Any agency creative worth their Porsche (or, if they’re in radio their Mazda 3) knows what makes a bad ad – product price lists, multiple selling points, percentage discount offers that are meaningless, detailed addresses and those bloody phone numbers. Even most sales people get it. So why do we still hear ads on air that fall into every trap that serves only to cause the listener to tune out or irritate them enough the to change stations? Who allows it to happen?

A reader, Robyn, responding to an article on a similar topic on Crikey wrote; “Earlier this year I did an internship at a commercial radio station. On day one I wrote copy that the boss and the sales team thought was really creative and high quality, only to have it rejected by the clients in favour of bland, product listing and phone number pap. So what did I write on day two?”.

In the end it’s the client that makes the decision. Remember the golden rule; He who has the gold makes the rules. Or, put more succinctly, The customer is always right. Right? Perhaps that truism should come with the caveat – except in the case of radio scripts.

There’s yet another saying that goes, “Creativity is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration”. Perhaps more effort should be put towards convincing the client that storytelling sells, phone numbers do not.

What we need here are ideas. Before we can sell the clients’ product, we need to sell the client on our ideas. Any ideas on how to do that?

How far can we go before we give in and do another boring ad because that’s what the client wants?

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