The Issue Of Timing In Radio Ads

In early 2005 the largest broadcasting company in the world, Clear Channel Communications, will change their pricing structure for 15, 30 and 60 second advertisements. Radio advertising is a great way to reach a huge audience quickly and effectively. Radio advertising can be either national or local, depending on your target audience and your advertising budget. Perhaps the most important factor in creating effective radio advertisements is choosing the right length for your commercial. Generally, shorter is better. People's attention spans are growing increasingly shorter, especially for commercials. With radio, people listen primarily while they're doing other things, such as driving, working, etc. So their attention to radio advertising may be spotty at best. With 15 second ads you can pack a big punch into a little package. However, you may have a product or service

that is too complicated to successfully advertise in 15 seconds. Thankfully, you can also make use of 30 and 60 second radio advertising spots, giving yourself more time to make your message clear. You should reserve the use of longer radio advertisements for ads that really need 30 or 60 seconds to be effective. Padding an advertisement that would otherwise work in 15 seconds with unnecessary words just to fill 30 or 60 seconds of air time is a sure-fire way to waste money. Remember, people may not listen to the whole advertisement, so you need to make sure that you choose your words well and only take up as much time as necessary to make your point concisely, clearly and effectively.