Here’s a guest blog from producer Alistair Miskin – looking at some of those radio production cliches that come up time and time again … do you recognise some of these gems?

I’m sure that many of us have been guilty of using them in a script at one time or another.

No? Are you sure? Not even the time when you were given that S&P brief at 4.30pm on a Friday for a “garden tool winning weekend”?

There are loads of annoying clichés used in radio ads and promos. I know, so many of you told me when I asked on Twitter earlier this week (@alistairmiskin)

So… To celebrate the fact that they annoy the heck out of you (See what I did there?), here are YOUR suggestions for some of most irritating ones heard in radio commercials and promo trails.

I feel sorry for the voiceovers who probably have to read many of these day in, day out. What I would say though is that I never personally considered some of the above as clichés, but hey, they’re your suggestions.

If you’re rushed for time or have hit a creative wall it’s all too easy to reach out for a worn-out phrase or concept. My belief is that it’s probably best to walk away, do something else and come back to the script with fresh eyes.

Right… It’s time for you to cleanse yourself of the tired, the repeated and often used phrases. Leave your suggestions for clichés below or via my website and I’ll update the article with your comments.

Remember, it’s only a bit of fun, so no naming and shaming of specific ads or stations!

Thanks to @ChrisSigsworth @codoherty @KarlSvenson @aldupres @lisamccormick @ellisstuart @rickilee @johnfoster257 @dicannell Michelle Dignan, Matthew Lomax, Brian Place and so many more for their help via twitter #radiocliches and Facebook.

Al

Read more and get free production audio from http://www.miskaudio.com/

Radio listeners across Asia are being introduced to Power Intros with attitude! Dual language station, Hard Rock FM which broadcasts across Jakarta, Bandung, Surabaya and Bali – a “Hit Music Lifestyle & Entertainment Station”,  is using cut through power intro production to give the station a strong ‘hit music’ style, as well as communicate their new “Music with attitude” strapline.

The station commented:  ”We are very pleased and proud to be the first in Indonesia to use Power Intros. The production is excellent and really blends our station’s logo into the music. This is the one of the best alternative strategies to deliver a station’s logo to its listeners.”

Have a listen to the cuts below:

Download audio file (1321259905-hard-rock-fm-hi-maroon-5-christina-aguilera-moves-like-jagger.mp3)

Download audio file (1321259854-hard-rock-fm-hi-katy-perry-firework.mp3)

Download audio file (1321259836-hard-rock-fm-hi-jay-z-alicia-keys-empire-state-of-mind.mp3)

Download audio file (1321259825-hard-rock-fm-hi-jason-mraz-the-remedy-i-won-t-worry.mp3)

Download audio file (1321259882-hard-rock-fm-hi-lady-gaga-born-this-way.mp3)

Download audio file (1321259949-hard-rock-fm-hi-taio-cruz-dynamite.mp3)

The production has been created by the Belgium based company, Brandy Jingles.

Have you heard any great radio production recently – make sure you send it in to Earshot as we’d love to hear it.

‘It’s the kind of noise students make!’ …

… it’s the kind of creative and genius strapline which the URN team at University of Nottingham to pick up  Gold at the Student Radio Awards in the Marketing and Station Sound Category (as well as the Best Student Radio Station too!).

URN decided to strip back their ‘commercial’ radio sounding station and went to a purely ‘student radio’ focused sound. A “sound” which made the station look real and pure to its listeners.

Lou Nash at URN tells us more:

This year we have taken a very different approach to branding at URN. The previous year saw a drastic turn towards a very commercial brand, with highly produced and polished idents and sweepers. Although this gave the station a very professional sound, this year’s team felt that the station’s imaging did not reflect the station’s output. URN is, by design, a student radio station, and thus what it produces is a student sound, aimed at and created by students. All our presenters are students, and the vast majority of our listeners are too. Therefore we wanted our station sound to reflect both the presenters and the listeners. A major part of this was to completely stop using commercial voiceovers, and instead exclusively use student voices. Although this made the job much more challenging due to students not being experienced in voicing idents and trails, the results were felt to be much more suitable for the vibe of the station. We therefore wanted the imaging of the station to highlight and celebrate this. With this in mind we came up with a new strapline for the station:

‘It’s the kind of noise students make!’

The simplicity and honesty of the new strapline was designed to reflect the essence of URN: the fact that we are a radio station wholly run by and presented by students. Despite the negative connotations of the word ‘noise’ we thought it appropriate not only as a word that incorporated both sides of radio: music and speech, but also as a more genuine and humorous statement about the inevitable reality of student radio, and the very real possibility of things going wrong! However it has developed from a simple strapline into the station’s general philosophy and attitude to what we do, and what we are trying to achieve.

Download audio file (audio-for-entry.mp3)

Earshot Creative decided to take a deeper look into the award winning entry, by speaking to Lou Nash about some of the key elements of her marketing and branding strategy..

‘It’s the Kind Of Noise Student Make has revolutionised URN. This year membership doubled compared to previous years, with over 200 members! They’ve  had, more visitors to the website, more comments on blogs and texts into shows, and more listeners. The general atmosphere in and around the studios has also been much more welcoming and friendly. Presenters from all areas of URN have got involved and worked as a team to produce fantastic coverage and broadcasts of events, to create a naked calendar, to form a flashmob, and to beat a world record. And this has all been a result of the complete change in attitude to the branding and marketing of the station.

Take a listen to the station and find out more at their website – www.urn1350.net. Lou Nash from URN will also be appearing on a forthcoming episode of the Earshot Creative Review podcast too.

This weekend saw the North and South have their go at taking home the glory in Merseyside against Liverpool v Everton and in North London with Arsenal v Tottenham Hotspur – both vying for the honour.

Have a listen to some of the coverage from this weekend on Bauer’s Radio City as they broadcast the 216th Merseyside Derby with Alan Irwin, Graham Stuart, Steve Hothersall and John Aldridge.

Meanwhile, Arsenal legend Ian Wright brings his passion for the game alive in a candid video interview as part of his Rock N Roll Football Show on Absolute Radio where he projects a bit of personality for his beloved team.

The 2011 Sony Awards saw Real Radio North East pick up the station imaging award for their Real Radio Sports coverage, in particular focus to the Tyne-Wear (Sunderland v Newcastle) derby in October 2010. With such a strong sporting heritage already at the station, it was only right that the GMG station brought the life and soul of the Derby day to light through creative and cut through imaging.

The campaign scooped Gold at this year’s Arqiva and rightly so too. Real Radio North East’s Station Sound Producer – Craig Steward said “To be nominated for the award in the first place is a fantastic achievement, as there are a lot of excellent producers producing some fantastic imaging in the UK right now. But to win it is just wonderful and really makes us incredibly proud. We put a real emphasis on trying to show that we, as a station, have the same passion for football as the man on the street, and to see it work so successfully, is obviously very pleasing.”

Nothing Else Matters!

Have a listen for yourself ….

Football derbies – they make great radio .. just be careful when you head into town afterwards for that after match pint!

This is a summary of a presentation I was asked to give at Next Radio. That (above) is me giving it.

I wanted to do something useful for delegates. Not the strategic management stuff that I get asked about in consultancy sessions but some of the pesky on-the-ground issues that stop talented creatives from getting their best work to air and which production folk can actually do something about themselves.

Time and again, brilliant ideas are diluted or crippled before they hit the air. Perhaps you’ve seen it for yourself: what starts as a moment of genius ends up as mediocre radio. The producer’s early enthusiasm turns to disappointment, their idea is wasted and the listener’s experience is sub-optimal.

Why does that happen? What is getting in the way? And how can we stop it?

Well, here are five “creative perils” I’ve identified and some thoughts on how to neutralise them. They’re ranked in reverse order for added excitement.

5. Formula

Radio producers know better than most the power of formula in creating companionship radio. Format, repetition and policed consistency are what make our stations familiar.

But you might want to build up your uniquely consistent behaviour and then, just occasionally, subvert it. Sometimes you may break from the norm and never go back.

Television news graphics were once largely blue, the colour of authority. It took the brains of graphic designer Martin Lambie-Nairn and the guts of the BBC to challenge that formula. In 1999 they introduced the colour of excitement, red, to the BBC’s news branding. Today there’s red in news channel graphics the world over.

Breaking formula might mean dropping the station voice, running an ad-free sponsored weekend (as Absolute Radio has done), letting listeners choose the news (Metro, CFM) or, best of all, doing something nobody has yet thought up.

You won’t break formula every day, but you’ll get recognised as a creative leader if you can make that judgement and get it right.

4. Irrelevance

Irrelevance is giving the wrong message to the wrong people at the wrong time. I rather enjoyed the dance tunes on Capital FM last Saturday night until a British Gas ad interrupted, declaring:

“Now’s the time to think about changing your boiler.”

No it’s not. It’s Saturday night and I’m dancing.

The BBC broadcast a brilliant campaign for Dr Who earlier this year. You can hear it discussed by James Stodd in this edition of the Earshot Creative Review.

In the campaign, the Doctor’s Tardis would appear unannounced in the middle of your favourite radio programme. The promos had incredible cut through because they interrupted your listening and broke formula (see point 5).

Such a device would be gratuitous and annoying were it not for the relevance of the idea. After all, that’s what the Tardis does – turns up unexpectedly.

When you have a good idea but not a relevant way to deploy it, bank it for later. Never send a good idea on a bad mission.

3. Vanity.

Vanity is, of course, the advertising client who insists on voicing the ad himself. It’s always a man. But it’s also all of us when we write a line of promotional copy but fail to ask “but how does that actually help anybody.”

The British radio advertising copywriter Simon Rushton, now running a big radio advertising house in Kenya, gives the example of an advertiser who likes to say that they’ve been in business 25 years. They’re very proud of that but does it really make you more likely to buy a mattress from them?

The answer to this is a good brief against which you can test your creative, firm account management and a consumer benefit for every feature you promote.

This applies to radio station promotional trails too. They can be the worst.

2. Unsubstantiated and subjective claims.

Here’s an ad I spotted on my boarding pass. The Russian Tea Room claims it’s the world’s most famous restaurant. Well, that’s pretty hard to substantiate and I don’t believe it. Neither does Jeeves.

Many consumers are highly attuned to this kind of toss. Ben Goldacre’s excellent book Bad Science explains how to spot even sophisticated toss a mile off. I recommend reading it, not just to be more highly attuned to the toss of others, but to help you write less of your own.

One way to be believable is to tell the truth. The Russian Tea Room does this brilliantly in my estimation with this line on its website:

“We’re six minutes and twenty three seconds from the Lincoln Center and just to the left of Carnegie Hall.”

Factual, funny and useful. Shame about the ad.

1. Fear

It is, in my experience, the big one. Fear of failure, fear of upsetting somebody, fear that it’s just too difficult. But it’s not. You never have to risk your life to save your idea. You just need to do a few things to protect it.

For example, you might want to limit the number of people who have to sign-off your idea. Somebody somewhere will hate your work and the more people you ask, the more likely you are to find them.

If you do have to go through a risky sign-off procedure always have an acceptable plan B ready.

It’s worth weighing up the relative benefits and risks of breaking the rules. Sometimes it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission. Children understand that. Somehow we unlearn it in adulthood.

Summary

This aide memoire sums up the main points. In colour.

That’s what I think anyway. What about you?

Top photograph by www.dansmythephotography.com – used under CC licence.