By Jeffrey Hedquist
Ever been emotionally touched by a painting, drawing or photograph? Why not use pictures as inspiration for commercials?
Example: your client is a hospital that specializes in delivering babies. Search the web for pictures, photos, paintings or drawings of your target audience: moms, babies, kids, possibly dads and families in hospital waiting rooms.
Look at each one. Which ones trigger an emotional response? Pick one and write a story about it. What were the events that led up to the moment captured in the picture? What’s happening in the picture? What’s the next part of the story that follows? Would this story resonate with your target audience?
This is a good way to develop a radio campaign to coordinate with an existing print campaign with inspiring visuals. If the visuals used in the print campaign are not helping you light any creative fires, try using the above search process to find your own visuals. Remember, radio’s great power is in touching the emotions, so go with pictures that get you to smile, reflect, reminisce, cry or trigger anger, sadness, or joy.
A picture doesn’t have to be worth a thousand words (and in fact isn’t, but more about that later). It only has to help you generate enough words to tell a very short story. But the words should be well chosen. If they are, listeners will create their own pictures, in which they’ll be using your client’s product or service.
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