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Advertisers are going radio ga-ga
Published on Tue, May 16, 2006 at 16:45, Updated on Tue, May 16, 2006 at 16:58 in 
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Mumbai: Radio advertising has already grown 50 percent from last year. And advertisers are now asking for more commercial time on air.
It means good news for creativity in the medium.
No more is radio advertising created out of the scraps of TV commercials, radio spots now command bigger budgets and agencies are assigning senior writers to write copy for radio.
CCO and Chairperson of Ambience Publicis Elsie Nanji said, "We need to look for people with skills that suit radio - whether that means people with drama or stage experience".
While trying to bring in more advertisers, some stations are approaching clients directly and showing them how to advertise on radio. Their advice: think beyond the 30-second spot.
Some clients are taking this literally and weaving themselves into programming.
Mumbai listeners were quite used to RJ Jaggu's overweight status being milked for laughs on his good morning Mumbai show and go 92.5 fm saw an opportunity to cash in on his mission to go from fat to fit.
It tied up with the Saffola healthy heart foundation and for 15 lakh rupees, worked wonders for the client.
Category Head of Marico R Chandraseker said, "We did focus groups where people remember the Jaggu ad more than anything else and our diet plan saw a response of 1500 SMS in one day".
When asked if she could remember any radio advertisement, Archana, a listener said, "I do listen to the radio but the ads are not catchy enough that I would remember them now".
Another listener Sadanand said, "We used to listen songs over radio and stop it when an advertisement aired".
Although listeners have learned how to tune out of advertising on radio, but advertisers are not in a mood to give in easily.
Meanwhile stations have raised ad rates by upto 20 per cent this year.
In Mumbai a station like Radio Mirchi commands upto Rs 2,500 per 10 sec spot while go 92.5 FM, which recently turned Hindi, charges upto Rs 1,000 for 10 secs.
While Phase 2 of private FM is meant to boost local advertising, most experts feel, that at these prices, only larger clients will be able to afford creative advertising and small advertisers will be relegated to radio versions of the classifieds.
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