Some dealers like them. Others think they sound inferior. I’m referring to radio commercials voiced over the phone by someone at the car dealership. No matter what you may think of them, when we create these types of spots for our clients – they definitely cut through the clutter.
If done correctly, the purpose of phone recorded radio commercials is not to deliver something that sounds pristine. They are not for branding purposes or for a week long or ongoing campaigns. Spots voiced over the phone are done to effectively driving traffic on a specific day for a special sales event.
The phone recording can be delivered by someone at the dealership or by announcer from within the radio station, still on the phone, but giving the feel that they are “live on the scene”. However, the language used to talk about the event can never be as powerful as when someone is actually on location and conveying the message that “we are here now for this ‘one day’ sales event”.
When voiced by the sales manager or one of the sales reps, you want to make sure they are energetic enough while remaining personable. (At SpotWorks, we can record you and edit the final spot together to sound fluent and powerful). The writing for these types of commercials should not be fancy or clever. The content should be all about what is happening now.
Who, What, Why, Where and NOW!
The language of NOW combined with your strong event themed offers is all you need to attract browsers and buyers to your car dealership. You’ll be reaching people in their cars on a Friday or Saturday afternoon. These commercials can also replace the cost paying hundreds of dollars to have a live on-location remote by a radio station.
Tips for Effective Phone Recorded Commercials.
- They should be written to present strong offers happening at that moment and urgency, but should be delivered in a way that sounds natural and live.
- They only need to be 30 seconds long and in fact, radio stations may prefer this so as to not turn off listeners.
- They can also include a studio announcer who introduces the car dealer and to close the commercial with strong call to action.
- If done in a more extended interview style, a 60 second format will allow for more offers and urgency (including time for a disclaimer if you want to be more specific about your incentives).
- They should only run within the hours of your event, 1 or 2 days max. And the fact that they are on the phone and sounding live means you don’t need to run as many spots to be heard.
- Phone spots should be recorded from a land line to maintain a strong presence of voice throughout.
- Light crowd sound effects can be added to give it the feel that you are amount a busy crowd of buyers in your showroom.
This commercial below written by one of our dealer clients was not specifically created to convey a one day event, but you’ll get the idea of how clean and ‘attention grabbing’ it can sound…
With over 25 years experience writing and producing radio commercials for all car dealer brands, SpotWorks can create strong copy for you to deliver on the phone. Most often, car dealers write what they want to say and send it to us. We can clean it up and make sure it times out to 30 seconds (or 60 seconds in the case of a phone interview commercials) and also ensure the language used will drive traffic with urgency.
Once the script is confirmed we simply set up a time for you to record and then deliver the finished commercial to your radio station.
To get started email us or call.
Since we’re talking about the phone, learn more about our fun and entertaining phone messages on hold for your business.
