I'm curious. At my station, the sales team creates their own copy and passes it on to production and traffic. Is this the industry standard, or does your station have a separate creative department that develops copy?
And as a corollary, if you don't have a creative department, how much time do you devote to developing copy and creating audio/visual/written presentations to deliver to your clients?
Brian, great question!
It reminds me of a poll on a similar topic that we ran a couple of years ago; you might be interested in seeing this discussion thread: How Much Time Do You Spend Creating Spots?
I'll look forward to hearing what RSC members have to say in response to your question, as a lot more members have joined us since we first ran the poll.
That's exactly the kind of answers I was looking for! Sorry for not reading before posting, but that was terrifically helpful!
Thanks Rebecca!
Glad to hear it, Brian! And no need to apologize, you wouldn't have known we ran that poll 2 years ago.
This seems to be in the US only... in the Southern part of the world Australasia...sales people sell advertsing, creative folk sell copy...
Hope that helps
Mike
In Jamaica(Caribbean), at least certainly our capital city Kingston, we do everything..
Sherna
Same here in Jamaica, Brian..
We write the copy here for a couple of reasons. One, as account reps we know more about the client's business than anyone else at the station. Two, as account reps we care more about keeping the client's business than anyone else at the station. Three, an overworked copywriter simply has to crank out product, most of which turns out to be uninspiring.
At ALL the stations I have worked for as an announcer,we had a copywriter.Most airshifts at least at the 18 stations I worked with in the past,announcers pulled a 5 or 6 hour airshift 6 days a week.After doing our airshift,we would do whatever production that was in our in box. The sales team would work with production.because the sales person would have more time to work with production rather then the announcers who were ready to leave after their shift was over.
If you've never sat behind the board,it's a very busy and trying 5 or 6 hours keeping ahead of whats on air.
BELIEVE ME...you are worn out after your airshift.Now a days with computers,I assume things are easier on the
DJs My internet station requires alot of attention even though Auto DJ is playing the songs online.You have production,
uploading new songs (Usually after midnight) when listenership is down meaning late hours of work.
So, we always had copywriters at the stations I worked at. www.ncirradio.com Give us a listen
Ken Karns
We're a small rural station and that's the way we do it. In fact our sales staff insists on it because they feel they know what their customer wants and have found that to take the time to write the info about the commercial for a copy writer takes as much time as writing the ad in some cases. But their are occasions we all brainstorm ideas for customers.
Thanks to everyone for the comments. You have all been insanely helpful!
Brian,
The simple answer to your question is yes and yes. Many of the 150 markets (if not most) have a full production department that writes the ad copy from the salesperson's notes. However, the vast majority (if not all) of small market stations use the salesperson to write copy.
There are two things that must be right in order for a radio sales campaign to work. It is all about what you say multiplied by the number of times you say it. The MESSAGE is as important as the FREQUENCY.
You can use www.salesheartbeat.com where you'll find a number of subjects that might be of interest to you.
Good luck,
Alan Risener
