Trends in Radio Ads

Just a bit of nonsense as typing in the classified ads for the next issue addles my brain!

Working from home I listen to a lot of Radio, chiefly Planet Rock and Radio 4 (but I assiduously avoid the Food Programme, Gardner's Smugness Time and The Kitchen Cabinet).

Hearing teh same ads several times a day for weeks, I notice that they seem to follow strong trends, as if the agencies all follow the same formulas. The "lighthearted conversation ending in a humorous comment" never really goes away but last year there was a trend for really 'documentary' ones.

At the moment the 'on trend' is for a short phrase dropped almost at random in to the ad, spoken by the narrator but rarely making a great deal of sense in the context of the wider script.

Unlike a conventional 'strap line' it rarely appear the end and its 'power' appears to be that it is slightly incongruous which forces you to register it.

Particularly annoying ones (I know that at least the first annoys everyone I have asked about it) are:

"We're with you"

"Ready"

"Lets go forward"

(BT, Vodafone, Barclays)

Neil

I listen to Radio 4 whenever I'm driving and those programs pop up during my day and I've never noticed what your speaking about, one thinks that your concentrating to much on the Radio and not on editing the magazine

Martin P

I do change channels for a period every now and then when the ads get annoying. If you make a sufficiently big change to get a program that is aimed at a different demographic then you get completely different ads. There are also times of day when the target is different - young mums, OAPs, kids, teens. On cable or the internet you can also find foreign stations where the irritating ads are incomprehensible so easier to ignore.

As to styles I expect there are forums and magazines for advertising pro's that push the trends just like we get bursts of enthusiasm for a particular turning tool or fly-cutter design. There are probably agencies that have one new idea that works for one client so try to sell it to others and it propagates round the industry. mmmm I wonder if it applies to the style/presentation in magazines?

edit: realised I should have worked in "curating the optics" to that last sentence for maximum irritation.

Edited By Bazyle on 06/02/2019 13:42:23

I only listen to commercial radio in the car and coincidentally noticed today that jingles are back. I suppose successful adverts get copied.

You get fashions in TV too. I remember when almost all US TV (as shown in the UK) consisted of Westerns. Then cowboys were dumped in favour of lawyers who got pushed out by SciFi, detectives and then police procedurals. After that an outbreak of soaps involving the super-rich, hospital dramas, and then forensic crime. Not saying it's bad, many of the inspired shows are well made. Although the original CSI was first and best of the genre, I'm fond of NCIS and 'Bones' as well. I just wish programmes wouldn't travel in convoy, I like a bit of variety.

Less creditable are the floods of copycat antique, cookery, gardening, cleaning, reality, scripted reality, and house makeover programmes on British telly. Boring and repetitive. And while I'm in rant-mode, it's bleedin' obvious the main problem in Hell's Kitchen is that effing bloke who mismanages the enterprise, one G Ramsay...

What I want to see is on TV is a film crew turning up at a tidy persons home with an 'expert' who announces that tidiness is a mental illness, and a team who 'help' by filling the entire house with junk from a skip...

Dave

I find the most obtrusive ads are those on Classic FM - put me off listen to the programme.

[This posting has been removed]

Pity, as its a good station. I also like radio 4 xtra. Especially if they are doing really old stuff, Sherlock Holmes stories, Hancocks half hour, Parseley sidings, The navy lark etc. The modern stuff is too blue and too crude.

Neil writes "Working from home I listen to a lot of Radio, chiefly Planet Rock..... ".
Have you tried Forces Radio BFBS for that sort of ad-free music and more?
**LINK**
(Well, ad-free apart from a bit of self-promotion and invites to join up !)

My gripe is BBC TV and their ever-increasing amount of self-advertising between programmes. Also their regular annoyance of advertising masquerading as news. They introduce some untopical item on BBC TV News and you know it's going to end with ".....and you can see more on that by watching ***** on BBC1 tonight"

Curmudgeon. defn: a crusty, ill-tempered, and usually grumbling old man.

So much free music available on the net these days, I don't know why anyone would put up with ad-laden radio stations. I converted my workshop to an iPod hooked up to a midi stereo at least 10 years ago. Haven't heard a radio ad since. Same in the house.

I don't listen to music very much just Radio 3 and Classic FM sometimes but mainly listen to Radio 4, LBC and Radio4 Extra. on DAB.

Nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion, several times I have heard details of a forthcoming programme that might interest me.

Anyway, I like Radio 4 almost exclusively, or the BBC World Service, mostly at night. However, I work in silence, the better to avoid distractions.

I'd definitely watch that. I could even be that 'expert'

I watch some programmes on Quest etc like "How its made" but just do not understand why they have to play loud irritating rock music while the commentator tries to talk over it. Do the programme makers think what they are showing is so boring that the music!!! will make things better?

Alan

Another annoying thing that sort of qualifies as a trend is the playlists. Ok I understand that a new release will get more plays because it is new but when the brief is music from the last 50 years why do they have to keep repeating the same version if the work has been covered often. Are they on a kick-back or reduced broadcast fees for bulk plays? I can sometimes hear the same thing played by two DJs in their separate stints in my 90 minute commute, then again in the evening return journey.
Ok some covers demonstrate why a particular artist didn't make a hit but equally the 'popular' version is often only successful because the performer's groupies would buy anything. Maybe 5 versions of Beethoven's fifth sound much alike to my inexpert ear but songs and choral music is often the subject of widely differing interpretations.

Playlists predate Rock'n'Roll. I know Planet Rock holds monthly meetings to draw up its playlists, but also allows its DJs 'freeplays' as well as listener requests - although only the Hairy Bikers actually highlight these!

Sometimes these can be linked to tours they sell tickets for, but mostly I think they are about some consitency of character. I suspect that by watching spotify or apple music sales for featured (old) songs gives them feedback on what listeners are responding too, if those songs are not being widely played elsewhere.

I'm not convinced that a mature station really needs a playlist other than for maybe a few featured songs, but it's nice when some more rarely heardstuff (e.g. Alex Harvey) gets rotated into the list.

Try Absolute Radio with its 'no repeat guarantee' between 9 and 5.

Neil

You can get all that without ads on R4 extra.

Neil

Alex Harvey's brother, Leslie, was electrocuted on stage after stepping into a puddle while holding an unearthed microphone.

How I miss the good old days, none of that Health and Safety nonsense and the audience got to see live action in the raw!

Dave

My second boss told my the story of Leslie Harvey and Stone the Crows when he heard I was in a band. He was very earnest and I suspect he was in the audience. I always used a ELCB, but pretty much every venue had testable sockets fitted for the performanace area (I won't say stage...)

Neil

Pretty dangerous being a performer. Good job Neil isn't old enough to join the 27 Club!

Couple of years ago when my car only had AM I could only get Absolute. That pretty much ensured that the afternoon commute repeated most of what was in the morning commute.
I used to work with a guy who was at that fateful electrocution concert.