MANILA – Last August 7, 2014 was Better Than Ever Raw School’s session on attacking, writing and producing radio advertisements entitled Sound & Fury held at Cutting Edge Productions in Makati.
It was a night of learning for all advertisers, creatives and students alike, featuring all the best in radio copywriting, directing and producing namely Raymund Sison (Publicis JimenezBasic, Associate Creative Director), Tonypet Sarmiento (HVMO Managing Partner and Chief Collaborator), Gerry Magnaye (freelance, Sound Engineer), Rey Tiempo (Dentsu, Excecutive Creative Director), KC Montero (Radio DJ and host), Whannie Dellosa (Cutting Edge, Sound Designer and Producer) and the world’s chief authority on creative radio, second to none, Tony Hertz himself.
Raymund Sison opened the session with four words: Theatre of the Senses. Radio, unlike other advertising platforms, can create an all-around theatrical experience for audiences, especially by maximizing tools such as visual descriptors, word-tone irony and melody.
Next up was Rey Tiempo who gave a thing or two about radio copywriting and failure. From a copywriter’s perspective, failure will always be a constant. Refering to his copy for the “Strong” radio ad which he did while with BBDO Guerrero, he admits to have failed to win any awards. Nevertheless, win or lose, as long as you pour your heart into it, it’ll almost always end up as a life-rewarding experience.
“You don’t need a lot of people to make a great radio ad. You just need the right people.” Tonypet Sarmiento added, talking about the talent it takes to conceptualize a single radio campaign.
Meanwhile, Cutting Edge’s very own Whannie Dellosa explained the value of collaboration, “Treat your sound designer as a teammate, not a slave.” He then went on about concept quality: if the campaign idea is bad, it’s bad. No matter how good the sound producer, rocks can’t turn into diamonds.
“A brilliant concept is something that moves you intellectually and emotionally,” says radio production guru, Gerry Magnaye, “A well written script is something that unfolds naturally given the amount of time given.”
From the broadcaster’s side, KC Montero gave insight on the radio DJ’s perspective on spiels, “Give space for the DJs to play with your radio material. It has to be funny and catchy.”
To end the session, radio master Tony Hertz enlightened everybody with “The 7 SECRETS of Creative Radio.”
“Sometimes, it’s not just about words. It’s also about shapes. Copy and art directors should work together,” he said talking about the effectivity of art and copy working together. Radio directing should be given grave importance as well. This shapes the ad into becoming more effective, in-depth and highly memorable.
Even naming that anonymous “VO” needs to be taken into consideration, “Improve your script. Write a short paragraph to set up the scene, characters and story. Name the characters or use job titles… characters not voices. You can see a character, you can’t see a VO,” he said.
Creating great radio ads require a good deal of imagination, passion and experience. However, you’d need to have a concept to work with first. And it needs to be exceptional. Radio producers can’t turn dull concepts into extraordinary ads just as rocks into diamonds.
– Eri Durr
