clients voicing their own spots....

[Rock 100.7]

Had a sales guy today come in to the ON AIR studio and ask if a client could record their spot in here... IN THE ON AIR STUDIO? reason given was, they couldn't get over the processing in the prod room.

My answer was "If your client wants to whisper their ad, maybe they shouldn't be doing the ad... If she can't get through the processing in there, she wont get through it in here.. "

I try to get these guys to understand that just because your client wants to be a radio star, doesn't make them one. If they can't project their voice and read at more than a third grade level, they have NO BUSINESS in the studio.

My question to you is "What's the trick to get the sales department to understand that having a client cut their spot may not be in the best interest of the client?"

Toss it around..

 

[robnokshus06]

Sounds to me like the trick you need to learn is how to keep sales people out of the On Air studio!

As for client's voicing their own spots, there are a couple of things you can do. First, you need to determine whether or not the client CAN voice their own spot. This will involve scheduling a session and having the client come in and voice their spot. From that session you will be able to see if the client can pull it off or not. Could be the client is a natural (it happens). Could be that the client shoud only read a line or two ("Hi, I'm the client. Come by my business and spend some money.") Or, could be that the client has no business being within 10-feet of a microphone. You won't know until you get them in.

If the client is god awful and no amount of studio manipulation will make them airworthy, it is up to you to provide an alternative, namely a better spot. It just depends on how hard you are willing to work and how much you care about what goes out over the air and whether or not it is successful (hint: you should care.)

The reality of today's sales rep is that it is harder and harder to get business and playing to a client's ego (reading their copy, having them voice their own spots) is still one of the best ways to get their business. That doesn't mean that these spots can't be tremendously succesful, they often are. Your challenge then is to try to make them as effective as they can possibly be. Be professional, offer direction in a positive manner, smile a lot and make it fun. You might even wind up making a new friend.

 

[Rock 100.7]

re:
Could be that the client shoud only read a line or two ("Hi, I'm the client. Come by my business and spend some money.") Or, could be that the client has no business being within 10-feet of a microphone. You won't know until you get them in.

Exactly my point.. This person had no business even saying the WORD Microphone, let alone being n front of one.. Normally, our clients are very good with their own spots. It's just this one...

When does "what's best for the client" outweigh "getting their business"... Maybe thats a better question..

Great advice from you Rob, you are one of the best around! 8)

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Had a sales guy today come in to the ON AIR studio and ask if a client could record their spot in here... IN THE ON AIR STUDIO? reason given was, they couldn't get over the processing in the prod room.

My answer was "If your client wants to whisper their ad, maybe they shouldn't be doing the ad... If she can't get through the processing in there, she wont get through it in here.. "

Humor an old timer here. Help me understand your dillema. Are you saying that every announcement, all day long on your station is delived with shout-and-project tone of voice, and that even you wanted to honor a clients request and deliver a Tom Shane "You've got a friend in the diamond business" or a Mens Wearhouse "you're gona like it, I guarantee it" that your production chain prohibits a soft delivery?

 

[Deleted User]

One of my favorite radio websites is www.krud.com.

Although Jim and Brian are no longer updating it, they left it up and running, including the cartoon archive up including one that speaks directly to this topic.

For your consideration I give you http://www.krud.com/toon58.html

 

[bturner]

I've been behind the microphone, in the programming chair and the sales chair.

Point blank: If the person spending their money to keep your station on the air and everyone paid their paychecks, you must think customer satisfaction. Sure, the client might sound horrible and their ads might not be too effective, but if they're holding the checkbook, sometimes you have to bite your lip (butterfly bandages work well for those bone crunching bites...from experience when my client insisted a cancer survivor with a voice box do their sixty).

And you didn't toss out the salesperson on his order pad? The on air studio is sacred ground. Entry only with permission...and that's my 2 cents as a GM.

 

[Nostalgia]

I just did a spot for a septic tank company that included their motto: "Our family serving yours for over 40 years" I thought it would sound funny for me to say that so I had the owner come in to voice it. He sat down, said the line and then ad libed another 15 seconds about the virtues of servicing your septic tank every couple of years ending with a "thank you". I loved it and incorporated the whole thing into the spot.

And what about all the political ads running out there with the candidate putting on his most sincere voice, saying what a great guy he is, and ending with a vote for me and the legal tag. OK maybe that wont play in the top 20 markets but elsewhere that is pretty common.

"Sounds to me like the trick you need to learn is how to keep sales people out of the On Air studio!" I remember working at a station years ago that had a sign on the air studio door: No Salesmen Allowed!!

 

[BobSacamano]

..A station I worked at had a simalar sign that began with "we are making a presentation"..the PD felt he had to put it in terms salespeople could relate to..

..The worst part I've found about clients doing their own spots, is that they don't seem to get how busy you are and want to take 2-1/2 hours to do a :60 spot, just as bad, is the client who brings his own "talent": usually a relative, friend, or employee..

Has anyone had any dealings with locaL

 

[BobSacamano]

..A station I worked at had a simalar sign that began with "we are making a presentation"..the PD felt he had to put it in terms salespeople could relate to..

..The worst part I've found about clients doing their own spots, is that they don't seem to get how busy you are and want to take 2-1/2 hours to do a :60 spot, just as bad, is the client who brings his own "talent": usually a relative, friend, or employee..

Has anyone had any dealings with local athletes doing spots for a client?

 

[Ford]

My question to you is "What's the trick to get the sales department to understand that having a client cut their spot may not be in the best interest of the client?"

From my perspective, there's not really a "trick" at all...just keep constantly educating your sales staff. I make frequent visits to sales meetings to re-iterate the basics, especially when there's a few newbies. One of the points I keep hammering home is that while your client may be the best in town at selling cars/jewelry/doing plumbing, etc, WE are the professionals when it comes to creating advertising. I say that "your job as a sales person is not just to sell them on our ratings, but on our ability to create effective ad campaigns."

Now there's always going to be a few clients who insist on doing it themselves, but that's not always bad. Some of the ones I work with are actually pretty good - scripted, prepared, spot timed out, etc. For the rest, again it is an ongoing process of educating your sales staff. They need to be told in no uncertain terms that the production studio is not a "walk in clinic." Tell them the studio is like a doctor or lawyer's office...you need to make an appointment, and once you sit down the meter is running.

The client should be told that "of course we understand your time is very important, so we want to make sure to get you in and out as fast as possible." The sales person shouldn't even set up the appointment until the script is finalized, and the client understands that they need to have it down pat before they come to the station. This is not as hard as it sounds.

However, even with all this preparation you'll still get a few people who come in unprepared and/or completely unqualified to cut their own spot. There's not much you can do about the former, but there is something you can do about the latter.

Now let me preface this by saying that in order for it to work, you must have your sales staff trained to leave you alone in the studio with the client. The reason is that no matter how awful the client sounds, the sales person will nod and smile and tell them how fantastic it was. Always.

So when you've got the client alone, and they've recorded a terrible spot, be honest. Tell them (gently, of course) what you think. It sounds crazy, but I've found that when I get a client alone in the studio, and I'm honest, more often than not they listen. I recently had a car dealer thank me for telling him what I thought of his spot, and how we could make it better.

 

[bturner]

Ford makes some great comments.

Two opinions of mine:
1) Commercials should be as much of a draw to your station as your other programming. Commercials should not be substandard or a turn-off to listeners. That's the programming side of me.

2) Clients voicing their own spots means solid, regular advertisers. The advertiser has all their friends saying they heard them on the radio and it feeds their ego. The toughest advertising to cancel is advertising that is you (the client). There's nothing like the client saying 'Everybody has been mentioning my ad and I've even had a few customers ask for me because of your station". That's the sales side of me.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I am amused by this conversation.

We have on-air people, programmers, production people who KNOW they are the center of the universe and that all sales people are bumbling idiots who know nothing about this business for which they sell.

I have worked both sides of the fence. There are a lot of sales people who have (in their mind) learned that all jocks, on-air people, programmers and productions people are bumbling idiots who really know nothing about this business in which they work.

I guess during my broadcasting years I lived in "La-Lah Land" or something. I remember working in a number of situations where these two factions had a reasonable respect and appreciation for one another. Of course, that was the era when both factions probably reported at least to the on-site General Manager, who may have also been the on-site OWNER who had no intention to tolerating internal insurrection.

Today we have a world where the programmers may report up through a bureaucracy of programmer cluster managers to a vice president of programming, and the sales people report to a cluster sales manager who reports up the bureaucracy to a corporate vp of sales somewhere. And if this lack of mutual appreciation and respect appears at all levels of the bureaucracy, I can see where no one at the local level may have the desire or clout to have a staff meeting, knock heads together and suggest business will improve if we will all gather in a circle and sing kum-bah-yah.

I would suggest that the smaller the market the more likely that sponsor-voiced ads are workable and effective. If I owned a station (or stations) in a top major market, you might be able to convince me to have a flat rule: No do-it-yourself commercials.

I do have a problem accepting these WWE style voice-overs for cars dealers shouting at listeners as though they are bozos who just climbed down off the turnip truck last night. These are done by professional voice-over guys! And sponsor generated voicing is worse than these?

 

[bturner]

It is pretty amuzing. I am lucky in that I was forced from on air and programming to sales. I guess I got along with everyone because I voiced some spots for my clients and even wrote some (when I had a concept in mind). Maybe they didn't hassle me because they remembered me from the competition's morning show and I took care some of their work.

 

[Nostalgia]

I remember working in a number of situations where these two factions had a reasonable respect and appreciation for one another.

GRC, it wasnt that we didnt respect the sales staff, it was just the annoying habit of them sticking their head in the studio asking for stuff, sort of going around the production chain of command. I think they saw us sitting in there ala Johnny Fever with the speakers turned up for x minutes at a time and figured we were not doing anything serious at the moment, just listening to records!

This of course was for the real "radio" salespersons we were lucky to have from time to time. As time wore on we found ourselves dealing with people who were copier salespersons last week and selling airtime this week. Now for THOSE people................. :

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

GRC, it wasnt that we didnt respect the sales staff, it was just the annoying habit of them sticking their head in the studio asking for stuff, sort of going around the production chain of command.

Thank you for pointing this discussion into a productive direction.

Since leaving broadcasting, I have been "cross contaminated" by multiple industries. Some of them put a lot of energy into having their people understand the total process. In the old days of broadcasting, if the owner of a station insisted on it, everyone had to understand the "production chain" of the copy writer, the newsman, the engineer, etc. Of course many stations were run by people who did not understand discipline and did not require it of employees.

I think the one venture that really brought this home to me was to be among the first generation of people who worked for automobile dealers as a "computer guy" as they moved from manual systems paper flow to real, on-line computer systems. And in that gig I actually met "Atilla the Hun" who had in reincarnation found work as the Parts Manager. I learned very quickly that you don't mess with his "production chain". He had become the 15th largest reseller of General Motors parts in the nation and he didn't get there with sloppy, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants business practice. My fun days were when he asked me to contact EDS (founded by Ross Perot and owned by GM during the era I am describing) and "stgraighten them out". (I not only have the t-shirt, but the scars to show from those encounters!)

And now we return to our regularly scheduled program: RADIO. My basic contribution to this coanversation is: Rather than just say ALL SPONSOR VOICED COMMERCIALS are bad, have a well document procedure for how production will or will not accomodate such schedules.

There will be some stations that will and should say: We don't allow them!

Some stations should say: We will run them, but they have to come through an agency.

Some stations should say: We have this "people person" who has his/her own little voice-over studio. We have given this person a "style book" set of rules for what we will and will not air. The client pays the voice-over person to produce the track and deliver it to us in the style and format we expect. (Of course, for critical clients the sales rep and/or the sales department could agree to quietly pay the studio operator rather than irritate the client with "baggage fees".)

But there will always be a few stations who want the client to come in and wallow in the comfort and human contact of their radio station.

 

[Radio Pro]

A couple of observations after years of experience...

If a client insists on doing his own spots..you as prod director can assist
by having them do the "sell" part..and your professional voice intro and outro the spot..they will appreciate the pro sound of the commercial. You'll only be requiring them to voice the "sell" portion of the spot that could be
anywhere from :15 to:30 of a total spot. Something they can comfortably do.

also, when they're in the studio..don't let them know you're recording everything..because more often than not..they will say something in their own normal speech pattern that can be used in the spot and sound natural and compelling. You might end up with a nice spot. You'll also have a lot of material that could be edited to used to create multiple spots.

Of course market size can help dictate who gets on the air.
Top markets should have a no client voice spot policy.
Lower markets..case by case that has been expressed in other posts.

 

[robnokshus06]

Top markets should have a no client voice spot policy.

Why? Big markets have the same need to hit budget as small markets and market size has no bearing on whether or not a client has the talent needed to voice their own commercial. I have produced a LOT of client voiced spots in my day, with the majority being in what most would consider a "Top" market. If the spot passes muster with programming and adds to the station's bottom line, that's about all that matters.

Now, don't get me started on fish oil commercials!

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

Top markets should have a no client voice spot policy.

Why? Big markets have the same need to hit budget as small markets and market size has no bearing on whether or not a client has the talent needed to voice their own commercial.

In theory, I agree with you. As a practical matter here is why I have said maybe client voices are more suited to small markets.

Large markets fracture the audience into so many small shards that it is risky to gamble with a policy that could erode your audience.... ie a really bad client voice.

Large markets provide the revenue for, and the competition requires, that the on-air talent be very, very good. Listeners in larger markets expect the BEST of voices. A "country bumpkin" stands out like an outhouse on the lawn of the governor's mansion.

Small markets have always tended to have a voice talent pool that is not as sparkling as in the big markets. Listeners who will listen to radio of smaller market stations have come to expect and tolerate voices that are a bit less than golden. (You rang for me?)

Smaller markets also have programming with an overall tone that is a bit home-townish. Well.... that is a view that may not be as true in this day and age of automation. anyhow, the reason some of us concede that client voiced commercials probably work better and are more use able in smaller markets is that they fit in with all the other content a bit more comfortably.

Your Mileage May Vary.

 

[PopcornAC]

Your Mileage May Vary.

Very true.

I work in a small market and my Spots range from national ads to home town businesses. We Used to go through a "professional" imaging service that continually made mistakes even after we had corrected them several times in the past. No matter how many times we would spell words for them and give the phonetics, they would screw it up and cost us a day or two. The last straw was when a commercial with absolutely no insinuation of any kind of direction came back with a "hick" accent! We never told them to do an accent, and yet, they thought it was appropriate. Needless to say we didnt even let the client hear the spot and we sent it back for re-recording.

I prefer to do all our imaging in house using local friends with good speaking voices.

In the end its all in the editing anyway.

 

[Ned Braden]

Had a doozy today.

I'm in a market that's small, which means that 40% of the spots that I produce are client voiced. I have a sales staff that is either un-educated about how the radio business works or they just don't care, as long as they get what they want...I assume it's the latter because NO ONE in this world can actually BE as ignorant legitimately, as this sales crew.

I already had an 11 am recording with ABC Car Dealership scheduled since last week, when the slimiest of the lot came to me today and said 'XXX Car Dealership is coming in today at 10:30...'. I said that as long as he's in and out and doesn't want to loiter while I produce, it's fine. First words out of XXX's guy is '*** told you that we're cutting 3 spots today with my sales mgr, right?' Of course, my job is to smile and say 'Whatever you want!' And as Murphy's Law works, he couldn't put a sentence together, his sales mgr couldn't read at all and my 11 am showed up early and was in a rush to get done because of his busy schedule. (For the record, my 11 am is the client that I would give all the bells and whistles to...easy to work with, etc...) To top it off, turns out the guy from XXX was fired by ABC and there was bad blood between the two guys, so now I had to play school yard moderator.

And during all this, the sales dolt who was responsible for all this mess had a 'client meeting' and was gone for the rest of the day. Ironic because his only two clients were in the building with me...

I guess my question is the same as everyone else's...how do you be firm but diplomatic with a sales staff that doesn't get it?