The Case for Going Bold With Your Ads

Have you ever heard a radio ad, and when it ended, you weren’t sure who was doing the advertising? While some marketers may think subtlety is the way to go, as a consumer, you can recognize that it doesn’t help you much when you are interested in checking out the product but have no idea where to start. The potential customer should always be able to identify the brand delivering the message. After all, there may be other goods or services that are equally or even more attractive. 

Bold marketing and branding get your name firmly before your potential and existing customers more quickly and keep it top of mind over time. Don’t let the idea of being bold scare you. It doesn’t mean being reckless or risky, but instead means unabashedly putting your brand front and center. Customers shouldn’t have to parse through the clutter and noise to notice your brand. Bold ads benefit companies, especially when you craft them after conducting quality research into customer personas. 

Attract Customers More Quickly 

It is all too easy and common for ads to fade into background noise or, even worse, to cause the listener to change the station. The key to preventing your message from being ignored is to capture the listeners’ attention in the first few seconds. Research shows that you have less than 8 seconds to engage a consumer. Exceed that, and you’ve missed your chance to convert a customer. 

You must make bold choices to attract your ideal audience’s attention quickly. People are busy, and they have short attention spans. The faster you reach your customers, the quicker you encourage them to reach out to you. A well-crafted radio ad can convey your message and brand swiftly and effectively for the most impact.   

There are many ways to use boldness in your ads. Catchy headlines or introductions, jingles, graphics, or presenting a value proposition for contacting you, such as a prize or a discount, are all ways to attract and convert customers. Once you engage them, make sure you leave them with no doubt about what company is presenting the message and how they can reach you.  

Know Whom You’re Trying to Reach 

There is immense value in knowing your audience before communicating with them. Connection occurs when the topics are meaningful or interesting to both parties. People tend to tune out what doesn’t affect their world. That’s why you need to know your audience to tailor your bold choices to their preferences. 

Consider a brand that hasn’t done their research and only has a general target of adults in their late ’20s to early ’30s. There are many products and services that demographic may be eager to learn about, but a too-broad approach is a waste of time and could make your brand appear not to understand your audience at all. Suppose the company sells diapers and car seats and runs its ads on the oldies or news stations. It may get the notice of some interested parties, but that’s not necessarily the predominant demographic reached through those genres. To attract the interest of your audience and start to connect with them in a meaningful way, you must develop an understanding of your target persona beyond demographics and consider what contexts your ads will present. 

Tips for Making Bold Ads 

What does bold mean to you? In advertising, boldness conveys competency, authority, confidence, and trustworthiness. But how do you make a bold ad that inspires interest and intrigue? Employing some best practices will highlight your brand and convert more customers.  

Making a bold radio ad first and foremost requires using quality production. Mistakes like overly formal or colloquial copy, poor grammar, too-loud or too-soft volume, or music that overwhelms the dialogue distract from the message. You must also develop a clear voice that stands out and cuts through the clutter and noise of other ads to hook your audience. Rely on imagination and emotion to hit a touchpoint amongst your audience and begin to nurture a connection. 

Some tips for creating a bold ad include: 

• Inspire curiosity with humor or an intriguing intro 
• Start with a “what-if” scenario 
• Create a mental image by using the word ‘imagine’ 

• Relate an interesting fact 
• Use a memorable catch phrase or sound bite 
• Use familiar stories or lessons 
• Use show-business techniques to entertain 
• Touch on significant historical events relevant to your content 

Go Bold or Fade into the Background 

It isn’t always as easy to bring a poorly constructed ad to mind simply because they are so forgettable. The effective ones, at their best, become part of our culture for a time. Memorable catchphrases instantly bring brand names to mind, jingles identify the brand and the way to contact them, and some even inspire contests. These wildly successful examples aren’t a result of luck; they are the culmination of research, strategy, and technique. 

The most iconic brands understand their audience and have a firm grasp on what intrigues their customers. They know how to grab attention and hold it while focusing on the brand. Effective ads use many techniques to engage the consumer, ultimately creating the desire and urgency that converts them to a customer. A media partner can help you not only learn about your audience but use the most effective techniques to develop quality ads.