Commercial Structure - If You Build It (Right) They Will Listen

Lots of commercials catch the listener's attention with an interesting story up front, and then lose it with all the selling or marketing information that follows. So your listener's been enticed to pay attention, but you haven’t rewarded them for staying for the whole commercial.  

An improvement on that scenario is to place the marketing material somewhere inside the commercial in the "donut hole."  That way the entertainment value at least "wraps around" the marketing, so that the conclusion of the story, the punch line, the surprise occurs at the end, giving the listener
something to stay tuned for. 

The ideal commercial has the entertainment and the marketing so integrated throughout the commercial that you couldn't remove the marketing information or the entertainment portions and have it still work.  Each element is dependent upon the other.  Each amplifies the
other. 

A good test to see whether you've developed something that combines both elements, and also creates a story that is truly unique for that advertiser is to substitute another advertiser's name for the one in your commercial.  If the commercial
still “works” with the new advertiser’s name, you might want to rethink what you've
written, because in some way you've created a spot that is so generic that it
advertises a category instead of an advertiser.

A commercial should be a story, with a beginning a middle and an end with the entertainment and marketing dependent upon each other.  If listeners are entertained while being sold, they'll stay for the entire commercial not just the first time, but every time they hear it.

Jeffrey Hedquist has been looking for structure in his life as well as his commercials.  If you have suggestions for either, contact him at Hedquist Productions, Inc. P.O. Box 1475 Fairfield, IA 52556. Phone 641-472-6708, Fax 641-472-7400,
email jeffrey@hedquist.com or visit http://www.hedquist.com for a free
newsletter full of surprising information.

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