by Doug Zanger

One of the strongest aspects of radio is the emotion. There is never a shortage of it. Think about music for a moment. Every song that plays on every station everywhere around the world means something to someone. Think about talk formats. One can run the gamut of emotion listening to varied opinions. There is anecdotal and documented evidence that emotion is one of radio’s core strengths.

In Chapters 3 and 4 of Lovemarks, Kevin Roberts dives into emotion. The most salient point made in the third chapter is that “human beings are powered by emotion, not by reason” and that “the essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” Rational thought dictates that rational thought is that “what” a consumer searches for while the emotional side drives them to the “why” they buy it. As Roberts explains in the book, most of our emotions tend to be negative and that is more a function of survival. But despite that, there is one emotion that is most fundamental and powerful: love.

In Chapter 4, Roberts lists the six truths of love:

1. Human beings need love. Without it they die.
2. Love means more than liking alot.
3. Love is about responding, about delicate, intuitive sensing.
4. Who and what we love.
5. Love takes time.
6. Love cannot be commanded or demanded.

Truths 2, 5 and 6 may be the most relevant in the discussion of radio. On the station/brand side, you can always find strong, powerful emotions from listeners. They will stop at nothing to tell you how much they love your radio station. I’ve given presentations and asked the audience what radio stations they love. More often than not, I get a strong response of people yelling out names of radio stations. When I ask them what their favorite TV station is, I tend to get crickets. People may like certain shows and there are some notable stations/networks that people love (HGTV, ESPN, etc.) but it takes a little time to think it through.

For advertisers, that love can be a little more fleeting and can take some time as evidenced in truths 5 and 6. Advertisers on the local level may not have the patience or the budget to grow the love but, at the same time, that love cannot necessarily be commanded or demanded. Which is an interesting conundrum but one that is actually easier to manage than people may think. It comes down to developing the idea of likability first. In the entertainment and media world the Q score is a determining factor in fame and likability. Products and brands use it as well. It gauges familiarity and appeal which can be loosely translated into, well, love.

DDB/Chicago’s Bud Light “Real Men of Genius” is, without question, more than just “liked.” People (especially men) love this campaign. Empirically, one could argue that is one of the best radio campaigns in the history of the medium. On a local level, the basic ideas of this campaign can be easily adapted, not by pure style, but rather the spirit of what the campaign is about. It’s memorable, it’s funny, it’s just good advertising that people look forward to hearing. In my experience, I have had discussions about which “Real Men of Genius” spot is the best. That’s “love” hard at work.

It takes a strong discipline to get this kind of remarkable creative. But part of that discipline involves flopping a few times, it involves trying and re-trying things. Just like love, the creative process takes some time. In all fairness, the reality is that local advertisers just don’t have the time to devote to the creative. They are plenty busy running their own business. What’s vitally important, though, is that any and all creative resources and opportunities should be looked at. Some point to a grave deficiency in creative support at the local level (a discussion for another time) and, quite frankly, it’s not very fair to expect a sales pro to do creative, nor is it fair to expect an overstretched, overstressed production department to stop the flow of their day to spend hours on creative that people will love. It’s a perplexing issue. However, the bottom line is that it’s important for an advertiser to get a little love going. What that means or how it sounds varies widely, but even just working towards that goal is an important first step.

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