by Jeffrey Hedquist
People love stories. Bestselling books, top movies, the best radio commercials are great stories. Like a play, your commercial should have conflict, tension, and resolution. Each character in a radio commercial, even if it’s a simple one voice spot, should go through a transition, show some development.
One character might change from a skeptic into a believer (at least partially). Another might start out frustrated and become fulfilled by the end of the commercial. If all your characters change as they would in a play, you’ll sustain your audience’s interest.
Despite the voices, sound effects, music, and technological tools available, your ability to tell stories is the greatest skill you have. An interesting story will involve your listener’s imagination, and the story becomes more their own, because they’ve participated in its creation.
Then, instead of trying to sell reluctant customers, you’re simply building marketing elements into a story that your audience is helping create. Magic? You bet, and it all happens around the individual electronic campfires we call radios.
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