SummitMedia's The Write Stuff

  Nine Emotional Triggers to Influence Listener Buying Behaviors Every decision we make involves emotions, including subconscious ones. Understanding what triggers those emotions can go a long way when it comes to developing effective marketing material. Most of us have the same basic mental triggers which drive an action. Let’s explore the   nine most popular emotional triggers that go hand in hand with effective marketing tactics. Emotional Trigger #1: Fear What it is: Ever heard of the phrase “FOMO” aka Fear of Missing Out? It can produce reactions without conscious thought and override our entire thought process. How it’s used: Make sure to use caution though when triggering fear, it can get a bit risky. When used ethically, it can be highly effective Example: “You do not want to miss this event! Buy your tickets now! Emotional Trigger #2: Time What it is: Time makes us a feel a lot of things. It always depends on the situation. How it’s used: We’re so busy,...

  THE QUEEN MOTHER OF ALL KEY MARKETING CHALLENGES IS YOUR TARGET'S SUBCONSCIOUS. What you and I do for a living isn’t rocket science. It’s people science. And because it’s people, it can be fickle and somewhat complicated. In almost every campaign, we are attempting to attach the client’s brand to a pleasant or comforting emotion. That makes brand recall and awareness easier. This pleasant sensation can better help the target want to learn more and try the brand. Hopefully, the target has a good experience with the brand to where they adopt it and eventually become a heavy user. No different from station ratings, our campaigns are dependent on memory and recall. Memories aren’t just raw data. Almost all of them are attached to some type of emotion. And we try our best to make them work for us. But, here’s the caveat. Most of our basic emotions stem from the subconscious mind. And it has some mighty big walls around it. First; human beings are bombarded with data and messages. In t...

                        What "Write What You Know" is and isn't. One primary golden rule to creative writing is  write what you know. Its natural to assume that if someone has a PhD in organic chemistry or some other subject, they want everyone to know all that they've learned. Not the case.  They know that not everyone desires to know how proteins can act as enzymes. Sharing every minute and niche detail of a subject is not  write what you know .  Write what you know  is taking a subject virtually everyone knows --or can at least relate to --and shedding a new and different light on it. No one understands this more than stand-up comedians. It's their bread and butter. Let's take a look at this clip from Roy Wood Jr. Its about relationships. Thermostat Relationships (I chose Roy because he's a former co-worker. His career was launched at SummitMedia Birmingham's WBHJ, first as a morning show feature, th...

  The Myths of “Fair Use” with Copyrighted Music in Commercials.   How many times have we had to inform a client they can’t use their favorite Taylor Swift song in their commercial? Then, they come back with one of the following replies:              “I was told that as long as we only use 30 seconds, it’s considered fair use.”              “The other radio stations do that for me.”              “We can use the Karaoke version.”              “You already pay BMI/ASCAP. We should be able to use it.” My friends, the so-called 30 second fair use rule is no different than the five-second rule when you drop your Krispy Kreme on the floor.                    It's a complete myth.  Co...

         Psycholinguistics: The Art of Making Brands  Feel Good .   Words mean things. Each one has an emotion attached. You may not recognize those feelings. But your subconscious does.  That’s why there’s psycholinguistics. By textbook definition, psycholinguistics is  the study of the relationships between linguistic behavior and psychological processes, including the process of language acquisition. For you and me, this is a tool used in making brands  feel good . The use of psycholinguistics is prevalent in advertising. Large ad agencies that rep accounts with huge budgets spend a ransom on psychographic and psycholinguistic research. Great attention is paid to subjects’ reaction to the brand; how well was it received and did it evoke the desired reaction. This is especially key in redirecting a brand’s perception. Here’s a classic example of how psycholinguistics was applied in making a brand seem more user friendly: Seat belts. Un...

                 When you write more, people understand less. There's a rule in orthodox English. No sentence is to be longer than 25 words, even when it is grammatically and mechanically correct.  In 2003, Oxford University conducted a study on reading comprehension. English was the first language of all it's test subjects. Researchers discovered that the average college educated adult comprehends more at a fourth-grade reading level than they do at a high school level. When long words of eight to nine letters were used, the subjects were apt to skip the shorter words that followed.  The reasons for this are both behavioral and physiological.  People do not read one word at a time. They bounce around, especially online. The brain anticipates the shorter words and fills them in. ( constructed images vs eidetic images -or-what's really there versus what the brain makes up for you.)  What does all this mean for you and I in ...

  This is one of those cases where knowing too much may be crippling. Having a degree in English could be a roadblock. Just because your sentences are grammatically and mechanically correct, doesn't mean they're appealing to the human ear.  We work -and thrive -in an auditory medium. Therefore, write by ear.  It's a tough battle. We instantly recall conversations we've had with those whose speech patterns grind our gears. However, there has to be a happy medium between using correct English and English spoken and comprehended by those you're trying to reach.  Here are steps to better write by ear. 1) Stay in tune with your local culture.  Become intimate with what local people name things, how they address others, and what a typical conversation sounds like. Colloquial is local.  I grew up in Michigan. When we wanted a cold soft drink, we'd ask for a cold pop.  Here in the deep south, especially in Alabama, we just say Coke -no matter the brand or flav...

                            Emotions in Motion:                                             Reimaging the Spec Spot There's no question. Spec spots sell. For those of us who create them, they're our babies. For account executives, they're a key asset in their proposal. Even with the best spec spot, a closed deal is not guaranteed. Various reasons come in to play. The unsold specs get archived in a bank of ideas for future use with someone else. Or they just live in a folder as widows and orphans. These days, it's become a numbers game. The strategy is to saturate the market with as many specs as possible. The higher the distribution number, the higher the number of closings. That's basic logic.  It would seem there is no other formula for a higher closing ratio.  However, past experience has sho...

  Announcing is not Acting: The Art & Craft of Breathing Life into The Written Word.  We all want our work to be masterpieces. Most, if not all of us take great pride in what we voice and produce. Each of us are well-seasoned in mic etiquette and technic. We've learned expression and developed the instincts of key phrases.  Yet, I find that if I'm not careful, my work can easily sound like nothing more than just a radio commercial.  Almost 40 years of radio can be hard to break.  It's been my experience through my freelance voice over endeavors that big-budget creative directors for radio and especially TV don't want radio people. Radio talent sound like radio commercials. They want actors; people adept at bringing personality and real life to the written word. Granted, some scripts lend themselves to that. But even those scripts that read bland, it's the talent's job to make them sound real, believable and even relatable.  That's hard to do.  To h...

                                     Talk to me.  It’s true. I look at what I create as art, almost as if it’s my baby. However, when it comes to creating effective marketing, it’s your baby. I’m just helping make sure it’s healthy and grows into what we all want it to become. The analogy means this. When I write and produce for you, and it turns out it’s not what you or the client were looking for, please, let me know. It’s not going to hurt my feelings. Trust me. I wouldn’t have survived 35 plus years in this business if I couldn’t handle direction. You and I are partners looking to achieve the same goals. We want happy clients so we can retain them. I would do the same for you. Production Network is here to be one of your main assets. We love collaboration. I certainly do. Even if you need to tell me “ I think something’s missing here  or  I’m not sure my client would appreci...

                  Make More Pictures With Sound.     Podcasters are learning something new. That is, it’s new to them. But it’s been around since the late 1920’s. Sound effects enhance visualization to audio.   Radio made use of sound effects before film had audio. This blog entry and it’s accompanying podcast is an exercise in using as few words possible. We’re going to let the sound effects tell the story. We’re several weeks away from the holidays. They’ll be several “don’t drink and drive” campaigns. Let’s create one of our own. 1 -Open with sfx: of party crowd 2 -door opens, party crowd fades as door closes. 3 -stumbling footsteps in gravel. 4 -car door opens and closes. The engine starts and car peels away. 5- car at high acceleration. Tires squeal 6 -Loud crash. 7 -heavy breathing by driver –because they’re scared. 8    – ANNCR: “What more can be said? Don’t drink and drive! 9 -police radio chatter in backgroun...