Saturday, September 29, 2012

EarShot Creative Review - Powerful Radio Storytelling Pioneers


I've said this before. But it's worth repeating. Why can't other countries do what Steve Martin has started in the UK?  First create a must-listen podcast for anyone interested in improving their radio production skills, whether it's public or commercial. And Steve has now gone a stage further by setting up a voice search scheme to find the best rising radio presentation talent. And the prize is being part of the Hobsons voice talent agency for a year.

Radio needs to do a lot more to make it an attractive profession again. I especially liked this month's edition which focuses on creative storytelling in commercials. That is sadly lacking on many European radio networks. All we get in the commercial break is people shouting at us, trying to squeeze in a slogan or URL. Funny? Rarely. Memorable? No, or I would be able to quote an example. Most ads I hear are a cluttered rant -instead of having a clear message. They are not written for radio - its most pamphlet stuff read on the radio. You wouldn't come into a room full of people with this kind of stuff. So why are you trying it on the radio?

Great contributions in this month's Earshot from Lenja Papp (in green above) who is a brilliant creative radio writer from Slovenia (the only country with love embedded in the name). In the podcast she explains how you can build an emotional bridge in seconds if you understand what the audience is thinking. There are great examples from Slovenia which make effective use of radio's intimacy. She is also a risk taker - organising a great campaign on behalf of a local charity to prove to advertisers that radio was still an effective medium to share their brand. She also does pioneering work to boost local radio talent in Slovenia. She deserves to be a rising star.

I thought the comments from Clare Bowen, (also pictured above) head of creative development at the UK Radio Advertising Bureau were useful as well.. She points out that advertising bureaus in the UK still regard radio as just a medium for something with a fast turnaround, not giving the campaign time to breathe. She's also doing pioneering work showing how radio is different, modern and relevant - if done right. I've been disappointed that other radio advertising bureaus in other countries are often there to defend the business - coming out with nothing more than listening figures. They need to explain to content creators how to engage with audiences if radio is to remain an effective part of the advertising toolkit. The RAB has great advice on their website for professional storytellers. Just look at this publication for instance.  In all, we need less defensive thinking and more focus on creativity please! 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

An aesthetic observation - I see that this blog has now got a smart new look and feel. One problem I have though is that (in this story at least) your text links are not distinguished in any way from the main body text.

On my browser (Firefox on Windows 7) I cannot immediately see that the word "podcast" is how you find the link to the Earshot site; I have to wave my mouse around the text until the arrow turns to the hand to know the link is there. The Earshot logo is just a photo upload from Blogger, so that's not a podcast link either. Doubtless there are other links in the body text but if they're not highlighted as we've come to expect from the web they stand less chance of being followed up.

Anonymous said...

Have to say the current commenting process is quite hard to fathom too - You sign in (using OpenID), you comment, you publish. Then there is no hint that you've submitted anything. Add another comment and your unpublished comment appears with the "captcha" style interface appears. Not-a-robot identity is submitted and you hit publish again, then back to an empty blog. Hit "Add a comment" once more to write this follow-up, and only then do you get the feedback that "Your comment will be visible after approval".

I've seen this on other blogger blogs and realise it's probably the service that's at fault, but I have seen the lively commenting going down in numbers due to the faff of submission and the lack of feedback, so it's a shame that there isn't a more straightforward service in place.

Okay, bracing myself for the submission process(es) once more...

Jonathan Marks said...

Hi James. Yes, I agree that this template is still work in progress. I have tended to ask people to sign-in to post, partly because there was an enormous amount of spam before. Thanks for your persistence.

Jonathan Marks said...

Changed the colour of the links.

Anonymous said...

Much clearer now - excellent!

Anonymous said...

No problem - I see plenty of spam on my own blog and almost no geniune comments (evidently I must write something more interesting)! Spam is the QRM of the web, I hate it, but it's so disappointing that Blogger in particular has such a clunky way of commenting these days. I'm sure they can do better with this feature.

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