presenting all my initial concepts, I played it off as a joke, but she liked the direction. “Keep working in this area,” she said (spoiler alert: the clients liked it too). When you’re having fun, you create better work. Embrace silly or weird ideas even if you think they won’t go anywhere. Worst case scenario, they break the monotony and lead to more ideas. Best case scenario, you create fun and unique work.
PUT IN THE WORK
One of the benefits of working with industry veterans is I can throw a lot at them, and they’re very good at sifting through and picking out what’s working and what’s not (and not just that, but explaining why). I took full advantage of this and wrote everything I could think of as a possible direction. This alone was an excellent learning experience.
Out of the roughly thirty directions I initially presented, the ECD selected a few for me to continue to develop. In particular, she liked one of the directions, but she told me it took too long to jump from one thought to the next. “Make it tighter,” she said. That week, I kept trying, kept coming back to it, but couldn’t quite find a way to bring it all together. Over the weekend, I hunkered down in a coffee shop and tweaked and tweaked and tweaked. I wrote and rewrote, nixed words and added new ones. Finally, it felt like I had something that flowed well. When I presented the scripts the next time, the work showed and the ECD was pleased. It felt good to see direct correlation between time spent and efficacy of the script.
Sometimes an idea just needs a heaping helping of TLC.
SELL IT
Once radio was written and polished, I had to help sell it. And that meant reading it, in a board room, with clients listening with a critical ear. “But I’m just a writer!” my fraidy-cat inner voice shrieked. Hah! Just a writer. You’re an actor now! Do you want someone else in charge of presenting the words you’ve crafted, in charge of the inflection, the emphasis? A wise person told me that people love to see creatives make a fool of themselves. It’s endearing.
With that in mind, if you write radio with a specific voice in your head, read it in that voice. If it’s a 10-year old girl, become that girl. If it’s a British Garrison Keillor, put on that British accent. Practice at home if you have to. The radio has to come to life for the clients to hear your vision. Bring your coworkers into it for multiple voices. The performance can make all the difference. Make the script shine.
From there, it’s all about production! Stay tuned.
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