Radio. Best of 2012

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

NOTE BOOK CASE STUDIES INDUSTRY OVERVIEW AWARD WINNING RADIO CREATIVE RADIO, GLOBALLY SOAPBOX

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CONTENTS GM’s FOREWORD

03

Matona Sakupwanya Radio: Time to raise the volume

CASE STUDIES

06 08 10 12 14 16 18 20

Frank.net How radio helped build an insurance brand

Vodacom Gotcha!

Vodacom show they ‘get’ radio with ‘Gotcha!’

Wonga.com Wonga reawakens the jingle to cut through clutter

Simba Simba ‘roars’ with Radio

Reserve Bank Radio adds ‘magic’ to new Madiba notes

National Geographic CASE STUDIES

National Geographic ‘channels’ radio to drive tune in

Modul8 Modul8 uses radio’s mobilising power for breakthrough sales

IDC

IDC taps into power of radio to touch communities

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

Radio: The next Chapter

24 26 29 30 32

Ryan Till Eugene Zwane

AWARD WINNING CREATIVE

Brothers For Life

‘Sterring’ takes the lead at Loeries

DSTV Movember

‘Movember’ makes waves - thanks to radio

Rivak Bunce Elton Ollerhead

38

Mitchum vs. Savanna

40

OMO ooh eh eh…

42

The Last Monologue

44 48 49 50 51

Brands Savanna and Mitchum go head to head to find ‘driest of them all’

OMO makes ‘Ooh eh eh eh!’ part of South Africa’s fabric one of the funniest job ads on radio by far

Cannes Lion Winners Creative Circle Winners Loerie Winners Pendoring Winners RADIO TRENDING GLOBALLY

James Cridland Bob McCurdy

54

SOAPBOX

Adam Behr

Tips on getting the best out of a voice-over artist and lots more!

Craig Rodney

‘No one listens to radio for the ads’

Stan Katz

Stan looks back at his radio highlights for 2012

58 62 64

Rob McLennan

66

Glossary of Radio Terms

68

Radio Calendar

72

SA Radio makes advertising history

Nick Grubb

36

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 3

Matona Sakupwanya General Manager: Radio Advertising Bureau South Africa

RADIO

TIME TO RAISE THE VOLUME hat an incredible last 12 months this has been for radio!

As we take stock of 4 years of the Radio Advertising Bureau South Africa’s (RAB) existence, I am delighted that the RAB has achieved consistency and established itself as a well-recognised organisation with a reputation for consistent communication and information about radio as an advertising medium.

Judging by these, as well as the world-class accolades South African radio creatives continued to bring back home as they once again topped the creativity charts in 2012 (see page 48 - 51 for the Cannes, Loerie and Pendoring Radio category winners), it’s fair to say that if there’s one medium that truly understands the power of connections and delivers unrivalled levels of immediacy, intimacy and recency, it’s radio!

The launch of our ‘Radio.The Best Of’ publication in 2011 was a considerable success and the 2012 instalment is proof that you can never have too much of a good thing.

The Results

W

This edition is packed with, amongst other things, great radio case studies including Frank. net, Wonga.com and Modul8 – all demonstrating elements of innovation, entertainment, and engagement of the audience, while ensuring that the campaign delivered a solid return on investment.

That said, these are just a few examples of radio advertising campaigns that were simply executed correctly and made good use of the unique characteristics of radio - helping to propel the medium to a steady 14% industry growth (*between July 2011 to June 2012), as Nick Grubb, Managing Director: Radio at Kagiso Broadcasting highlights on page 29.

Our annual ‘RadioWorks’ Conference was also a success.

Featuring top-notch speakers such as Rich Mulholland, Victor Dlamini, Craig Rodney (see page 62) and a few of our favourite

local radio personalities, there was a good mix of traditional and fresh insights to inject some new thinking into the radio conversation and help achieve great results for advertisers in South Africa.

The PwC South African Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2012-2016 report suggests that exciting times lie ahead for radio as a medium.

Radio advertising is projected to increase by 7.1% on a compound annual rate from R3.2-billion in 2011 to R4.6-billion in 2016.

Looking to 2013, radio’s greatest achievement will continue to be its ability to synergise with mobile and digital interfaces. The medium is unmatched when it comes to integrating flawlessly with internet and mobile technology.

I’m excited about 2013 and the start of the next exciting phase of success for radio in South Africa.

Let’s continue working together to get the industry excited about what radio is ultimately best at – results!

Here’s to another successful year of RADIO making waves!

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CASE STUDIES

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Frank.net

How radio helped build an insurance brand ne of the highlights at the RAB ‘RadioWorks’ 2012 Conference and a great example of what happens when a brand makes the right radio decisions is Frank .net. Fox P2 Co-Founder & Executive Creative Director Justin Gomes tells us just what it took to get Frank.net off the ground, whilst ensuring that listeners remained entertained & engaged and the campaign delivered a solid return on investment…

O

The Challenge When getting new insurance brand Frank.net off the ground, agency, Fox P2 really needed to wrap their heads around the insurance space. This included an understanding of short term insurance; (the ‘sell sell, sell, sell! buy now get 20% off and well’ throw the kitchen in sink for free!’ variety) as well as long term insurance which includes life cover, disability and serious illness cover.

“As an agency we felt there was an opportunity to find a balance and really hit the spot between the typical hard sell short term and the long term insurance that’s often characterised by Labradors running across hills and emotional music.

We felt that we needed to get to a place where we could actually talk about death, disability and serious illness in a tone that no other brand is actually comfortable talking about, but with a simplicity that cuts through the complexity of the category.

Key to this was the tone of voice.

We pitched it this way in the meeting and named the company ‘Frank’ because they’re all about being frank and talking about these subjects. The result was the payoff line where Frank.net said; “if you die, we pay” – a simple and really hard call to action.

How Frank.net came to life on radio We cracked the tone of voice, the simplicity, the frankness, and I must admit, we got carried away with the big launch of Frank.net.

We had big launches on television via infomercials, and as a result, the radio got rushed into. We had the scripts but we didn’t put enough effort (I feel) into finding a unique voice that could represent the Frank.net brand.

The first pilot was not a bad voice, but we could have done better and this is a good case of actually putting the effort into radio for the castings.

Going on my better judgment, I approached Frank.net CEO Lenerd Louw and explained that I felt we’d missed an opportunity with radio and could do better.

He’d already spent a lot of money on material, but gave the go-ahead for us to get it right.

This was invested back into the production department and the guys did an incredibly thorough search. That’s how we found Adam Behr and cast him as the voice of Frank.net. He’s simply one of the best voice talents in the country and we immediately could see the difference in response. It was the exactly the same script, but with the correct casting, he just cut through the clutter.

Almost straight away, the phones calls started coming in.

We also noticed that one of our competitors whose spend is more than three times ours suddenly started writing campaigns that sounded a bit like Frank.net.

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Justin Gomes Co-Founder & Executive Creative Director Fox P2

How Frank.net used radio tactically The great thing about radio is its fast turn-around time and when you don’t have huge budgets you can cleverly use radio as a tactical opportunity to piggy back and leverage on other brands.

A great example was when we were called by the Jenny CrwysWilliams show on Talk Radio 702.

They felt that the Frank.net voice was one of the stand-out voices on radio for the year and asked us to do a live read broadcast in front of a live studio audience, who would then guess the brand that went with the voice. Here are some of the results…

The Results We’ve always said at FoxP2 that creativity is the best marketing tool a marketer can actually employ to get great results. Frank. net, though only under two years old has won at Loeries, Cannes and D&AD. It also won the Gold APEX effectiveness award in its first year of entry and has sold more than R16-billion of cover.

Learnings We always have to get that SMS, phone number in twice, that’s one of the rules of direct advertising that we’ve learnt very quickly.

I absolutely buy into repetition.

You need repetition. However, when you don’t have budgets as big as your competition you actually need to use creativity to cut through the clutter. I’m really proud of our brave client who dared to embrace creativity and the power of radio as a medium and received a return on his investment.

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Vodacom show they ‘get’ radio with ‘Gotcha!

The Challenge Vodacom launched ‘The World of Smart’ with a new campaign to promote its Smart Plans, a range of price plans that bundle Internet, Talk and SMS into one plan for smartphone users. The aim of the campaign was to encourage listeners and Vodacom customers to engage with the promotion using smart data from Vodacom, or if required, upgrade to a smart phone from Vodacom.

Why Radio

This campaign talked to listeners and encouraged them to use data in order to engage with the campaign. Radio was the perfect medium as a game like this needs personal interaction from the presenter over the radio.

The social media leveraging opportunities were boundless and a large proportion of the station audiences had an opportunity to witness or play each day.

Implementation Participants were required to download the Gotcha app for free (network rates applied), create an account, and log in to play.

The competition kicked off on the 13th of August and involved participants ‘chasing’ an amount of money throughout various locations, in order to secure the winnings. Updates were broadcast on 94.5KFM and 94.7 Highveld Stereo.

*Interestingly, Gotcha was put on hold for the first time after hackers managed to get a hold of the ‘smart money’. The game was paused and the hackers were eliminated with the game resuming the next day.

Learnings Vodacom Managing Executive: Marketing Enzo Scarcella says; “The Gotcha! SA Competition speaks volumes about the level of smartphone adoption in the country, the sophistication of our mobile networks, and how readily we’ve embraced social media. More importantly, it’s the first concrete example of how technology is changing the way South Africans interact with traditional mass media.

There are almost five million smartphones on Vodacom’s SA network alone, growing at more than 40% annually.

Gotcha! is a great test case to see whether South Africa has passed the tipping point in terms of smartphone adoption whereby brands fundamentally change their behaviour from broadcasting to consumers to truly interacting with them on a one on one basis”.

We believe it would be better to have smaller playing areas, which vary from game to game.

This will allow more people the opportunity to grab the smart money and possibly win.

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the results Gotcha App downloads Online Stats 94.7 Highveld Online Stats 94.5 KFM 67 787 downloaded the app

iPhone: 10 732

31 109 actively participated Blackberry: 42 434 in the game 577 grabbed the smart money Android: 14 621 a total of 1 253 time The smart money travelled a total of 45 592km. That’s enough to go around the Earth

Page impressions: 6 3376

Page impressions: 32 759

Total entries:156 783

Total entries: 130 826

Unique entries: 1 382

Unique entries: 595

SMART MONEY STAT Johannesburg

Cape Town

Total distance travelled

19 871km

25 721km

Total times grabbed Total grabbers

712 330

541 248

Furthest distance travelled in one day Start point

1546km East Rand Mall

1235km Cape Town train station, CBD Cape Town

End point

Ennerdale

Oakdale, Northern Suburbs

Total on-air winners

25

23

Total on-line winners

25

23

Total prize money Highest cash amount won Length of game

R 400 000 R 75 000 3 full days

R 300 000 R 40 000 1.5 hours on breakfast show, last morning.

Winner

Gordon Ristow

iPhone: 10 732

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Wonga reawakens the jingle

to cut through clutter The Challenge

Implementation

The Results

Wonga.com was founded in the UK in 2007 by two South African entrepreneurs. Over the past 5 years it has seen phenomenal growth, becoming Europe’s fastest growing private technology company, so it was only natural for the founders to want to bring their groundbreaking technology home to SA. As a brand new company in the SA market, Wonga.com was equally focused on both sales and brand building and felt that radio was the perfect medium to facilitate these.

“Our campaigns this year have been very much about testing the market to find out what works best for us – both in terms of stations as well as format. Again our key objective was to get the wonga.com brand well into consumers’ minds, by using a catchy, memorable jingle, so the use of the ‘Mr Sandman’ jingle was entirely deliberate.

Consumers are inundated with adverts these days, across all media, and we thought this song resonates with almost all people across a broad demographic and is almost guaranteed to get listeners singing along, no matter their age, background, geographic location etc.

It was also vital to select a song that would work or fit in with the various broadcasting genres of the different stations in SA and make sure that consumers would be singing along to ‘Mr Sandman’ all day long.

“It’s difficult to attribute a monetary value to the investment on various stations. But the kind of ad-hoc feedback we have received would suggest that the use of the catchy jingle was definitely successful and extremely effective in keeping the Wonga brand in people’s minds, long after they first heard it on the radio.

This is key to the success of our brand, as very often customers will remember or need to use our service at a later stage. From a brand building perspective, radio has definitely ticked all the boxes for us, and will remain a key part of our future marketing mix”.

Why Radio “We are aware that radio is a hugely important medium in South Africa, reaching a far bigger market than print, mobile or TV - so we always knew that radio would play a big part in our marketing mix.

The wonga brand is about innovation and fresh creative ideas, which lends itself to various types of marketing strategies, so we see strong synergies with radio” says Kevin Hurwitz, CEO of wonga.com SA.

94.7 Highveld was our first foray into radio and we liked the broad demographic reach of its listenership. We also used 94.5 KFM, Kaya FM, METRO FM, 5FM, Algoa FM, OFM, East Coast Radio, Good Hope FM, Heart 104.9 FM, Gagasi 99.5 FM and Jacaranda 94.2 FM”.

Learnings ‘We have learnt a great deal from the jingle-based campaigns – such as the fact that people really like to sing along to a feelgood, memorable song or tune (we suspected as much, but now we know for sure!) It has certainly increased the level of interaction and engagement we have enjoyed with our customers and this is something we find incredibly important. We will be looking to build on those learnings and look forward to a radio-filled 2013!”

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Kevin Hurwitz CEO Wonga.com SA

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Simba ‘roars’ with Radio The Challenge In April 2012 Simba introduced a new ‘Party Bag’ for their ‘Lays’, ‘Doritos’ and ‘Nik Naks’ chips. This bigger bag was packaged for consumers to use at parties, large social gatherings and celebrations. Combining on-air reach, frequency, brand awareness and on the ground experiential events, they took to 5FM who also wanted to launch two new weekday shows with their DJs.

Why Radio Radio is a medium that is characterised by highly specialised content and programming and it appeals to particular segments of the population. As 5FM is targeted at the youth segment in South Africa, the advertiser used this targeted and cost effective medium to reach a large number of listeners in all provinces.

The campaign was very interactive and it required listeners to engage in two way conversation with the brand through the radio platform.

Because the listeners had to invite the DJs to their parties by sending personal invitations, the message was personally relevant and this helped create an emotional bond between the listener, radio station and the advertiser.

Implementation Aligning the new larger party packs with the new weekday line-up, 5FM spent one weekend celebrating with listeners by hosting 42 parties in 4 cities in 3 days. This campaign helped the station gain traction with listeners as the DJs celebrated with them in person. For the pre-event roll out, there was an on air promo that was launched on all shows on 5FM. Listeners were then invited to send their personal invitations to 5FM via an email address hosted at the station.

In the weeks that followed, 5FM began cold calling listeners to accept their on-air invitations and created on-air excitement around the campaign with the phrase that pays, ‘The bigger the bag, the better the party’. The conversation between listeners was interactive with them sharing party tips. 5FM eventually phoned DJs Roger Goode, Euphonik, Fix and asked them to do an outside broadcast for their shows. The parties took place in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban.

The Results The Party Marathon created awareness for the newly launched bag size, and the client experienced 23% volume uplift vs. forecast.

Learnings “We will run the campaign for an extended period (6-8 weeks) in future in order to get more coverage. We need to drive campaign awareness through our Facebook page and use portable units (point of sale) for travelling purposes”.

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Radio adds ‘magic’ to new

Madiba notes The Challenge

Why Radio

The primary campaign objective was to support the introduction of the 2012 South African Currency Note Series (the ‘Mandela Notes’). In addition to this, the objective was to promote some of the security features of the new note series, in order to minimise the risk that users, especially vulnerable groups, would refuse to accept the new notes and/or fall prey to forged notes.

Head: Public Information & Marketing Communication at the South African Reserve Bank, Wendy Tlou says; “Reach: One of the primary roles of radio in the campaign was to maximise reach across all market segments, especially high-risk low-LSM segments which are difficult and/or expensive to reach via alternative means. Radio also allowed the campaign to engage with audience members throughout the day in multiple consumption environments (as opposed to television, for instance, where most engagement opportunities are limited to evenings and weekends).

These objectives implied: • Segmenting the total target market (with respect to paid media, the target market included the entire South African population) with respect to channel consumption, messaging needs and risk profile; • • Reaching the entire South African population effectively and cost-efficiently, through a messaging and channel mix which appropriately combined visual and audio communication so as to ensure coherent message processing; • • Generating market-wide awareness, significantly prior to the introduction of the note series, so as to maximise the audience’s sense of comfort with the new notes;

Frequency and campaign duration: Radio (community, commercial and PBS) was particularly useful in extending the duration of the campaign as long as possible prior and subsequent to note circulation, and in maximising average frequency (opportunites to hear) per audience member. With the exception of online advertising (which reaches a much smaller proportion of the target market), no other channel could provide the required frequency or campaign duration.

Home Language Communication: Another key benefit of radio is the ability to communicate with audience members in their home languages.

Given budgetary constraints, it was not possible or desirable to develop alternative messaging (television and print in particular) in multiple languages. Radio allowed the campaign to communicate in all official languages and to ensure message understanding amongst vulnerable market segments in particular”.

Implementation In addition to radio, selected campaign channels included television, newspaper (daily and weekly titles), a range of ambient executions and digital advertising.

The Results The campaign did not have a callto-action element. It is therefore impossible to measure campaign performance beyond providing estimates of segment-specific reach, frequency and value.

Learnings At the time of writing (Nov 2012), the campaign was implemented as planned. Where on-going consumption data is available (television and online) the campaign has performed within expected ranges. The lack of daily consumption data for radio means that it is impossible at present to compare expected performance with actual results.

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Wendy Tlou Head: Public Information & Marketing Communication at the South African Reserve Bank

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National Geographic channels’ radio to drive tune in The Challenge This campaign was used for National Geographic’s launch of their new channel brand positioning, with the campaign’s primary goal being to drive channel tune in.

Why Radio National Geographic harnessed the power of a bespoke solution in the ‘I love earth’ microsite to align themselves with a topical cause – saving the planet By profiling themselves in this environment, National Geographic not only aligned their brand with an environmental cause, but also generated high levels of interaction and engagement ensuring increased awareness of the programming that they were running over this time period.

Implementation The campaign utilised both on air and online drivers in order to increase the awareness and impact of the campaign. On air, Jacaranda FM’s 1.8-million listeners were activated via 30 second promo spots that made listeners aware of the on-air feature where Barney Simon provided listeners with practical tips on how to save the planet.

At the end of his feature he would direct listeners to the website to find out more information.

A content hub on the www. jacarandafm.com website which was also used to host images and videos for National Geographic was also created. This provided them with a platform to profile their product offering and ensured that listeners where immersed in the content.

The Results The campaign achieved an average click through rate (CTR) of 0.81%, compared to an industry standard for the entertainment sector of 0.12%. The highest performing placement was a 300x250 display ad in the content hub with a CTR of 2.12%.

Learnings The combination of Radio’s reach, online’s ability to tell a story with images and video, relevant and topical content created the perfect mix, ensuring high levels of engagement and impact for the campaign. Regional Director for National Geographic Channel: Africa Thandi Davids says; “As part of promoting National Geographic’s commitment to

Earth Month we decided to extend our campaign beyond our traditional reach of television and make use of radio and digital platforms. This allowed us to focus on our on-air messaging with tidbits from various shows that speak to sustainability issues.

More importantly, it allowed us to direct listeners to a micro-site that gave more in-depth insights and afforded our audience the opportunity to engage in their own time, with relevant topics around the issues.

Radio allowed us to make ‘Earth Month’ top of mind and further ensured that we could direct our messaging very tightly to a specific audience. We could therefore tailor the content we know resonates with said audience in an interactive and immediate manner”.

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Modul8

uses radio’s mobilising power for breakthrough sales The Challenge

Why Radio

Natel Healthcare realised that the Immune recovery section of the healthcare sector was dominated by messaging to the affluent with little focus on the lower levels of the SA market. Interestingly, research indicated that more people from the lower end of the market had compromised immune systems due to various factors including access to adequate healthcare systems and limited financial resources. Natel Healthcare, therefore identified this gap and sought to fill it by building awareness (and driving sales) around their relatively new product, Modulate.

What followed was a ‘back-tobasics, no frills, pure talk and listen’ radio campaign. Key to the success of the campaign was speaking to the target audience in their language, the infusion of their culture as well as tapping on the phrase; ‘prevention is better than cure’. Radio was used single-handedly to build awareness and drive sales in a simple, well-orchestrated multidimensional approach.

To optimise the impact of their comparably modest budget, Modul8 needed to create a clear point of differentiation through simplicity, education and pure sales drive. The brand idea centred on building one’s immune system to create health awareness and build a healthy society. The target market for the campaign was defined as mainly Black people of between LSM 4-7, due to a propensity for disease and compromised health.

Implementation Natel Healthcare identified ALS (African Language Stations) within the SABC as the preferred vehicle to reach their target market. The first week was used to introduce the product as an ‘immune troubleshooter’, educate the market on its benefits, thereby increasing demand create a demand. A call centre was then set up to deal with enquiries. This proved to be a useful tool to assess demand.

Ambassadors who could easily be identified such as ‘Sister Jacqui’ and popular gospel artist Dr.Rebecca Malope were also appointed.

In addition to this, road shows were organised to demonstrate the effectiveness and create live testimonials for the brand.

This worked synergistically with Radio to keep listeners updated with details of roadshows, whilst reinforcing the Modul8 brand promise.

The campaign made use of a variety of features including interviews, 30-second adverts, 10-second jingles, docudramas, live reads and sponsorships on these stations: Umhlobo Wenene FM, Ukhozi FM, Lesedi FM, Tru FM, Thobela FM, Motsweding FM, Ikwekwezi FM, Phala-phala FM, Munghana Lonene FM and Ligwalagwala FM. The Results From an investment of R14 000 per week, Modul8 increased their spend to R900 000 per month. Through this use of radio, Modul8’s messaging reached up to 80% of their target market.

Their call centre fielded enquiries peaking at 25 000 calls per day and the number of agents was increased 3 times to cope with the traffic. Modul8’s turnover grew to R100-million in 2 years, and today the product is one of the most successful immune modifiers in the country.

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IDC taps into power of radio to touch communities The Challenge The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) wanted to communicate their successes in South Africa and highlight their different sectors and achievements, whilst educating the country and business on what the application requirements for funding were, in order to minimise the volume of unsuccessful applications.

The IDC deals with many community projects and was finding that their regional offices were not being given the opportunity to communicate their successes to the communities they were working in, an issue which needed to be addressed urgently.

Why Radio While all the elements (including digital and print) were important and added tremendous value, the power of regional radio and the relevance it lent to the IDC and the campaign made it the obvious campaign driver.

Radio afforded the IDC the opportunity to harness all its strengths i.e. immediacy, availability, affordability, combined with community affinity as local

radio stations who have close ties with the local community are well-informed and are a trusted and valued part of the social structure.

Implementation The ‘IDC Business Update’ series flighted seamlessly with content syndicated across the platforms in the last week of every month over an 8-month period and comprised of pre-promo commercials, daily radio features, podcasts, online campaigns as well as a monthly print insert - the IDC’s message a golden thread which connected every element of the campaign.

The campaign and content was tailor-made to reflect the communities it was speaking to: Regional representatives were interviewed on the regional stations and the Business Unit Heads interviewed on national platforms by popular on-air personalities brought to the fore the strengths of regional radio and the power of the relationships they have with their communities – this ensured that the content and perspective of the feature always remained relevant.

Each month dealt with a different theme and sector, including Forestry, the Women Entrepreneurial Fund (WEF) and many more.

The platforms used were Kaya FM, OFM, Algoa FM, Capricorn FM, RSG, SAFM and Lotus FM.

The Results This is the most integrated and successful IDC campaign to date. The Business Unit Heads have been enjoying a significant surge in interest and calls from both their industry peers and prospective clients, increasing their confidence and renewing their brand motivation.

The IDC Regional Managers are pleased to have been given a platform to communicate their local strategies and promote their successes in the region, the recognition and the opportunity has resulted in the IDC surpassing their CPR goals.

The IDC is now a firm believer in the power of radio as a parallel medium and a campaign driver and have committed to a 2013 campaign extension.

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 21

Each month dealt with a different theme and sector, Each month dealt with including Forestry, the aWomen different theme and sector, Entrepreneurial Fund (WEF) and including Forestry, the Women many more.

Entrepreneurial The platformsFund used(WEF) were and many FM, more.

Kaya OFM, Algoa FM, The platforms Kaya Capricorn FM,used RSG,were SAFM and FM, OFM, Algoa FM, Capricorn Lotus FM. FM,The RSG, SAFM and Lotus FM. Results

The Results This is the most integrated

and successful IDC campaign to This isThe theBusiness most integrated and date.

Unit Heads successful campaign to have been IDC enjoying a significant date.

The Business Unit Heads surge in interest and calls from Learnings have their been industry enjoying peers a significant both and surge in interest and calls from prospective clients, increasing This campaign has highlighted both their industryand peers and their confidence renewing theprospective important role thatincreasing clients, their brand motivation. programming and content their confidence and renewing The IDC Regional Managers play today, and with radio their brand motivation. are pleased to have been given programmers becoming more IDC Regional Managers aThe platform to communicate open brandstoappearing are to pleased have been their local strategies and given outside of commercial breaks, the a platformtheir to communicate promote successes in the opportunities are endless. their local andand the region, thestrategies recognition Mandla Mpangase, IDC Public promote theirhas successes opportunity resultedininthe the Relations Manager says; “This region, the recognition andgoals. the IDC surpassing their CPR exercise has been extremely opportunity has aresulted in the in The IDC is now firm believer beneficial for the IDC brand.

We IDC power surpassing theirasCPR goals. the of radio a parallel have positive Thereceived IDC isand now a firmfeedback believer in medium a campaign driver onthe thispower new brand positioning and of radio as a parallel and have committed to a 2013 aremedium excitedand about what the future a campaign driver campaign extension. of and the campaign holds for the IDC. have committed to a 2013 campaign extension.

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INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

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RADIO The next Chapter There’s a lot to be excited about when it comes to radio in 2013.

We’ve asked four of the industry’s top guns to recap on the most surprising thing to come out of 2012 as well as what clients and media planners need to consider when advertising on radio in 2013...

In your opinion, what was the most surprising thing to come out of 2012 in radio advertising?

It was a bold move by FNB, in a traditionally conservative business sector, to place their entire budget for a major division on radio with their ‘Steve’ campaign.

‘Steve’ gave radio the opportunity to prove that it can be used very effectively as a primary medium for major campaigns. It generated huge direct response, in an area where consumers are reluctant to switch loyalty – their bank accounts.

Also highly impactful was the campaign to launch Frank.net which was risky but highly effective.

These campaigns have prompted a revival in interest in radio. Marketers have been reminded of the power of radio; they have tried it themselves and got the return on investment that they want.

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‘As social media explodes, radio is brilliantly positioned as it is the medium that synergises best with digital platforms. ‘ Ryan Till Chief Operating Officer Primedia Broadcasting

What’s so exciting about the medium right now that planners and clients need to consider when advertising on radio?

The right station with the right message and the right frequency will yield good returns.

Planners and clients are now realising that they don’t need the radio stations to come up with an elaborate campaign that includes layers of different and complicated features and promotional elements – just one strong idea and loads of frequency in generic campaigns will be just as effective, and probably less costly too.

As social media explodes, radio is brilliantly positioned as it is the medium that synergises best with digital platforms.

Radio compliments the way people are using social media and radio promotions and campaigns can create great content which can be leveraged in social media. All of this takes the client message further.

How are your learnings from 2012 shaping the way you’re going to do business this year?

We have to constantly focus on the power of the message. Well-written scripts that demonstrate an insight into the consumer’s mind, will get results. To achieve this, work with the best creative agencies and keep it simple.

The best campaigns are those that naturally tie in with the product in a way that makes it seem seamless, with opportunity to leverage.

Every good campaign needs reach and frequency on the radio station, but good, creative execution and innovation is what will help advertisers stand out in 2013.

There are two distinct trends with regard to the duration of campaigns.

On one hand, advertisers are definitely looking for more short term opportunities, and don’t like to be locked down to long-term holdings.

Clients want flexibility and a quick response.

We have brought the creative process into our sales department so that we can turn around a campaign concept and copy in a couple of days from the time we get the brief.

Also, premium sponsorship products and some smaller features can now also be booked for a week at a time, and not for the traditional three month minimum period. This allows advertisers to sample a whole range of radio products, before committing to any one property long term.

On the other hand, we are seeing a shift in the understanding of value for large-scale sponsorships and endorsements. This is predominantly in the national advertiser space, where brands realise the value of longer-term association of their brand with activations or celebrities who can assist build their brand.

Advertisers are looking for relevant ways to integrate their brands into spaces where they can own and share in our content, which is adding a new and interesting dynamic to their radio campaigns.

26 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 27

In your opinion, what was the most surprising thing to come out of 2012 in radio advertising?

It’s safe to say that the economic environment is 2012 was challenging.

With rising competition and dwindling profits, clients were holding agencies more accountable and the emphasis, increasingly on ROI. Campaigns were expected to deliver new customers to drive growth and profitability. Every rand spent on radio advertising was expected to deliver some return, more so in 2012 than at any point in history.

What’s so exciting about the medium right now that planners and clients need to consider when advertising on radio?

We’re seeing an increasing number of advertisers turning to content co-creation as a way of improving ROI on their radio campaigns. Content co-creation develops relationships between listeners and brands much quicker. It is a movement away from the priced-based, buyerseller transactional relationship, to the transaction becoming an enhanced lifestyle experience.

The building blocks of cocreation are dialogue, access and transparency, where the campaign is centered around knowledge sharing and listener empowerment.

In essence, the brand collaborates with programming to enable listeners

to participate in the creation of a piece of content on air. The execution of the communication elements is done in a manner that is not palpable that it is advertising. The net result is that the brand develops a stronger relationship with the listener on air, and the listener is very likely to be loyal to a brand that they have a personal relationship with.

Some examples of content creation include Cook-Offs, Sing-Offs, Choir Challenges, DJ Contests (e.g. on campus), Comedy Contests, as well as a variety of special promotions like Back to School, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. The choice of concept is determined primarily by the target market, the value proposition, the format of the station, the size of budget as well as the ability to create activation platforms on the ground.

How are your learnings from 2012 shaping the way you’re going to do business this year?

Like a well written and produced radio spot, we’re seeing more and more evidence of

Eu Ge gen SA ner e Ra BC al M Zwa dio an ne ag Sa er les

the fact that content co-creation enables brands to stand out so that they become noticeable, drives talk ability, and develops credibility for the brand.

Given the rising contour of content co-creation, and the positive results they are delivering for our advertisers it’s only prudent then that, as many advertisers are given the opportunity to get involved.

To that extent SABC Radio Sales will channel more investment towards resourcing the radio creative pool, as well as the digital offering in the years that lie ahead.

28 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 29

Nick Grubb Managing Director Radio: Kagiso Broadcasting

In your opinion, what was the most surprising thing to come out of 2012 in radio How are your learnings from advertising?

2012 shaping the way you’re What an incredible last 12 months going to do business this this has been for radio. Year-on- year? year growth as an industry was well into the double digits* and this demonstrates the medium’s enduring relevance. (*growth data from July 2011 to June 2012 showing industry growth of 14.1%)

What I am hoping to see in the coming months are the results of the campaigns mentioned above. How have they delivered, and what can we learn from this to improve, and build confidence even further?

And this must be radio’s challenge for the next three years – how to make our measurement of campaigns and audiences even more robust.

A tip of the hat is in order for FNB’s ‘Steve’ campaign – not just for the radio-centricity of their campaign but for the use of 1 minute spots in selected brackets. I have always wondered why we are often fixated on the We believe investment in 30-seconder when this is not the mechanisms that generate and communicate useful data and international standard. insights will go some way toward meeting this goal. We want to find However, it was not just this ways to help our clients measure campaign that saw vigorous reliance on radio to deliver returns. their activity, and understand the The motor trade and retail were audiences and environment in which they are active. also significant contributors.

The next step is to marry these insights to creative. Hence the creation of a boutique creative facility at Mediamark (Lab 42) which launched early this year and is already is proving to have great, practical, understanding of client objectives and radio concepts.

Provision of eventing and digital opportunities is a natural extension of our unique ability as radio operators to deliver reach, and engaged niche audiences, in a single campaign.

I look forward to talking more about these initiatives with you, and to another great year for everyone involved – directly or otherwise – in this beautiful, emotional, medium.

30 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 31

Rivak Bunce Managing Director United Stations

In your opinion, what was the most surprising thing to come out of 2012 in radio advertising?

The strong year on year growth that we experienced The fact that Radio continued to flourish in a stagnant economy and in an environment where we are seeing technology evolve at such a crazy pace and competition grow daily. I don’t want to declare victory too early, but it does show that #TeamRadio is delivering for advertisers and learning how to be a better, more strategic partner.

What’s so exciting about the medium right now that planners and clients need to consider when advertising on radio?

Radio’s relationship with its listeners is evolving and going deeper than ever before. This is being driven by the fact that we can maintain the conversation with our audiences in so many new and exciting ways.

Our radio sales teams have modernised in response to this and are equipped with the best digital training, excellent tools and data, allowing them to offer really innovative solutions.

Consider involving them more closely in coming up with custom ideas to help solve your marketing challenges.

How are your learnings from 2012 shaping the way you’re going to do business this year?

I learned that despite all the new things happening out there in the media space, radio is the greatest entertainment and advertising vehicle ever created.

With the massive societal shifts taking place in our country, I have seen radio connect communities together on an emotional level that no other medium can offer. I want this to drive how we do business in 2013.

Great radio coupled with the best business practices, so that our advertisers can take full advantage of its power.

32 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

Growth of digital = Radio Amplified!

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 33

Many a ‘radio assassin’ has touted the rise of digital as the downfall of radio, but despite the popularity of digital offerings, radio’s unique ability to synergise with these new media platforms in content generation and amplifying listener conversations around brands, remains unsurpassed says Mediamark Managing Director, Elton Ollerhead…

Having worked mainly in online advertising for 15 years in the UK, I’ve seen the adoption of digital media by consumers and how, in time, advertising spend follows the consumption trends.

The integration of digital elements into advertising campaigns has been increasing over this time and now in many cases forms the basis of an advertising campaign.

“In the UK, digital advertising is the single largest area of ad spend at 28% of total ad spend vs. TV which sees 26% of spend” (Source IAB UK 2011).

That said, the strength of radio is implicit in its ability to integrate its content across a multitude of platforms, follow the consumer’s journey beyond the airwaves and entrench the medium as current and relevant in the evolving media landscape. In South Africa, radio listening remains high, with the medium having the highest penetration of any medium in SA at over 88% in a typical week.

Radio & Digital – best of bedfellows Successful advertising campaigns often use a variety of media platforms to communicate a

Elton Ollerhead Managing Director Mediamark

message to the target audience, using various media according to their strengths.

Radio and the internet, however, are a very strong combination as they combine push and pull factors. Radio is used to build brands and awareness, encouraging action, and the interaction taking place via online platforms. Studies show that 20% of internet users are listening to the radio at any given time (Source RAB / IAB UK) which indicates that the two are very complimentary media, and almost 60% of the sample claimed to have gone online after being prompted by radio content.

build TV and Events divisions – creating a rich multimedia offering for advertisers.

My TIPS for combining radio and digital advertising effectively:

1

Include URLs in radio ads so people can go online for more information. Actively direct listeners to the website if specific interaction is required (competitions, applications for a product or service)

Lastly, co-creation of content is where most advertisers are moving. No longer does the radio station dictate saleable content.

This is shaped by the influence of the listener / consumer, advertiser and programmer.

Reality radio has increasingly steered the medium into the realm of pro-sumers where the engagements and influence of the consumer in developing content becomes all important.

2

Ensure consistency in creative and messaging across media channels/platforms to build affinity and maximise recall and response

3

Choose media carefully to ensure cross-over between platforms targeting the desired target audience and reaching them in a variety of relevant places for maximum impact (websites, radio stations)

My eagerness to join Mediamark, therefore, was based on it being a successful radio sales business with intent to leverage and grow the existing (but relatively small) digital sales operation, and in time

4

High frequency across relevant radio stations and websites simultaneously for best effect.

34 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

AWARD WINNING CREATIVE

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 35

36 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

‘Sterring’ takes the lead at Loeries Xolisa Dyeshana

.

Proof of the power of local radio creative can be seen in agency Joe Public’s work on the Brothers for Life campaign. Creative Director and newly-elected Loeries Chairman Xolisa Dyeshana tells us why the campaign worked so well…

Tell us a bit about the Award.

What does this accolade mean for you, your agency and local radio creative as a whole?

the movie they have seen to the rest, scene by scene. Using this insight, we created a radio spot that demonstrates the effects of domestic violence that many children witness in their homes.

Our campaign received a Gold The commercial is created in such Loerie in the New Voice Category a way that you are led to believe which recognises the best in that the young boy talking about vernacular advertising. This accolade a ‘Sterring’ (a word derived from has great significance for our agency, ‘Starring’ which means the main because it shows that we are able character in a movie) is talking to think in the diverse languages about a violent action hero only to of South Africa and are not limited realise at the end that he is in fact to English. It also helps to raise the talking about his father. standard of vernacular radio in the Casting was crucial in this country which is in much need of that boost after being treated as the commercial as we needed a very young person who could pull of an poor cousin of English radio for a amazing performance. Production long time. was also a huge challenge because we wanted to add as Please take us through the many movie nuances as possible thinking behind the ad; any and still keep the spot singleinteresting crafting features that minded and powerful.

really made it work?

I think what made the idea powerful was the fact that it was based on an insight. In many South African townships, kids grow up in homes without television sets and there are no movie theatres.

It is often the duty of the one who is privileged enough to have a television set to convey

As an expert in your field, please share some top tips on writing for radio. What would you caution against?

Firstly, I’m hardly an expert. I think the only piece of advice I’d give is ‘keep it simple’. The most effective radio ideas these past couple of

years have been really simple or based on a simple insight. I find that the more complex radio is, the more it’s lacking in the idea department. So don’t baffle them with bullshit.

Where’s SA radio getting it right, and where are we getting it wrong?

We are having fun again! The last couple of years I’ve really started to get a sense that radio is getting more fun and not so dull and boring. This can only be a good thing.

What we’re getting wrong?

I’d say we still haven’t quite cracked a unique South African radio voice. But I think we’re getting there. Also, I don’t think we’re seeing enough of the amazing ideas we hear at awards shows, on mainstream radio.

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 37

Xolisa Dyeshana Joe Public Creative Director & Loeries Chairman

38 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

‘Movember’ makes waves- thanks to radio

From left to right: Jordan Tryon (Copywriter), Tracy-Lynn King (Copywriter), Chad Wright (Copywriter and in India at the time of the photo) and Georja Bunger (Art Director)

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 39

We chat to the four Ogilvy brains behind the cleverly crafted DSTV Movember campaign, to give some insight into ads are not only entertaining, but impart a very clear message…

Firstly, let us just say that these are really great ads! What has the response been to them?

Client has been really happy, particularly because the spots have proven popular with listeners. People have been talking about them quite a lot and that can only be a good thing.

What was the client’s brief to you?

Why was radio the perfect fit for the brief?

The brief from client was to come up with a tactical campaign for ‘Movember’, linking the ‘month of the moustache’ to DStv content in an entertaining way. Radio seemed like a perfect platform from which to launch a tactical message, because it has such high reach and the turnover time is so quick.

Also, the gag could never have worked visually. What radio allowed us to do was create a mental image of the ‘creature’ being described and then reveal to the listener that it was in fact not an animal but somebody’s facial hair.

Please take us through any crafting features that really made it work?

Moustaches are pretty peculiar things and we wanted to find a voice (or ‘personality’) for our moustache which reflected that. We tried a lot of options from a clipped, rather aggressive German, to a slightly deranged Attenborough, to an excitable hillbilly. In the end, actor James Alexander gave us a read that made all of us stop and really listen, because it was so engaging – it wasn’t an accent or a caricature – it was a person, albeit a unique one.

The brief was tactical and so the process, from conceptualisation to production, needed to be fast. Our amazing radio producer, Sally Walland, made sure we got the best voices to experiment with and our sound engineer, Lorens Persson from Sterling Sound, was equally phenomenal.

We get a sense that you guys love writing for radio…could you share some top tips on using humour on radio/ writing for radio in general?

If you’re not having fun while writing a spot, the chances are the listeners won’t be either when they hear it.

Getting feedback from as many people as possible while crafting is really helpful. It’s also incredibly worthwhile to try as many voices as you’re able to get a hold of.

And, most importantly, write and re-write the script as many ways as you can.

40 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

Dear Gillian,

I have been informed that we recently received a kind gift on behalf of your brand.

Thank you, Gillian, but I would like to bring it to your attention that there was a defect in the product we received. It seems that your delightfully dry “Savanna” bottles were filled with some kind of wetness.

I am delighted to inform you that, with the selfless assistance of a local university soccer team, the defect has been rectified. Please find your now seriously dry bottles herewith.

You also mentioned that your Savanna office is lacking a pool. Well, the good news for you is that here at Mitchum we only do dry. Seriously dry. That’s why we’re giving away all our stuff that’s not dry. So please accept this novelty inflatable pool on behalf of our Senior Brand Manager, Vashti. Apparently it was her nephew’s. He last filled it with his tears of farewell.

Regards,

Bob Johnson Mitchum CEO

®

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 41

Mitchum and Savanna take to radio in ‘battle of the driest’ Brands Savanna and Mitchum went head to head to find the ‘driest of them all’. There can only be one winner, and it seems in this battle of wits, radio takes first prize…

Please take us through the thinking behind the ad. What was the initial brief from client to agency?

The brief came from Revlon Senior Brand Manager, Vashti Samuel (VS) to create a focused campaign that made use of radio and reminded consumers that Mitchum is a trusted quality brand, which really works hard at keeping them dry.

Gillian Skinner (GS), Global Marketing Manager Savanna says; Our brand has an on-going ‘Tactical proactivity’ brief with all our work partners, so this is an example of work that was done proactively and in record time (1 day).

It was a tactical piece of work that came about after the Savanna brand team and Draftfcb Cape Town heard the Mitchum activity on the radio. Key in the execution was making sure that the Savanna ad was true to the tone of the brand and was worded in a way that would make it clear to listeners that we were responding to the Mitchum work without coming across as being negative or a bad sport.

Savanna always looks for tactical opportunities to reaffirm our quirky personality and make people smile.

This interaction between Mitchum and Savanna is quite an innovative and fun challenge between the brands, how did you identify this opportunity and why was radio was the perfect fit for the execution?

GS: The activity arose from the creative and client service team hearing the Mitchum ‘Serious about Dry’ radio ad and promo activity on 5FM. Since Savanna has spent a lot of time and effort establishing itself as the ‘Dry’ brand, we thought we needed to respond and underline our credentials, while also using the opportunity to entertain our audience and cr eate

awareness for the brand.

Radio allows us the opportunity to be tactical and swift, enabling us to respond to the market while activity is still fresh in their minds. We love the immediacy of Radio.

How did the use of radio enhance the turnaround on production and flighting schedules?

Nasiema Griffin, Business Unit Director, MediaCom explains; “This combination of elements in the campaign meant that it could be turned around in a very short period of time when compared to other media types and at a cost which allowed for more brand exposure.

Radio’s flexibility and speed was crucial in the process and allowed more time to pay attention to the campaign as a whole and in ensuring seamless mechanics. It was obviously the perfect medium to allow for such fast turnaround in response from Savanna”.

GS: Since radio is such a dynamic channel, we were able to write up the script, record it and have it on air within 24 hours of first having the idea.

What role does radio play in your media mix – do you use the medium to build awareness or as a sales driver?

GS: We use radio for both – the majority of our activity is brand building/ awareness-focussed but we also run numerous on-air competitions and use radio to make our audience aware of any promotional activity or events we might be hosting.

Our ability to be tactical is vital to our brand mix and radio is a medium that allows us to do that.

Nasiema Griffin, Business Unit Director, MediaCom adds; “In the case of Mitchum, radio answered firstly to brand awareness by allowing us to connect with our consumers in the right environment, and whilst in the right mind-set.

The cost benefit meant we could prolong our on-air exposure over a period of time in comparison with television. Radio is a strong ‘call-toaction’ medium and the campaign’s strong iconic characters and

in-built promotional mechanic with exciting prize incentives propelled the brand through clutter.

The targeted station selection enabled us to fit our concept more relevantly to the profile and attitudes/lifestyles of the target market.

The added benefit radio offered is that the brand could leverage popular station personalities; in our case the 5FM breakfast team (including Gareth Cliff) who are sought-after personalities in their own right. The mix of sensational creative, ideal media environment and engagement with leading radio personalities created the kind of talkability that all brands strive for”.

What results/ measurables have you seen from the campaign? Were advertising objectives met?

VS: “The campaign is still on-going, but what I can say is that the response from consumers, trade and internal stakeholders has been overwhelming.

The increase in sales we are seeing is proof that this campaign is working for the brand.

The brand’s advertising objectives are being met through the ‘Seriously Dry’ campaign. The interaction between Savanna and Mitchum has given Mitchum the platform to reiterate the fact that Mitchum is a brand concerned with ‘serious’ dryness.

When challenged to “Dry a little harder”

by Savanna, Mitchum showed just how serious the brand is about all things dry.

(We eradicated the ‘wetness’ from the Savanna bottles that were kindly given to me and sent them back to Savanna to showcase the true essence of ‘dry’).

This was well received by our friends at Savanna and led to the two brands now becoming DFF’s (Dry Friends Forever), an epic dry journey indeed”!

GS: Since this was a pro-active tactical response brief, there weren’t really any objectives beyond us trying to create talkability, interest and awareness around the brand. We consider the effort well worth it, as it did generate a lot of conversation through our social media channels.

42 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 43

OMO makes ‘Ooh eh eh’ part of South Africa’s fabric Credit must go to Samantha Milne, Jupiter Drawing Room CT & her team. Because of them, the words ‘just one small cap is enough!’ now have the ability to conjure up images of a domestic gesticulating in all manners of disapproval. She gives the lowdown on the radio element of a campaign that got the nation shouting (& grooving!) to ‘Ooh eh eh – just one small cap is enough!’

This is obviously quite an innovative extension of the TV ad, what role did radio play in your media mix – do you use the medium to build awareness or as a sales driver?

Our aim was to re-enforce the product usage and directions, in an audio format ‘Ooh eh eh - Just ONE small cap is enough!’ We wanted the SA public to engage

with the messaging in such a way that the usage directions would never be forgotten.

The ‘ooh eh eh’ jingle is quite catchy. Please take us through the thinking behind the campaign; any interesting crafting features that really made it work?

The initial brief from the client was simple: to educate and persuade people currently using the new Omo liquid detergent, that ONE CAP IS ENOUGH. If this was achieved, consumers wouldn’t go through the bottle of liquid detergent too quickly, wouldn’t think it was too expensive and would therefore continue to purchase it.

The launch of new OMO liquid required some ‘out the box’ thinking as we wanted to play on

a well-known formula and style, but totally turn it on its head. This saw the introduction of ‘Priscilla Queen of the Domestics’, an offbeat character, who is an expert at all things laundry. We wanted to create commercials that were simple, educational, but most importantly memorable.

The campaign was launched late in 2011 purely on TV, using two 30-second executions. Once the message had been entrenched in the minds of our consumers, we extended the campaign to radio with four 30-second radio spots. We wanted the radio spots to appeal to a wide South African audience, hence our use of different popular genre for each radio execution. These carried the same simple message, slapping sound and the recognisable voice of our character and were flighted on 5FM, 94.7 Highveld and East Coast Radio.

What results/ measurables have you seen from this use of radio? How successful was it for the brand?

We have not yet received sales figures to date, but we did certainly create talkability and a well-known catch phrase. We have certainly ingrained the phrase ‘ooh eh eh’, as well as the product usage in the minds of all South Africans – and they will all think twice before adding another cap of OMO liquid!

Added to that, we have received over 800 mentions on Twitter; the sound tracks have been listened to over 3 500 times on the OMO Soundcloud account.

44 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 45

Radio’s Last Monologue Great advertising is always based on an insight, so when joint TBWA Hunt Lascaris Executive Creative Directors, Matthew Brink and Adam Livesey got wind that copywriters were emulating Net#work BBDO Creative Director Jenny Glover’s writing style, they quickly acted. The result…one of the funniest and coolest job ads on radio we’ve heard by far… lease take us through the thinking behind the ad; any interesting crafting features that really made it work?

P

What made it work best was the fact that it was topical. There have been a number of people trying to emulate the writing style of Jenny Glover and Brent Singer. In fact, the idea for ‘The Last Monologue’ was born out of our own creative teams repeatedly bringing us Jenny Glover-style ads.

So it actually started as a joke intended for the creative department, but we soon saw that it had relevance and resonance beyond our walls. With regards to the crafting, all credit has to go to people we were trying to intentionally copy. As they say, imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. Probably the most interesting aspect of this ad is that it ran mainly on Youtube and hit about 50% of the creative community in South Africa. It’s always great when people are looking for your content.

TBWA has been enjoying quite a fresh spate of creativity since you joined almost a year ago, what’s your overall feeling on our local radio creative, how does SA fare internationally?

South Africa has always been a superpower in radio. Globally, for many creatives, radio is a Cinderella category, but it definitely has a special place in the heart of the South African ad industry. And it shows. South Africa dominates radio at Cannes and other award shows, every year.

The ‘Last Monologue’ is based on the ‘Jenny Glover factor’ or the influence of her writing style on radio copywriting in SA, what other trends have you seen emerging in radio copywriting both locally or internationally?

My favourite trend is the emergence of unconventional thinking on radio. Radio ads are no longer just hard retail or skit ads.

There are some pretty crazy thoughts out there. An ad that comes to mind is the ‘Go Outside Magazine’ idea that won at Cannes this year. It broadcast frequencies that actually repelled mosquitoes.

Another trend I’ve been enjoying is the creation of distinctive characters in radio advertising, like FoxP2’s campaign for Frank.net.

Your pick of Top 3 rising stars in radio creative from TBWA Hunt Lascaris or SA as a whole At TBWA we’ve got loads of young talented writers in the creative department. Guys like Vincent Osmond, Kamogelo Sesing, Charles Pantland and James Andrew. Outside of the agency, always be on the look out for Jenny Glover and Brent Singer’s stuff. There’s a reason so many people are copying them.

46 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO WINNERS

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 47

48 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

Cannes - Radio Lions Winners

Title

Advertiser/ Client

Product/ Service

Entrant Company

Production Company

Net#Work Bbdo, Jhb

First#Left, Jhb

Net#Work Bbdo, Jhb Net#Work Bbdo, Jhb

First#Left, Jhb First#Left, Jhb

Gold Lion Cabo

Mercedes - Benz

Alert Assist

Reunion

Mercedes - Benz

Alert Assist

Boss

Mercedes - Benz

Alert Assist

Farts

Galderma

Benzac Acne Cleansing Cream

Net#Work Bbdo, Jhb

First#Left, Jhb

Choir

Kraft Foods South Africa

Stimorol Taste Twist

Ogilvy Cape Town

The Nut House, Cape Town

Colony

Tiger Brands

Doomsuper Multiinecticide

Tbwa/Hunt Lascaris, Jhb

Produce Sound, Jhb

Secret

Tiger Brands

Doomsuper Multiinecticide

Tbwa/Hunt Lascaris, Jhb

Produce Sound, Jhb

Halitosis

Chicken Licken

Hotwings

First#Left, Jhb

Bacteria

Chicken Licken

Hotwings

Net#Work Bbdo, Jhb Net#Work Bbdo, Jhb

Miriam

Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Ogilvy Cape Town

Sterling Sound, Jhb

Michael

Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Ogilvy Cape Town

Sterling Sound, Jhb

Daughter

Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Sterling Sound, Jhb

Reunited

Greenpeace

Greenpeace

Ogilvy Cape Town Ogilvy Cape Town

Colony

Tiger Brands

Doom Super Multi Inecticide

Tbwa/Hunt Lascaris, Jhb

Bronze Lion

First#Left, Jhb

Sterling Sound, Jhb Produce Sound, Jhb

Creative Circle - Ad of the Month winners - 2012 Month Jan

1st Place Adcock Ingram/Panado Infant Drops “Grandma/Toy Bark/Lullaby” Ireland Davenport

1st Place

3rd Place

Multichoice/DStvXtra View “A Few Chicken Licken/Hotwing Strike “Halitosis/Liver/Bacteria” Good Millionaires/Book Club/ Net#Work BBDO Ramsay 25:17”Ogilvy Jhb

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 49

Creative Circle - Ad of the Month winners - 2012

Month Feb

March

April

May

June

1st Place Fido/Superbreath Dog Bones “Foul Mouth” Volcano

Mercedes-Benz/Alter Assist “Cabo/ Reunion/Boss” Net#Work BBDO

War Museum/WW1 Exhibit “The Battle of Somme” Ireland Davenport

ABSA/L’Atelier Art Competition “Creation/Exposure/ African Baby” The Jupiter Drawing Room Jhb

Coca Cola “Scary Movie” Draftfcb Jhb

Tiger Brands/Doom Super Multi Insecticide– TBWA Hunt Things Change “Colony/Secret/ Orphan” – Lascaris

MWeb/Cloud Storage “Awesome Ex/ Rock Star/ Roller Coaster FoxP2

Nampack/Twin Saver “Allergy/ Ignacio/Debt CollectorDaddy’s Girl” TBWA Hunt LascarisBenz

McDonalds SA/Kids Birthday Parties “Cowboys & Injuns/ Wicked Witches/ Cops & Robbers”- DDB SA

Frank.net/Life Cover“Darwin/ Park Bench/ Newspaper FoxP2

July

Flight Centre/Student Flights “Game Ranger/Zulu Warrior/ Shark Whisperer” TBWA Hunt LascarisJhb

Aug

Frank.net/Life Cover– Death doesn’t try very Hard “Chocolate Bar/Grand Canyon/Mothball” FoxP2 Frank.net/ Unilever/Omo Liquid “Hey Life Cover– Papa Legend/Sonos Studio/Brain Wave/Soft “Phone Number” Light City”The Jupiter Drawing Room (SA) CT FoxP2

Sept

3rd Place

1st Place

MTN “Elevator/After Hours” The Jupiter Drawing Room Jhb

City Lodge Group of Hotels/Feel at Home.

Not Back HomeTBWA Hunt Lascaris “JHB/ William/Graham/ Georgina/

Frank.net/Life Cover “Steve” Flight Centre/Student Flights “French” FoxP2 TBWA Hunt Lascaris

Comair Ltd/Kulula.com Hyandai/1x35 “Man Go” “Parking Assistant” KingJames TJDR CT Mercedes-Benz/CL Class “The Reason we envy Spiders/ The reason we envy Moths/ The reason we envy Flies”Net#Work BBDO

Flight Centre Student Flights – Bankok Promo “Lady Boy” TBWA Hunt LascarisJhb

Flight Centre/ Famouse Brands/ Toyota/Genuine Parts “Manie en Katrien/Gerda se Geheim” Student Flights Steers Ice Cream “Banana/PeterThousand “French” TBWA DraftfcbJhb Makaalman” Hunt Lascaris TBWA Hunt Lascaris Jhb Toyota/Hilux– Toughness Rubs Off “Oumas/Meises/Tieners” DraftfcbJhb

Wrigleys/Orbit “45 Pieces Left/2 Short” DDB SA

Oct

TBWA/Corporate “Monologue” TBWA Hunt Lascaris

SterKinekor/Cinema Nouveau “Rug/Alarm Clock/ Business Card/Car/Packet” FoxP2

Red Pepper Books/Audio Books “Last of the Breed/ My Children’s Children/ Hamlet/Frankenstein/Claimed

By Desire” Saatchi & Saatchi Jhb

Nov

Foodcorp/ Corporate “Your Deserve-Pick-Up-Lone Master (03)” Joe Public

Multichoice/DStv– Wildlife channels “Mangy Beast/Hairy Creative” Ogilvy Jhb

Independent Newspaper/ Cape Argus “Jackie” King James

50 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

LOERIES WINNERS RADIO COMMUNICATION: RADIO COMMERCIALS - UP TO 90S ENTRANT

TITLE

BRAND

PRODUCT

MEDAL

Net#Work BBDO

Reunion

Mercedes-Benz

Alert Assist

Grand Prix

FOXP2 FOXP2

Pocket Dad

Frank.net Masterlock

Serious Illness Masterlock Mini

Campaign Gold Campaign Bronze

Ogilvy Cape Town

The Talk

Kraft Foods

Stimorol Infinity

Campaign Bronze

TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris JHB

Allergy

Nampak

Twinsaver Tissues

Campaign Bronze

TBWA\Hunt\Lascaris JHB

Zulu Warrior

Flight Centre

Student Flights

Campaign Silver

House of Brave

Chainsaw Massacre

First for Men

First for Men Insurance

Campaign Bronze

Battle of Somme Ireland/Davenport Park Assist The Jupiter Drawing Room Car Guard (South Africa) Cape Town

War Museum

World War I Exhibit

Silver

Hyundai South Africa

ix35

Silver

DDB South Africa

Cops & Robbers

McDonalds

Kids Birthday Parties

Bronze

RADIO COMMUNICATION: NEW VOICE NON-ENGLISH RADIO ENTRANT

TITLE

BRAND

PRODUCT

MEDAL

Joe Public

Sterring

JHHESA

Brothers For Life

Gold

Joe Public

Lincoln

Tracker

Tracker

Campaign Silver

DDB South Africa

iBefday

McDonalds

Kids Birthday Parties

Bronze

RADIO COMMUNICATION: RADIO CRAFTS - DIRECTION ENTRANT

TITLE

Net#Work BBDO

Cabo

BRAND Mercedes-Benz

PRODUCT

MEDAL

Brothers For Life

Campaign Craft

RADIO COMMUNICATION: RADIO CRAFTS - WRITING ENTRANT

TITLE

BRAND

PRODUCT

MEDAL

Joe Public

Sterring

JHHESA

Brothers For Life

Gold

Joe Public

Lincoln

Tracker

Tracker

DDB South Africa

iBefday

McDonalds

Kids Birthday Parties

Campaign Silver Bronze

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 51

LOERIES WINNERS RADIO COMMUNICATION: RADIO CRAFTS - WRITING BRAND

PRODUCT

MEDAL

ENTRANT

TITLE

Net#Work BBDO

Cabo

Mercedes-Benz

Alert Assist

Campaign Craft Gold

Net#Work BBDO

Pharmacist

Chicken Licken

XL Hotwings

CampaignCraftCertificate

FOXP2

Park Bench

Frank Life Cover

CampaignCraftCertificate

Frank.net

RADIO COMMUNICATION: RADIO CRAFTS - DIRECTION ENTRANT

TITLE

Ogilvy Johannesburg

Alphonso

BRAND Multichoice DStv

PRODUCT

MEDAL

DStv TBN

Craft Certificate

RADIO COMMUNICATION: RADIO CRAFTS - DIRECTION ENTRANT 140

BRAND

TITLE Tongue Twister

Mars Foods

PRODUCT Snickers

MEDAL Craft Gold

PENDORING WINNERS Gold Title Indian/Skotse Klokkespel (campaign)

Agency Draftfcb JHB

Advertiser Vodacom

Silver Title Donsie Gerda se Geheim/Manie en Katrien (Campaign)

Agency DDB South Africa Draftfcb JHB

Advertiser McDonalds South Africa Toyota Care

52 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

RADIO TRENDING GLOBALLY

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 53

54 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

P U N E d T n a S g I n i L dio stays winn lobal trends g g Ra n i t a n i c s a f r e h t o

We’ve secured exclusive content from UK Radio Futurologist, James Cridland and US Radio advertising specialist, Bob McCurdy. In this interview, they identify some stand-out trends shaping radio advertising locally and in their shores and give advice on what to consider when advertising on radio in 2013…

James Cridland

m excited by inStream personalised radio advertising, which has begun in the UK and other places online. The idea of targeting messages whether you’re male or female, whether you live in Sandton or Soweto, or whether you have subscribed to DStv’s sports package or have yet to get DStv at all - that’s really powerful.

I

The growth of smarter sponsorship and promotions, rather than just 30-second spots, is welcome for both listeners and clients; and multiplatform radio, particularly mobile, has a lot to offer here too.

But I’m also excited about the wide range of radio out there - and the ever-expanding choice.

Choice is great for listeners, since it gives them more great content on the radio - and choice is great for advertisers, since it makes it easier to segment audiences and reach the people you want to reach. Whether it’s listening on the internet, on mobile apps or through FM; whether it’s massmarket stations like Highveld Stereo, or tiny student stations like Voice of Wits, radio remains one of the most powerful way of reaching

mass audiences and engaging communities at a time when they’re most receptive.

My fear is that we overlook radio’s power and concentrate on the bright flashing lights of the internet. There’s no doubt that the internet has a part to play in the future of advertising. But if you want to reach mass audiences, radio still reigns supreme. It’s a fascinating, exciting and powerful medium; and we should never forget that.

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 55

What were some of the most surprising radio developments in 2012?

• AM/FM broadcasters competing for online listening: In the US, seven major broadcast groups joined Clear Channel’s streaming portal, iHeartRadio, combining forces with Clear Channel’s 800+ AM/FM stations and its ‘custom’ option.

• Broadcaster smart phone FM chip activation initiative: None of the top 10 selling smart phones in the U.S. have activated FM chips, despite the fact that they have already been installed in the phones.

What are some of the trends that took shape in 2012 that will impact radio going forward?

•

•

• • • • •

is being refined and will be tested in 2013, enabling radio to empirically demonstrate radio’s impact on increased foot traffic and sales.

• ROI/ Media Mix Modelers: Media mix modelers will begin integrating the newly available granular Arbitron PPM ratings data into their models which will allow marketers to get a more accurate read of radio’s true impact.

What’s so exciting about the medium right now that planners and clients need to consider when advertising on radio in 2013?

USA Touchpoints: USA Touchpoints data syndicated The by the Media continued Behavior penetration Institute, of the smart confirms radio’s phone: More dominant than 50% of position in the U.S. mobile audio and media subscribers universe. now own a AM/FM Radio smart phone. remains vibrant: Currently, anywhere On a typical day, between 12-20% of 85% more adults subscribers who have aged between 18-34 a smart phone listen to will engage with radio online radio stations. than Facebook, 100% The growth in popularity and more will engage with radio usage of online audio: Pandora, than Google Search, 215% Slacker, Last.FM, Rhapsody and Spotify more will engage with radio than continue to grow. It now appears that Apple and YouTube, and 1 430% more will engage Google could be entering the streaming music

with radio than Twitter. It is even a more arena. positive story for ages 25-54. [Source: comScore The digital dashboard: The digital automobile Inc Ratings for April-June 2012 & RADAR dashboard will continue its penetration. Safety September 2012. and privacy concerns along with data costs • Radio’s 13 platforms: Radio delivers 13 different could impact use. media channels as defined by Pointlogic’s Chorus More competition for ad revenue: More channel planning tool: radio, streaming audio, marketing dollars will be allocated to the mobile personal endorsements, promotions, social and social arena.

(Facebook/Twitter), Online advertising, e-mail This will require radio to quantify its ability to blasts, mobile, event sponsorship, experiential generate greater ROI than other media brand events, sampling, podcasting and sports options. sponsorships - all of which can be channeled into Shazam-like technology and beacon technology: an effective and compelling cross- platform 2013 will be the year that broadcasters begin program. experimenting with different ways to close the • Ipsos Studies: We continue to partner with ‘performance’ loop. AM/FM radio stations will be Ipsos to empirically demonstrate radio’s impact, gin transmitting additional ‘bonus’ programming, providing 5 key performance metrics: awareness, coupons, video and other messaging to smart intent, consideration, affinity, advocacy as well phones while providing advertisers with key as providing powerful creative insights. Radio performance metrics. Audio beacon technology creative is rarely tested in the U.S.

56 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

SOAPBOX

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58 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

Meet Adam Behr, the voice behind the hugely successful Frank.net radio campaign. He has voiced more than 15 Loerie winners and more than 40 finalists between 2011 and 2012, (which makes us wonder why in 2012 there are still no awards given to voice-artists?!) In this thought-provoking interview, he gives voice to some of the lesser- known issues surrounding his craft and shares must-read TIPS on getting the best out of a voice-over artist‌

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 59

VOICEOVER Tell us a bit about yourself, and how you discovered you had a ‘voice’?

I grew up between Botswana and South Africa, and between the various communities there were a great variety of ethnic accents, so I guess I started early. A more formal background includes a degree and Honours in Dramatic Arts (Wits), voice-over training with leading Hollywood coaches such as Nancy Wolfson, Don La Fontaine (‘the movie trailer guy who made “In a world…” famous), and many others in every discipline of voice-over: commercials, animation, narration, trailers, video games, promo/imaging, audiobooks and IVR. I spent about a week a month in Los Angeles over a period of years (I was living in Vancouver, Canada for almost 17 years, which is just a two-hour flight away), training, recording demos, and developing relationships. I now have about 18 agents worldwide and hundreds of clients. I work with them globally from my home studio, often by ISDN or other connection technology. I’m also on about 40 recording studio rosters globally.

I also worked in film and television in North America for about 17 years, much of it as an animatronics puppeteer/supervisor and special effects artist. I’ve worked on more than 40 feature films and hundreds of studio television episodes and commercials in that capacity.

When it comes to voice-over work, I won’t name them all but there are about 15-20 major brands that I do regular work on in South Africa as well as more than 50 smaller brands.

Sjoe! Could you list some of the campaigns you work/ have worked on both locally and internationally?

How can we grow and improve on the pool of quality South African voices?

Notable campaigns I’ve worked on locally include being the ongoing voice of Frank.net. It’s great to be the voice of a brand that uses creativity to get results. The Frank.net work won 3 Cannes Lions, the D&AD Inbook award, Gold Loeries in 2011 and 2012 as well as one of only two Golds at the Apex Effectiveness Awards. According to Justin Gomes, the Executive Creative Director of Foxp2 ‘the tone of voice has helped sell over R10-billion worth of cover in two years’.

Recently one of my coaches from Los Angeles was invited to lecture at Promax Africa. This is someone of a very high calibre who is hired by networks all over the world to develop their promo campaigns, and she also coaches many of the leading voices in promo, trailer, commercial in the US, UK, Europe and Australia, and has coached the likes of Marlon Brando and many others of that level.

She asked me if I could ascertain if there was interest in her holding voice-over training workshops for professionals in South Africa, as well as workshops for producers, agency creatives and recording studio personnel in directing voice-over.

Since moving from Canada to Cape Town in the last couple of years, I have voiced 15 Loerie winners and about 40-50 finalists between 2011 and 2012. I also voiced the Gold Apex Award winner in 2012, a D&AD award, 3 x Cannes Lions, and had Clio shortlists and Spike (Asia) shortlists too. I also won the Voicey Award for the ‘Best Male Voice of the year’ (International) in 2007.

In addition there have been several Creative Circle ‘Ad of the Month’ wins over the last year.

I often see 25-35 recording sessions a week, so there’s a lot of volume.

Sometimes, there are as many as 1000+ auditions a month coming in from all the various sources, but I only have time to do a handful of them, so I’m very grateful to the agencies and creatives that I worked with on some of the major winning campaigns.

I put this out to many of my clients and agents in various cities in South Africa, as well as to many recording studios and ad agencies.

Not a single person signed up for either kind of workshop.

Here’s what I attribute it to: • Like many other places, there are a handful of voice talents in South Africa who get most of the work. As a result they get the most experience, and they have more work than they can do, so they don’t actually have time for ‘a lot more work’.

•

60 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 • This is one of the reasons why it’s notoriously ‘hard to break in’ to professional voice-over work, and I’m not talking about people who have other careers in the performing arts such as on-camera acting or DJ work, people who moonlight with one or two voice-over jobs every month - those aren’t voice-over careers.

• • Another reason is because South African accents are not used overseas (i.e. in the US) the way British or Australian voices are, so any training that is for the US market is largely irrelevant because the vast majority of buyers of South African voices are only in South Africa.

• • Proper voice-over training (international level training) is expensive, and people who take that kind of training commit to spending at least $3-5000 (R25-50 000) on training for a course of lessons (at around R1200 per hour) just for a starter course, with more later courses costing more. There is also demo production for one or two demos, and then there’s home studio equipment and so on.

Before one knows it, you’re looking at a start of R75-100 000 to get into the entry level of the professional voice-over game, with no guarantees of making a living from it.

• • A voice-artist who wants a fulltime well-paying career (the same kind of income as, for example, a medical specialist) will end up investing the same amount of time, tuition and equipment fees, as a medical specialist would in their career, but with fewer guarantees of a successful career.

That said, very few people will invest in this kind of career if they are only going to be working in the South African market, as the voice-over fees here are generally not a strong enough incentive for that kind of risk and investment. A national TV campaign voice-over with usage in the US pays (at least) 10-15 x (1000-1500% more) than SA-only usage on 2013 rates. However, that said, if a South African-flighted commercial also plays in the overseas market, there is a sizeable increase in usage fees, provided the booking is managed by a PMA-member agent (Professional Manager’s Association).

There’s nothing to stop some level of voice-over classes from happening in universities around the country, but the question is, who is teaching (there are very few decent voiceover coaches in the world), and as a result, what percentage of students from that teaching are actually ending up with a career in voice-over? Also, voice over is a fast turnaround business, so talents have to be available (and have to be able to afford to be available) at very short notice for auditions and voice-over jobs – not doable when you still have a ‘day job’. “What I do see a lot of is auditions coming from my agents in New York and Los Angeles for South African campaigns, posted by ad agencies in South Africa.

So quite a few of the ads we see in South Africa are done by voice artists from overseas” I have booked quite a few of these jobs too, but they haven’t always been in South African accents.

Are there any trends taking shape within your craft either locally & internationally, that we should be aware of?

We are very fortunate here in South Africa to be regarded as leaders in radio advertising. As a result of radio being a strong advertising platform

in our country, competition is strong between brands, creativity in radio advertising is very high, and a lot of fresh work comes out.

One of the trends I see a lot of internationally that is slowly taking root here is the ability to be ‘conversational’. What is really means is ‘realism’ or proper voice acting.

Voice artists have to know how to act, (not just ‘read’) convincingly, using only their voice.

Your parting words?

One of the biggest parts of a successful voice-over career today is the ability to run your own business.

Your agent is not responsible for ‘getting you work’. All your agent can do is to list you on their roster, with your demos, and then manage the work that comes in, along with your bookings and payments.

Having ‘talent’ requires the same things as any other business; marketing, financial management, ongoing training and skills development, home studio equipment and the technical skills needed to operate it, a lot of admin and organization as well as the right promotion and representation. Who knew it would be such a full-time job - after all, it’s just “speaking into a microphone for money” isn’t it? (wink)…

Your Top 10 TIPS on HOW advertisers/ creative agencies can get the most from a voice-artist?

What are the ‘do’s and don’ts?’

It really depends on the campaign and what the voice artist can offer.

I’m very involved with advertising locally and globally, so I have a great view of trends, styles and approaches and know what works and what doesn’t. I do about 25 or more accents, so I bring a lot of this repertoire to each session.

I’m very fortunate to work with many of South Africa’s top creatives who are after cuttingedge, polished and often unique

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 61 performances and approaches and are therefore very open to developing ideas. I’m in frequent touch with many of the writers and creative directors long before the recording session, doing tests and development from my home studio.

Every campaign is different, and I can’t really speak for other voice artists because I don’t know what they can and can’t offer. However, here are a couple of my own personal do’s and don’ts:

1•

•

2•

•

3•

I can’t understand why the voice artist’s name is sometimes left off the credits, especially for awards.

Sometimes I see a list of credits of 10 or 15 people for a radio ad that consists of just the voice, yet no voice-over credit. There seems to be a consistent relationship between those agencies who credit voice artists and those that win awards, usually because it’s those agencies who value creative contribution more highly than others.

When measuring copy, don’t time it ‘by eye’; it will almost always be too long (or too short).

Do a practice read of the real performance pace, including relevant pauses.

Be firm with clients about what can fit into the time given to a spot. If it’s too rushed or crammed, you will lose the impact of the entire commercial.

When we were developing the Frank.net campaign, all the original 30 second ads came out to 38 seconds each when read at a pace that is right for the character, so the agency had the wisdom to cut the copy rather than lose the strength of the character’s delivery through accelerated speed. The pace and tempo is often just as or even more important than the copy.

• 4• Don’t book a one hour session for 5 ads - in fact, don’t try and ‘squash’ or ‘cram’ in any way. It affects the campaign.

• 5• Do e-mail the voice artists youtube clips or other reference material beforehand and make sure they are relevant. Don’t use a youtube clip to sell the client on something just because the accent or other small aspect is

the same as is required in the ad, and then ask the voice artist to do something opposite in mood or tempo, but with the same voice. Take time to understand the whole picture of what you are looking for and choose reference clips accordingly. If you can’t use a reference clip, be very clear in your explanation. The better you communicate your concept, the better the result will be.

• 6• Don’t arrive late and then try and rush through things.

• 7• If the performance requires a lot of shouting or vocally stressful work, then the first few takes are going to be the best, after that the voice artist’s voice will wear down and get tired. To combat this, make sure you are very clear and explain as much about the direction as you can in advance.

Do not think you can keep trying and trying over a long session until you find the right sound as the voice will not be offering you anything good after the first few takes. Think ahead about exactly what you are looking for, and strive for achieving the best results in only a couple of takes.

Also, if part of the performance requires regular reads, then save the vocally stressful parts for last.

• 8• One thing that is hugely important for voice artists is being able to listen; they listen to what the people who are directing them are saying, and they try and listen ‘between the lines’, which is why it’s useful for engineers to have the talkback microphone on during discussion. It really helps to hear what the client at the back of the room is trying to say as well as the engineer who is trying to interpret it to the voice artist in the booth.Voice artists

•

9 •

need to be able to read the ‘temperature in the room’ by getting a feel for what is being received well and what is not and temper this with what their own intuition is about the creative direction they are taking in performance. It’s this successful collaboration that ends up having the best results in the work.

They also need to have an awareness of how their particular voice or choice of read will uniquely interpret the copy and deliver it with the best sense of rhythm and timing. This concept is much more important than ‘having a good voice’. Many of the world’s top voice artists have rather ordinary-sounding voices, but they really know what to do with them, how to use them, and also how to bring creativity, mood, drama and impact to the performance.

• • There’s often a lot of politics 10 going on when you are recording in front of a room full of people. With all the agency folks and clients, this can easily come up to 10 or 15 people. These situations can easily end up as ‘too many cooks spoil the broth’, so it’s important to know how to handle these groups for the best result in the work. The most successful campaigns I have been involved with have only one or two people interacting with me during the session; they have established a very clear direction for what they want the want the material to evoke but may not necessarily have a predetermined idea of how it ‘must sound’.

62 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

‘No one listens to radio for the ads’ Craig Rodney Managing Director Cerebra Communications The big moves were by the mainstream stations launching phone apps for live streaming, helping listeners break free from their radio devices without breaking their loyalty to their favourite stations.

Radio streaming to any device is definitely the way things are heading and many stations are not only getting it right but they’re slowly unlocking new opportunities for advertisers.

raig Rodney was easily voted one of the favourite speakers at the RAB’s 2012 ‘RadioWorks’ Conference – and with good reason! Here, he dispenses his hard-hitting advice on what radio needs to do stay ahead in this cut- throat market…

C

2012 was the year when mainstream radio took its first voluntary steps into the world of online radio. Some online-only stations came to prominence, showing that online was something worth considering but they didn’t make too big a splash.

South African stations are going to have to face the reality that the current forms of ‘interruption based advertising’ are alienating many listeners and aren’t delivering the best returns for advertisers.

There are new opportunities in radio, to not only unlock ad budgets but also deliver content that listeners actually want to consume.

What stations are slowly waking up to is that their audience hasn’t changed.

Yes, they’ve moved online and want to listen via their computers and phones, but they still want the content.

The threat to the stations in following their audiences online is that their revenue models may not translate. The first stations to break free from the restraints of their current revenue models by embracing online audiences and custom content will be able to learn the lessons early, win the earlyadopter audiences and build for the online future, without risking their current audiences.

Those that hesitate risk losing their audiences and their advertisers, because as much as advertisers and agencies like things the way they are, they like listeners more, and today’s listeners get what they want!

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64 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

adio savant and author Stan Katz looks back at his radio highlights for 2012 and throws around some figures that would do you good to know…

R

The radio case study that stood out in 2012 must surely be ‘Steve’ for FNB. The strategy was to acquire new clients and the creative execution, while entertaining in an almost tongue-in-cheek kind of way, effectively conveyed the benefits of being an FNB client.

Unlike so many dialogue spots, which come across as stilted and contrived, the dialogue in these spots sounded like a conversation between real people. One almost felt sorry for the hapless ‘Steve’ and ‘Beep Bank’.

The casting was excellent and so was the production. A good spot starts with a good script and the scripting was inspired. Humour in a radio spot has a shorter shelf-life than milk. The copywriter or copywriters clearly had fun creating the campaign and avoided the potential for tedium by producing a large number of spots.

The 2012 RAB ‘RadioWorks’ Conference was also the best so far and what I enjoyed

most was listening to award-winning South African spots. I felt proud to be part of the industry.

As for the future of radio, the Internet is already starting to transform the medium in Europe and America. In 2012 online radio was the fastest growing listening option among US consumers. A total of 43% of listeners chose online radio (9% up on 2011) while the 84% of listeners choosing FM/AM radio stations and 74% CD remained static. It is just a matter of time before it takes off in SA.

Stan Katz General Manager: South AFrican Broad Casting Radio Sales

Stan Katz Radio savant and author of ‘Radio Advertising – a sound investment; 10 Key Principles for Maximising Returns’

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66 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

SA Radio makes advertising history Having chaired the Cannes Lions 2012 Radio Jury and judged at the D&AD awards, Rob McLennan is best placed to tell us just why South African radio creative remains the best in the world, and who the top radio copywriters to keep an ear out for, are…

S

outh Africa has an incredible global reputation when it comes to radio advertising, and it’s well deserved.

It’s been acknowledged through many international accolades and through the opinion of respected global creatives such as Tony Granger, creative head of Y&R, as well as our international Loerie chairperson, who was quite frankly overwhelmed at the standard of our radio.

Up until six years ago, South Africa had never won a Grand Prix at the Cannes Lion awards. But I’m pleased to say that we have won one every year since then, two of them being in the radio category.

As a result, our reputation now sets the bar a little higher for South Africa every year, and great that a country on the southern tip of Africa can compete against the best in the rest of the world and come out tops.

Radio is still the medium that’s most loved and reaches the most people in South Africa. It’s also incredibly important in other emerging markets like South America and Asia. Yet it still has a stigma attached to it. It’s seen as the quick, easy and cheap medium, and unfortunately that’s how many countries still treat it.

There’s very little love, effort or time invested in it.

Fortunately, more and more countries are now beginning to realize the power of the medium.

It’s the fastest growing category at Cannes – having grown by 30 percent in 2012!

Back here at home, we’ve invested personally in our own studio, which allows us to spend time experimenting, crafting and trying new voices and music. The results is that that our tiny studio at Net#work BBDO has won two Grand Prix awards from Cannes.

We haven’t made life easy for ourselves though. We have to maintain that reputation and keep on doing better and fresher work.

And I think with creatives such Jenny Glover, Brent Singer, Jared Osmond, Matthew Brink and Este du Plessis – we can!

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 67

Rob McLennan

68 | RADIO THE BEST OF 2012

Radio Advertising Glossary AM Drive (Morning Drive) Monday through Friday, typically 06h00 to 09h00 or 05h00 to 09h00 Afternoon Drive (PM Drive) Monday through Friday from15h00 to 18h00 or 16h00 to 19h00 Average Quarter-Hour Persons (AQH) The average number of persons listening to a particular station for at least five consecutive minutes during a 15-minute period. This term is generally used in a formula by ad agencies to determine the cost per point, or the cost of reaching 1% of the target market Average Quarter-Hour Rating An estimate Average Quarter-Hour Persons expressed as a percentage of the population being measured.

Average Quarter-Hour Rating The average Quarter-Hour Persons estimate expressed as a percentage of the population being measured. A rating of “2.4” means that 2.4% of the population is listening at that specific time.

Audience Composition The demographic, geographic, or socioeconomic profile of a station’s audience. Comparing a station’s composition to the general population or, to another station, is useful when determining which station most closely serves an advertiser’s target market.

Availability The unsold commercial position on a given station available for purchase.

Back Announce Refers to the DJ technique where the deejay announces the title and/or artist of the song he just played Backtiming The act of calculating the intro time on a song before the vocal begins and then starting the CD or audio source with that song so that when the preceding audio element (usually something without music under it) ends, the vocal on the song Bed A production element, usually instrumental music, but occasionally a continuous sound effect (like wind, for example) that is used as background for a commercial, promotional announcement, etc Billboard (Radio billboard/Mention) Name mentions given to an advertiser in return for a program/station commitment (often to a “sponsor” of the program).

Best Time Available (BTA) A commitment by the station to air scheduled commercials in the highest-rated positions that are open/ available during the campaign, though no specific guarantees are made for these runs. These schedules give the broadcaster scheduling flexibility and, in return, the advertiser generally secures a very favourable rate.

RADIO THE BEST OF 2012 | 69

Book end Commercial messages from the same advertiser/brand that air at the beginning and end of a commercial set. This strategy is used to increase the impact of the message.

Break Position A broadcast commercial aired between two programs instead of in the middle of one program.

Bumper A pre-recorded audio element consisting of voice over music that acts as a transition to or from a stop set (commercials) and other content Combo Two (or sometimes more) Radio stations, usually operated by the same owner in the same market.

Cost Per Point (CPP) The cost of reaching an Average Quarter-Hour Persons audience that is equivalent to one percent of the population in a given demographic group.

Cost Per Thousand (CPM) The cost of delivering 1000 gross impressions.

Coverage Area The geographic area covered by the signal of a specific station.

Cume Persons Cume is the total number of unique persons who listen to a Radio station during a specified time. We refer to this figure as our ‘Community of Listeners.’

Cut-in A commercial inserted by the local station that covers the commercial airing at the same time on the network at the advertiser’s request. Useful for testing different copy in a limited geography.

Daypart The time segments into which a day is divided by for the purpose of selling advertising time. Primary dayparts are morning (or AM drive), midday, afternoon (or PM drive), and evening.

Dead Air Silence on the radio which can be due to either operator error, computer error or an act of nature. During dead air, there is no audible transmission Demo (Target Demo) The age group and make-up of the audience that you wish to receive your product or service message.

Dub A copy of a piece of audio. It can also be used as a verb, as in “I will make a dub of that commercial.”

Equal Rotation Scheduling rule that ensures a commercial will be exposed equally to listeners at different times of the day. This rule is generally used to ensure that a campaign reaches all potential listeners and does not concentrate its impressions in one or more dayparts.

Fixed Position /Pref spot A commercial scheduled to run at a precise time, or a commercial scheduled to run within specific programming content. The purpose is to increase the likelihood that loyal/habitual listeners hear the spot more frequently than in broader scheduling options.

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Radio Advertising Glossary Flight Advertising agency scheduling concept that alternates periods of advertising activity with periods of no activity.

The duration of an ad campaign, typically used for campaigns that have on/off/on-again scheduling.

Flight Dates Start and end dates of an advertising campaign.

Frequency The average number of times the same person will hear a commercial. This is one of the most important metrics used to compare the effectiveness of different media (other than ‘reach’, cost, and effectiveness).

Marketing science has proven that commercials need to be heard/seen repetitively in order to impact consumer behavior. A media that delivers high frequency isn’t just preferable, it’s a requirement for most marketing applications.

Frontload Refers to creating a schedule that tends to place more commercials on days of the week that have less demand. This is another strategy used to get more exposure at a lower average cost.

Front selling This is the act of either introducing the song you have begun playing. Or, it can also mean the on-air personality has been instructed to say the name of the radio station as the very first thing he says i.e., “When you open the mike, front sell the call letters and then introduce the next song.”

Gross Impressions (GIs) The sum of the Average Quarter-Hour Persons (AQH) audience for all commercials in a given schedule.

The total number of times a commercial will be heard over the course of a schedule.

Gross Rating Points (GRPs) The sum of all rating points achieved for a particular commercial schedule.

A rating point equals 1% of the total population. GRP’s are the sum of all rating points achieved for a particular commercial schedule.

Infomercials A long (more than two minutes) commercial providing extensive product/service description and sales information.

Imaging Imaging is a general term for the type of sweepers or promos you produce. Imaging is how you position a Radio station within the marketplace. Imaging defines the station as a product so that the listener (consumer) knows what he/she will get when tuning in.

Jingle A produced programming element which is usually produced by professional studio singers who sing DJ names or station positioning phrases (i.e, “The Most Music!”)

Live Read A commercial message that is read “live” on-air by a station personality. This can be a particularly effective way of connecting your brand to a loyal community of listeners (by way of association).

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Net Reach The number of different people that will hear the commercial at least one time.

PSA Acronym for Public Service Announcement Piggy-Back Two commercials scheduled to run back-to-back, purchased by the same advertiser. This is often used for creative purposes to get attention and deliver different types of messages (e.g. humorous/educational).

Sting It costs less, therefore advertisers can have more for a longer period. It can serve as a reminder for any action you would like the listeners to take part in (i.e. sale). Good for brand awareness.

RAMS Radio Audience Measurement Survey Reach The number of different people that will hear the commercial at least one time. This is a very important marketing measurement: all marketers want to reach a lot of people. But ‘reach’ should never be focused on by itself. When marketers think in terms of ‘reaching as many people that they can afford’ they often fail.

To have an effective ad campaign, marketers should think in terms of ‘reaching as many people, with the frequency required to change behaviour, as I can afford.’

Rotation The distribution of commercials across a section of days and hours within the purchased time period.

Simulcast When two or more Radio stations broadcast the same programs and same commercials at the same times.

Sponsorship The purchase of a radio program or specific feature.

Upfront A term indicating that an advertiser has purchased advertising for the coming broadcast year in an early buying season, typically for the benefit of lower rates and CPM guarantees.

Unit (Spot) One commercial message, regardless of length. Radio spots can have :60, :30, :15, and :10 second durations.

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CALENDAR SAVE THE DATE! A list of 2013’s must-attend industry events...

1. AMASA

4. MTN Radio Awards

6. Pendoring

Annual Workshop 1-4 August 2013 For more info: www.amasa.org.za

Entry open: 21 November 2012 Entry deadline: 5th February 2013

Entry open: 6 May 2013 Entry deadline: 15 July 2013 Eligibility period: 15 -16 July 2013 Judging: 15, 16, 17 August 2013

2. Apex awards

Gala event - 13 April 2013 For more info: www.mtnradioawards.com

Entry open: November 2012 Entry deadline: 15 March 2013

5.Loeries

Gala dinner - 13 June 2013 For more info: www.acasa.co.za

Entry open: 15 March 2013 Entry deadline: 31 May 2013

3. Cannes

Creative Week Cape Town 1 16 – 22 September 2013

Entry deadline – 28 March 2013 Radio Lions Award Ceremony 19 June 2013 For more info: http://www.canneslions.com

Loeries Creative Week

Judging Week at City Hall 16 – 19 September Loeries Seminar at City Hall 20-September The 35th Annual Loerie Awards at the CTICC 21 & 22 September For more info: www.loeries.com

Event: 20 September 2013 For more info: www.pendoring.co.za

7. RadioWorks2013 August 2013 For more info: www.rab.co.za

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NOTES

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