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PRODUCTION
PROCESS OF RADIO
COMMERCIALS
Sam Taylor
Radio commercials:
■ A radio commercial is an advertisement, usually lasting 30 -60 seconds, aired
during a radio show, the purpose of a commercial is to sell or create an awareness
of something, and with out it being interesting that purpose will not be breached;
because of this advertising companies have adapted to what works for their product
in order to achieve their set sale goal.
■ This involves using certain codes and conventions in order to make an advert that:
■ Interests the audience.
■ Informs them bout the product of whatever the commercial is about.
■ Motivate them to want what was advertised.
Target audience and how it effects the
advert:
■ Depending on who the advert is targeted for depends on how the advert will be
made, certain codes and conventions would be used for one group of people that
would not be used for another. Simply changing your product and the audience it is
targeted for, the style of the content such as the persuasiveness of the writing and
the voices used for the narration or the presentation of how music beds and sound
effects are used.
■ For example, in order to inspire young thrill seekers to go on a new rollercoaster the
creator will use certain sound effects and/ or music, such as screams to show the
fun they're having, along side this, the narrator will speak in a fast passed way using
rhetorical questions, compared to Tesco selling prunes on a 30% off sale possibility
targeted to older people, which will be slower.
The layers of how to make a
commercial:
■ In order to make a commercial several specific things are used again again, also known
as, the factors or codes and convention of a radio commercial, not all are always used;
however, with in most commercials nearly all of these factors are used.
■ Firstly, starting off with the you have back ground noise, this can be either sound effects
or music also known as “jingles”, music or jingles are often used to kill silence, and to
liven a commercial to make it more enjoyable than a voice actor going on for 30 seconds
about something the listeners are not paying attention to, this means that the music is
usually upbeat, however depending on the purpose of the advert depends on the music
show, if a thrilling horror atmosphere was wanted for a new theme park ride, creepy
music would be played compared more upbeat electronic music for a new gadget. You
will usually find most music acts as either a “bed” which means it plays through out to
break silence and to add interest, or a “tag” which is to add dramatic tention, however
they can also act as a sting which ends or starts an advert.
■ On the other hand, you have sound effects this can range from many things, from a fake
laugh to a scream, these are usually used to emphasis what's being said and to add to
the atmosphere, for example if a scary atmosphere was to be made a evil laugh and a
scream would be used compared to a sneeze or a bee buzzing which would be used for a
hayfever commercial.
■ Secondly, and more importantly spoken content it self, there are two types that you’ll usually
find, either narrated, being one or two voice actors speaking to those for are listening about
what the advert is about, or spoken narrative, which is were two or more voice actors speak
to each other as like they would if having a conversation related to a narrative related to the
purpose of the advert, this usually is built up to narration which ends the commercial. The
purpose of narration is to inform the listeners where as the purpose of spoken narration is to
intrigue the audience, however sometimes both of them can do either of the purposes.
Furthermore, depending on the purpose of the advert and the atmosphere being created
depends upon what voice actor were to be used, a deeper mans voice would be used for a
scary rollercoaster advertisement but a sweet ladies voice for a dogs trust advert; however if
a commercial for a particular area only people with that accent will be used so that they can
be related to by those listening in that area.
■ Along side this, what is physically said and how it is said also is just as important, particular
techniques will be used in order to grab peoples attention, and interest them to do or get
what the advert is for, for example, rhetorical questions are usually used at the start of an
advert to grab attention and make those listening wonder whether it applies to them,
exaduration may also be used when describing a product, however false information is
banned when advertising, so companies must be careful on how they do this. Slogans may
also be used in order for listeners to remember the product and its company based off of
that slogan e.g.- Tesco: every little helps, this is usually used in order to tie together all of
their adverts.
An example of this:
■ For example, near to all Capital FM adverts are layered with most if not all of these
codes and conventions; this can include from some starting with a sting in order to
grab the listeners attention as well as creating a simple but good transition form the
previous content or advert into the new/previously playing commercial, to some if
not all having a simple music bed or “jingle” with in them. Depending on who it is
targeted for and who the advert id created for depends on how the jingle sounds
and is produced, for example, for one of there adverts they created with a whistling
sound track to which it created a natural happy appeal however they made another
with an arcade like sound track to which it created a natural fun appeal; not only
this, often relevant sound effects are used to add extra effect and to link what is
being said and the purpose of the advert. Furthermore, the main factor they have is
that all of their commercials content are narrated in order so that it is easier for
them to effectively not only inform their listeners but persuade them and motivate
them to either get the product or use company if and when needed.
Music and finances out:
■ Although music is popular in commercials, most do not use what we hear on the charts
and the artists we talk about when listing out favorite music, this is because all music
from artist with labels as such forth are governed by copyright laws, meaning a lot of
money per 10 seconds is needed to be paid in order to own the rights to that one song
for the time paid for. Instead many companies either use non copyrighted music from
others creators, or their own music either digitally made or recorded live and later edited,
and depending on the financial stability of the show depends on the quality of the
commercial.
■ Bigger stations such as BBC have the finances to pay their own outside individual
companies and creators to both produce the music made both their choir and or digitally,
and to make the whole advert entirely directed by their rules. However, smaller less
finically acclaimed as the mainstream stations and shows, such as newer or local shows,
will make their advert in house, meaning they make the commercials themselves. Along
side this, the costs for more popular voice actors or even celebrities if fitting to the
advert, will be more expensive to use compared to newer or less popular voice actors.
Finances in:
■ The reason for stations to use advertisement amongst their shows content by their
sponsors is to fund themselves, and those working for them, this means that if a
show was to have more listeners than others they will be a more desirable and
useful asset to sponsor. Because of this, radio shows will increase their costs of
playing commercials with in their show, compared to a stations with fewer listeners
stats. Depending on the time of day depends on the number of listeners, with in the
more popular time slots such as early morning and late afternoon costs will increase
further due to them being more desirable and useful time slots due to the fact more
will be listening, resulting in a higher possibility in success for what is being
advertised, this is known as trafficking coast. As well as this, seasonal reasons such
as Christmas, new-year, or summer can become highly popular times for
advertisements, resulting in more companies wanting time slots through these
times, some stations may even increase costs through these time periods in order to
take advantage.
An Example of this:
■ For example, for a large stations such as Capital fm the costings would be
increasingly higher than if a smaller station were to e in production, put put it into
perspective (not specified by Capital fm, but by a radio advertising website) it would
cost an average cost of £2,000 upwards for them to simply produce and create an
advert, with out taking in to consideration that the cost could be exceptionally more
depending on who is used as a voice actor, and if rights to a song were paid for it
could cost an average of £25,000. After the production is done, an average cost of
£1,000 a week would be needed to be paid in order for the station to play the advert
on a regular bases, however contracts may vary.
Production roles:
■ Like any production with in the media many roles are needed to be fit and done well due to
their individual and teamed great importance. When in production of a commercial, there are
4 important roles these being:
■ Creative producer – Its the creative producer job to direct the production advert and quite
simply produces it along its creativity stages, this means being in charge but also working
along side all other roles to make it how the how they want and need to cover all of the
companies demands.
■ Recording engineer – Arguably the most important role, it’s the recording engineers job along
side a possible assistant to record, edit and deal with all technical factors in order to actually
physically creating the advert it self.
■ Copywriter – It’s the copywriters job to write the script along side the creative producer for
the voice actors an recording engineer actually record.
■ Voice actor(s) - Also known with in the media industry as the talent, and it’s their job to
record either individually or along side the recording engineer (depending on finances) what
was wrote by the copywriter to later be edited.