Put some 'Joy' in your radio advertising !

For as long as I can remember BMW, the makers of ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ have presented us with superbly art-directed images of the cars. Every past TV commercial showed us a beautifully lit car. The announcer’s words were short, sharp and compelling. It’s was all highly-aspirational stuff and has obviously sold shed-loads of cars.

But have you seen the new ad for BMW ? We’re outdoors ! The commercials feature people ! They are happy folk smiling and laughing ! The music sounds like ‘Sense’ by the Lightning Seeds ! And the wall-to wall copy from the announcer (Patrick Stewart) says “At BMW, we don’t just make cars...We make joy !”. See the ad here.

This is a big creative turnaround by BMW. For the first time in ages, they’ve put emotion into their marketing. It could be argued that the slick moody ads of the past were ‘emotive’, but the new approach is a darn-site more blatant.

It is said that only 5% of all purchases are only made on logic. The remaining 95% is made on emotion. Be it clothes or anything else, thoughts such as “I’ll look good wearing this”... “It’s my colour”... “I look the part”... “It’ll make me happy”... “It’s a treat”... all make major contributions in the buying process.

So although there are lots of radio ads out there that make us laugh or make us think (IE Road safety), how many are there that actually tap into our minds and take advantage of our emotional vulnerability ?

We need to start thinking more about the stuff that makes people tick. In BMW’s case, associating ‘Joy’ with their cars is in my opinion, a great move. Compare ‘We don’t just make cars...We make joy ’ with Toyota’s ‘Today Tomorrow Toyota’ and you begin to realise that BMW is now miles ahead on the emotive stakes.

I think many local advertisers think certain aspects of advertising are out of bounds for them simply because they ARE local. The reality is, clever emotive advertising isn’t just for the big brands everyone can have a piece of the action. My next task after writing this article is to take a brief from an advertiser who sells cookers. Each one costs in the region of £32,000! I am astounded at the cost, but in an initial conversation with the client, he tells me you just have to look at one of his cookers and you’ll A) Fall in love with it and then B) Want to buy one. “The mind always find a way to buy what it wants” the client added. The job of the radio advertising will be to start that process and effect an introduction between the cooker and the listener.

I am really looking forward to working on this project. And today, I hope radio sales people will not only encourage their advertisers to play the emotion card in their radio adverts; but also use emotion to sell more radio airtime !

Put some joy in your radio advertising. Get in touch with Airforce now ! www.airforce.co.uk