Andrew Ingram & Mark Barber 
An Advertiser’s Guide to Better Radio Advertising [PDF ebook] 
Tune In to the Power of the Brand Conversation Medium

Foreword by Jo Kenrick ix
How to use this book xi
Acknowledgements xiii
About the authors xv
SECTION 1 The Case for Change 1
1 The Scale of the Medium 3
1.1 The development of commercial radio in the UK 5
1.2 Measurement and growth of the commercial radio audience 8
1.3 Who listens to commercial radio? 11
1.4 Radio’s status as an advertising medium 14
1.5 What does the future hold for commercial radio? 18
1.6 Summary 25
2 The ‘True’ Radio Context 27
2.1 Why and how people listen 29
2.2 Radio’s media attributes 33
2.3 How radio communicates 42
2.4 Effectiveness of the medium 48
2.5 Summary 51
3 The Need for a Different Approach 53
3.1 Why the need for a different approach? 55
3.2 Why does radio advertising have to be creative? 57
3.3 Why aren’t we better at using radio? 60
3.4 The challenges and opportunities of the medium 62
3.5 Summary 65
SECTION 2 Harnessing the True Power of Radio 67
4 What is Advanced Level Creativity? 69
4.1 Effectiveness is a relative term 71
4.2 Three common structural problems 72
4.3 The crucial importance of brand linkage 76
4.4 Realism vs. shooting for the moon 78
4.5 Thinking at campaign level 80
4.6 Summary 80
5 Best Practice Process for Creating Better Radio 83
5.1 Providing the optimum radio brief 85
5.2 Judging good radio ideas 91
5.3 The art of radio production 102
5.4 Branding in sound 111
5.5 Summary 120
6 Measuring Radio’s Effect 121
6.1 Defining the research objectives 123
6.2 The importance of split samples 125
6.3 Where to do the research 126
6.4 When to do the research 128
6.5 Sample sizes 129
6.6 Method and questionnaire 131
6.7 Measuring the short-term sales effects of radio 132
6.8 Measuring the effect of radio sponsorships and promotions 134
6.9 Summary 136
SECTION 3 Thinking about Radio as ‘New Media’ 139
7 The New Challenges Facing Brand Communications 141
7.1 The evolving consumer context 143
7.2 How brand marketing is changing 146
7.3 Dialogue, the new brand driver 148
7.4 Summary 152
8 Radio’s Role in Emerging Brand Thinking 153
8.1 Radio as a brand conversation medium 155
8.2 Harnessing the power of radio for brand conversations 164
8.3 New conversational roles for radio 166
8.4 Summary 170
SECTION 4 The Seven-Step Guide to Better Radio Advertising 171
9 The Seven-Step Guide to Better Radio Advertising 173
Step 1: Define a clear role for radio 175
Step 2: Keep the brief simple 176
Step 3: Ask for the team with radio skills 178
Step 4: Take care over tone 179
Step 5: Use the right judging criteria 181
Step 6: Use preproduction 182
Step 7: Consider using a director 184
Summary 185
SECTION 5 Appendices 187
Appendix 1 The RAB Bus Research Study 189
Appendix 2 Radio Script 191
Appendix 3 Online Radio Ads Track Listing (www.better-radio-advertising.co.uk) 193
References 205
Index 207

Mark Barber
After graduating from the University of Life, Mark spent 18
years as a media planner in a variety of media agencies before
joining the Radio Advertising Bureau in 2001. He has been using
radio as an advertising medium since 1983, during which time his
perspective has moved from audience cost-per-thousands to the
communication benefits of the medium.
Mark’s previous contributions to radio literature include
Understanding Radio, the Brand Conversation Medium and
Radio Advertising Effectiveness for Dummies. In his spare
time, he supports Charlton Athletic, is teaching himself to speak
Turkish, and entertains his children with bad jokes and poorly
executed magic tricks.
Andrew Ingram
Andrew has a broad-based experience in advertising and
media. After graduating from Cambridge in 1979, he started
commercial life in the advertisement department of the Daily
Mail, going on through quantitative research, and qualitative
research, and eventually moving into account planning before
joining the RAB in 1992.
Andrew’s previous books include Wireless Wisdom and
Understanding Radio. He is a regular speaker at media and
advertising conferences across the globe. In his spare time, he
indulges in daughters and classic cars, and an art project
involving old plastic bags in trees.
The authors work together at the Radio Advertising Bureau on a
daily basis, helping advertisers and agencies overcome the barriers
that are preventing them from using radio advertising more
effectively. It is this experience that has informed the
development of this book.