Putting radio ads back on creative radar

“Radio advertising has nosedived in terms of quality,” says Eoghan Nolan, the award-winning advertising creative and founder of the Brand Artillery agency.

There are, he says, structural reasons whereby a small company or even large brand buys air time on a radio station and part of the deal is that the station writes the ad “on the back of an envelope” and also makes the ad. But it’s not just them.

“We’ve reached a point,” he says, that “radio advertising is hardly a good advertisement for radio advertising”.

As the listenership figures show, it’s a hugely important medium in Ireland – “everyone has their favourite station” says Nolan.

Yet when it comes to making radio ads, it’s fallen off the radar:

“It’s been a long while since anyone thought about radio, it’s not seen as a high-profile thing to do”.

But in terms of campaigns, radio is still very much part of the mix for a huge number of companies: “it’s been deprioritised, it hasn’t been delisted”.

The problem is also, he says, because clients such as brand managers and chief executives aren’t as clued-up as they might be about the process, from writing the brief right through to what happens in studio and they don’t see the potential value in a great radio campaign.

Raising the bar

They're unsure how to set the bar higher. And so rather than set up a training programme for writers, Nolan has gone for clients with Studiocraft for Advertisers, a series of one-day masterclasses which combine theory – including a run-through of radio cliches which should be as entertaining as it is cautionary – to exploring the creative possibilities and a studio visit.

He seems to have hit a nerve – the first masterclass which takes place today quickly booked out.

“If you can talk to clients, it starts a trickle-down effect [in terms of improving quality]” says Nolan. “What I’m trying to do is in instil a great ambition.”

The next Studiocraft for Advertisers is July 8th. brandartillery.com