Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - S5E20 - Radio Still Makes Waves

Episode Date: May 20, 2016

This week, we take a trip to five different countries to listen to some astonishing radio advertising. From a theatre company in Switzerland that sponsored the traffic in a whole new way, to a radio campaign that tried to bore you to sleep, to an amazing radio ad that asks you to donate your voice to help other people - all of these amazing campaigns are turning radio on its ear. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly. As you may know, we've been producing a lot of bonus episodes while under the influences on hiatus. They're called the Beatleology Interviews, where I talk to people who knew the Beatles, work with them, love them, and the authors who write about them. Well, the Beatleology Interviews have become a hit, so we are spinning it out to be a standalone podcast series. You've already heard conversations with people like actors Mark Hamill, Malcolm McDowell, and Beatles confidant Astrid Kershaw. But coming up, I talk to May Pang, who dated John Lennon in the mid-70s. I talk to double fantasy guitarist Earl Slick, Apple Records creative director John Kosh. I'll be talking to Jan Hayworth,

who designed the Sgt. Pepper album cover. Very cool. And I'll talk to singer Dion, who is one of only five people still alive who were on the Sgt. Pepper cover. And two of those people were Beatles. The stories they tell are amazing. So thank you for making this series such a success. And please, do me a favor, follow the Beatleology interviews on your podcast app. You don't even have to be a huge Beatles fan, you just have to love storytelling.

Subscribe now, and don't miss a single beat. From the Under the Influence digital box set, this episode is from Season 5, 2016. You're so king in it. Scores of it in an instant. Your teeth look whiter than noon, noon, noon. You're not you when you're hungry.

You're a good hand with all things. You're under the influence with Terry O'Reilly. Way back in 1981, when I got out of Ryerson, I knew I wanted to be an advertising copywriter. It was all I could dream about. So I sat down, wrote up an interesting resume and cover letter, and sent it off to 60 advertising agencies from coast to coast. And promptly got back 61 rejection letters.

True story. One agency rejected me twice. So one day on a lark, I dropped off my resume to a small radio station in Burlington, Ontario. I didn't want to work for a radio station. I really wanted to work for a big advertising agency in Toronto. But no agency would have me. So I left my resume at the radio station. To my surprise, they called me back to arrange an interview. On the appointed day, I met the sales manager. He showed me around the

station, showed me the production studios. We waved at the DJ who was on the air, and then he introduced me to the creative director. It was all incredibly exciting. They said they would get back to me next week. And one week later, they called to offer me a copywriting job. I couldn't believe it. I was an official copywriter. And on top of that, I would get to learn at the feet of a creative director who would show me the ropes. On my first day, I walked into the creative director's office to say hi. And it was empty.

And I mean really empty. When I asked where the creative director was, I was told the station had let him go to bring me in. Suddenly, I was the creative director, and I knew nothing about writing radio commercials, and I mean nothing. It was a baptism by fire. The radio station had about 100 ongoing retail clients, and I had to write about a dozen commercials a day, sometimes more, and I had to produce those commercials. So I learned how to do it the hard way, but slowly and surely I got to understand the medium. I made mistakes, but I learned. And I got used to dealing with clients and I got the hang of presenting radio scripts.

More than anything, I got to experiment. I got to try different ways of writing scripts. I had to become resourceful when creating sound effects. When I needed a commercial recorded, I would hover around the studio as the morning DJ finished his shift. Then I would ambush him with a handful of scripts. I as the morning DJ finished his shift. Then I would ambush him with a handful of scripts. I could see the look in his eye. I was the only thing standing between him and the golf course. So I learned to be quick and efficient. But the most

amazing thing about my time at that small radio station was this. I fell in love with radio. I had no real interest in radio when I walked into that station. It was the only place that would hire me as a copywriter. Then doesn't it change the whole trajectory of my life? I eventually made my way to the big leagues, worked for some of the biggest and best advertising agencies in the country, excelled in radio, then co-founded a radio production company in 1990

that grew to have four recording studios in Toronto and another four in New York City. That little detour to that local radio station had a lasting impact on my life. And here I am talking to you on a national radio network. And to this day, the medium still fascinates me. The radio I knew back in 1981 sure has changed. Today, radio is shapeshifting and morphing into magnificent ideas that would be unrecognizable to a copywriter 30 years ago. In this episode, we take a trip to five different countries that have created astonishing radio advertising.

None of the ideas are safe, none of them are ordinary, and all of them are radio waves crashing against the shore of tradition. You're under the influence. Back in my copywriting days, my favorite medium was always radio. I was almost alone in that love, as most of my fellow ad agency copywriters much preferred print, and especially the glamour of television. As I've said in the past, many copywriters feel radio doesn't offer the same tools. It doesn't have sets, locations, wardrobe, props, or faces. In other words, it isn't television. So many writers find it limiting creatively. But I've always believed you could do more on radio than any other medium.

There are virtually no budget restrictions like there are in television. Want to create a radio commercial that takes place at the bottom of the ocean? No problem. But try adding a deep sea photography line item to a television budget. Want to take a walk inside a heart artery in a radio commercial? No problem. But try inserting a microscopic camera into a real heart artery, or even creating animation as a substitute in television. Radio, on the other hand, is only limited by imagination.

And that's why I love it. Every year, I scour the International Advertising Award shows to find the best advertising and thinking from around the world. In particular, I look to the London International Advertising Awards and the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. Both are a kind of world championship of creativity in the marketing industry. I'm particularly interested in the radio categories, and I'm always amazed at what I find. For example, one commercial I heard had all the hallmarks of a good radio spot. It was simple, it made one point well, and it made me laugh. It was for an independent film festival in Portugal called the Indy Lisboa.

The festival began back in 2004 and runs for 11 days each April. It offers the Portuguese public the unique opportunity to see Portuguese and foreign films from all genres that they might not be able to see at typical commercial theaters or on TV networks. So, how do you advertise a festival that offers an offbeat menu of films? Well, like this. It's gonna blow! This thing's gonna blow up. It's gonna blow! It's gonna blow! This whole building is gonna blow. It's gonna blow! This thing is gonna blow.

Harry, it's gonna blow! Hey, Hollywood is running out of ideas. Come see something new. In the Lisboa, 10th International Independent Film Festival. April 18th to 28th in the lisboa.com. Simple, funny, to the point. While it contains traditional radio commercial structure, it's still amusing and effective.

But radio is getting much more ambitious these days. And it's not being held back by the usual conventions. Take a recent radio idea to advertise the theatre Rigi Blick in Zurich, Switzerland. The theatre offers interesting and eclectic productions ranging from musicals to dance to Shakespeare. Like all arts organizations, the theater had a very limited marketing budget, but it wanted to raise its awareness.

So here's what it did. The theater sponsored the weather and traffic reports on Radio 1 in Zurich. But it didn't just say, this traffic report is brought to you by Theater Rigi Blick. Instead, the theater's top actors performed The Traffic Report. And today, our Traffic Report is presented to you by Theatre Rigi Blick. There are too many cars on route A1 Zurich to Winterthur.

Metal after metal, cage after cage. Three kilometres of stagnation and despair. Zurich, so near and yet so far. If you're driving on empty streets, in God's name, drive. If the streets are free, then you are free. As I've often said, the element of surprise is like rocket fuel in advertising and marketing. Having actors perform the traffic and weather reports was just that. And amazing to think Radio 1 in Zurich would even allow it.

But dare to push, and the world will always yield. Over 100,000 listeners were tuned into those broadcasts every day, so the theater got massive exposure for very little expenditure. A completely unexpected use of radio. And more than anything, it demonstrated firsthand that Theater Rigi Blick was one of the boldest and most creative theaters in Switzerland. In Brazil, Amnesty International chose radio to speak out about an important issue. In that country, only 40% of the victims of oppression and human rights violations contact authorities due to fear, shame, or ignorance. So, to inspire people to break the silence,

Amnesty did exactly that. There are a lot of tunnels in Brazil. People going to and from work every day go through these tunnels. And if you've ever driven in a tunnel, you know that you lose all radio signals as you drive, until you come out the other end. So Amnesty and its advertising agency DDB Brazil decided to take advantage of tunnels and broadcast

a radio message where there is no signal. To do that, special FM radio transmitters were installed inside the longest passageways. Remarkably, the top radio stations allowed Amnesty to pirate their frequencies inside the tunnels. Then, as the radio signal faded in the tunnel, listeners suddenly heard this. We're breaking radio silence inside a tunnel for the first time. Because for over 50 years, we've been fighting silence.

In any case of oppression or mistreatment, do not be quiet. Join the voices of Amnesty International. www.amnestyinternational.org When drivers emerged, the regular radio signals returned. Like theater riggy-blick, Amnesty had shown up in an unexpected place.

Everyone expects to lose radio signals in a tunnel. For people driving those tunnels every day, that signal loss is a daily routine. So imagine their surprise when a radio message suddenly popped up. And that message was to break the silence.

Sometimes, the creativity of a message isn't the message itself. It's where the message is delivered. As any new parent will tell you, the first couple of years with a baby are tough. Sleep deprivation is par for the course. Pampers is the number one diaper brand in the world. It produces diapers that are specifically designed to be absorbent and comfortable to help babies get an uninterrupted sleep

throughout the night. And when babies sleep all night, parents sleep all night. So Pampers asked its advertising agency in the Philippines to communicate that benefit to parents. As the ad agency thought about the task, they had an idea. Why just talk about the benefit of uninterrupted sleep when you could actually demonstrate it?

They chose white noise as their tool. Many studies around the world have shown that white noise has a sleep-inducing effect on babies, probably because it mimics the womb sound babies are used to. It also filters out and masks distracting noises. As a result, people often buy white noise machines to help babies sleep. Unfortunately, those machines cost over $100 and are too expensive for the average Filipino parent who earns just $10 per day. That's when the ad agency hit on a way

to provide white noise to parents for free. 90% of Filipino households own a radio. So the agency turned those radios into white noise machines. First, they found a radio frequency that no one owned. When you tuned to that frequency, you heard nothing but static. And what is static but white noise? They branded that channel Pampers ZZZ 91.1 FM. It broadcasts white noise 24-7, helping to put babies to sleep at night.

Pampers promoted the station through radio and TV commercials, posters, bumper stickers and social media. Sure enough, parents got their babies listening, the bambinos drifted off to sleep, and happy parents shared the news online with other parents. ZZZ 91.1 FM was so successful, mentions of Pampers on Facebook soared 2,011% during the campaign period. Even doctors commented on the success.

The goal is to help babies sleep better. It's very encouraging because it's free. I think it's unusual where a family will not have a radio home. It was one of those remarkable successes where Pampers' awareness rose substantially, sales rose as a result, and all because Pampers transformed over 25 million radios into free white noise machines simply by airing nothing.

But Pampers wasn't the only brand that wanted to put you to sleep. We'll be right back to our show. New year, new me. Season is here, and honestly, we're already over it. Enter Felix, the healthcare company helping Canadians take a different approach to weight loss this year. Weight loss is more than just diet and exercise. It can be about tackling genetics, hormones, metabolism. Felix gets it.

They connect you with licensed healthcare practitioners online who'll create a personalized treatment plan that pairs your healthy lifestyle with a little help and a little extra support. Start your visit today at felix.ca. That's F-E-L-I-X dot C-A. Whether you're in your running era, Pilates era, or yoga era, dive into Peloton workouts that work with you. From meditating at your kid's game to mastering a strength program, they've got everything you need to keep knocking down your goals. No pressure to be who you're not,

just workouts and classes to strengthen who you are. So no matter your era, make it your best with Peloton. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. In 2014, a product called Z-Quil was launched. It's an over-the-counter nighttime sleep aid for the relief of occasional insomnia. Z-Quil came up with an interesting idea for its launch campaign. One element of that included a helpline. But it was a highly unusual helpline. First, Z-Quil ran this radio commercial promoting the toll-free number.

At Z-Quil, we're committed to help you get your Zs, so we created 1-855-ZQUIL to gently bore you to sleep. So when you dialed 1-855-ZQUIL, you could choose from various options. Press 1 for the infinite digits of pi. Press 2 for Schedule A of a standard rental lease. Press 3 for a brief history of buckets. If you pushed 1 for the infinite digits of pi, you heard a long

dissertation of this. 3.14 159 265 If you wanted to hear the history of buckets, you heard this. The bucket is a hollow vessel used to contain a variety of items and materials. It is also sometimes referred to as a pail. Or if you wanted to be lulled into a stupor by the Jefferson High School graduating class list of 1978, you heard this.

Sabrina Aviencar. Christy Adima. Raul Agarwal. And if you were still awake at the end of those interesting options, you heard this. If you're still awake after that mind-numbing drivel, perhaps you need some Z-Quil after all. Nighty-night. Alexandra Andrel.

It was a fun and novel idea that firmly positioned Z-Quil as a new and interesting sleep aid. And get this. Within only four months, Z-QOL captured the number one position in the sleep aid category over leader Advil PM. It's so unusual for a product launch to overtake the established leader in a category. But ZQOL became the most talked about sleep aid on social media. It not only stole business from Advil PM, but it attracted new customers to the category, and it generated $123 million in sales, far exceeding its first-year goals. Press 1 for a lesson in the proper usage of a semicolon. The semicolon. Perhaps the most misunderstood piece of punctuation.

Proving, yet again, that creativity is a powerful business tool. As I've mentioned many times before, the element of surprise is one of the most powerful tools in marketing. It creates impact. Surprise is the vital element of any good story. As marketer John Steele says, in surprise lies the energy to change a mind, convince, inspire, recruit, or persuade. In other words, surprise is a catalyst for action. Which is why this radio commercial had such an impact on me. You know this voice.

It is as iconic as the speech of any president, the wailings of any rock star. You have heard this voice describe the wonders of our universe. You have heard it recount all the potentials of humanity, all the pitfalls. When you hear that voice, you automatically think of Stephen Hawking. But it wasn't. My name is Katie Johnson. I am a 12-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, and this is also my voice. Today, over 2.4 million Americans can choose from only a handful of computerized voices to speak.

By gathering voice donations, Vocal ID is making computerized voices more unique, more human, giving millions suffering from speech disabilities back their vocal identity. To learn more about how you can donate your voice, visit VocalID.co. As the commercial mentioned, people who have lost their ability to speak because of a neurological condition only have a limited number of computer-generated voices to choose from. Here is the real Stephen Hawking speaking. In 1988, I wrote a popular science book called A Brief History of Time. Did you know Stephen Hawking is British? You wouldn't from his computerized speech. Millions of people in North America cannot speak and use generic computerized speech. Millions of people in North America cannot speak and use generic computerized voices.

Think for a moment how much of our personality is wrapped up in our voices. The sound of your voice is a powerful and fundamental aspect of who you are. It is as unique as a fingerprint. That's why you can call up a friend and just say hi and they know it's you immediately. as a fingerprint. That's why you can call up a friend and just say hi, and they know it's you immediately.

So, speech scientist Dr. Rupal Patel founded a company called VocalID. Her company builds personalized voices for people who use computerized speech devices. As Dr. Patel described at a recent TED Talk, she was inspired to create VocalID after watching this unfold in front of her at a conference. I recall walking into an exhibit hall and seeing a little girl and a grown man having a conversation using their devices. Different devices, but the same voice. And I looked around and I saw this happening all around me. Literally hundreds of individuals using a handful of voices.

Vocal ID asks for people to donate their voices. It's similar to giving a blood donation. Except all you have to do is record a few hours of your voice reading various words and phrases. Then your voice is put into a voice bank. Next, Dr. Patel records sounds her patients can make, even if her patients have conditions like cerebral palsy and can only make vowel-like sounds. But even that sound is unique to that person, and in that sound is his or her unique vocal identity. Once the sound is captured, Dr. Patel's unique computer system searches that sound

against all the voices in her voice bank for the closest match. And when one is found, she begins to reverse engineer a customized voice and complete vocabulary for her patient. Now, a nine-year-old boy doesn't have to sound like this. We use these machines in school to communicate. Instead, he can sound like a nine-year-old boy. And more importantly, he can sound like himself.

As this nine-year-old boy named William did when he uttered his first words after working with Dr. Patel. Never heard me before. The point of all marketing is to communicate a message. But it's not enough for people to hear and merely understand your message. The true test of a commercial is to get somebody to act on the message. To achieve that, you need to infuse messages with emotion,

and you need to surprise listeners to create impact. The Vocal ID commercial did both for me, and I'm going to look into donating my voice. I spoke to a marketing class recently. I told them there has never been a more exciting time to be entering the world of advertising. For most of my career, there was a limited palette. Print, television, radio, outdoor posters posters and transit advertising were the mediums. But now the possibilities are so much greater and the thinking is so much freer.

Not only has the internet changed everything by opening up so many more channels, but even the thinking within existing channels is fascinating. And radio is no exception. We've all heard businesses sponsoring the weather and traffic reports on radio for years. But then theater riggy-blick turned that age-old sponsorship on its ear. Since radio began in the 1920s, the one place signals could never reach was inside tunnels. And that's why the Amnesty Tunnel message created so much impact. It showed up in a silent place to say,

Break the silence. That kind of thinking is so inspiring. When ZQOL wanted to get attention when it was launching, it hit on the idea of a toll-free helpline where it tried to bore you to sleep. So funny, so unexpected, and so relevant to the sleep aid category. Pampers help parents allow their babies to sleep by airing nothing on a radio frequency. Then there's the Vocal ID radio commercial.

It surprised me, intrigued me enough to track down more information than achieved the ultimate ask. It inspired me to entreat me enough to track down more information than achieve the ultimate ask. It inspired me to donate my voice. Such amazing ideas, using nothing more than sound and the imagination. All of which proves one thing, radio is still making waves. When you're under the influence. I'm Terry O'Reilly. This episode brought to you by Viagra.

Nothing upsets a pickle lover more than a dull, soggy pickle. Under the Influence was recorded at Pirate Toronto. Series producer Debbie O'Reilly. Sound engineer Keith Oman. Theme music by Ari Posner and Ian Lefevre. Follow us on Instagram at Terry O'Influence. And find bonus material on Facebook.

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