Audio Advertising
Advantages, disadvantages costs and production requirements
Introduction
Audio media is a form of promotion which allows businesses to be able to inform their customers of their business affairs. The most common form of audio media is through the use of radio stations but there are many others. Some of these include:
- store announcements
- PA systems
- Tannoy
Advantages
Some of the advantages of audio media are:
- that it makes use of sound - pitch and subtle tones are used to intrigue the listener and cause them to become more interested in the advert
- it is cheaper than TV - has a very low cost of production
- it can be highly localised because it can be advertised on specific channels
- national coverage
Disadvantages
Some disadvantages of audio media are:
- there is no visual impact because only sound is used to inform the listener
- the listener cannot refer back to the advert at a later date because adverts on radio cannot be recorded easily. This means that listeners could miss the advert and not be able to find it again without waiting a long time for it to come back on to the station
- listeners may choose to switch stations rather than listening to the advert
- fewer people listen to the radio than watch TV so fewer people will hear the advert
- fairly small audience (only really housewives and commuters) so less people will hear the advert
Costs
Audio costs vary massively due to the fact that there are many forms of audio advertising. For example, to advertise on the radio would cost around £1500 for a local advertising station and around £3000 for national stations (http://www.pauldenton.co.uk/radio-advertising.html) whereas advertising via tannoys costs far less.
Radio costs are obviously going to be far less than TV adverts because there are many more viewers of TV than there are listeners of radio.
These costs are obviously very low and work out at about £2.50 per advert.
Production Requirements
There are far fewer production requirements for radio adverts because only the sound is recorded whereas with TV they need to have visual recordings as well as sound. Some of the requirements which they do have are:
- a sound recording studio (with equipment)
- a specialist in the career of recording to ensure that the sound quality is clear
- voice actors
- a specialist editor who can edit the recordings