Politically Correct - Using Radio to Win an Election

Whether you're running for local, state, or national office, radio advertising can be the most effective (and cost-efficient) way to win the hearts and minds of the voters. A 37-year radio advertising veteran shares valuable insider's tips to help you harness the power of human speech and emotion in your radio commercials, and energize your campaign with the force of real-people endorsements.




As best I can recall, I've never put myself in a position to create a radio campaign for a candidate that I did not want to win the election. Just as I prefer to create advertising for clients whose businesses, products, and services I believe in, I prefer to limit my professional involvement in political campaigns to candidates I'd vote for myself. I am grateful to be in a position to indulge in this luxury.



This is not to say that every candidate whose radio I've handled has ultimately prevailed. The voters have the final say and the outcome is absolute, whether I agree or disagree with it. Fortunately, my track record has tallied more wins than losses over the years; and none of my candidate-clients has ever complained about the quality of my work, regardless of the outcome of the election.



It is a common practice among candidates for office to secure endorsements from voters who support them. Often these endorsements take the form of letters to the editor or newspaper advertisements containing the names of dozens, scores, even hundreds or thousands of supporters. When two or more candidates take this approach (as is often the case), one list of names is pitted against another, diminishing the intended effect.



A much better way to maximize the potential of a personal endorsement is to wield the matchless power of human speech (of which print is an imitation) to create an emotional as well as an intellectual impact, and combine it with the pervasiveness and intrusiveness of radio, the ubiquitous "go anywhere" medium that reaches and influences millions of Americans every hour of every day.



Understanding the bond between listeners and their radio stations is a topic for another day. The Radio Advertising Effectiveness Lab (RAEL) has for the better part of the past decade conducted impressive research into radio advertising's emotional engagement, relevance, and influence upon listener-consumers. This research is available free of charge through the industry's national trade association, the Radio Advertising Bureau.



For now, I'd like to share a practical illustration of how an effective radio campaign can be built around real people, using resources readily available to most candidates at their local radio stations.



Five candidates were vying for an open seat on the Washington State Legislature in the recent primary election, held August 18th. Washington being a vote-by-mail state, ballots were sent out at the end of July, giving voters several weeks to make their choice. One of the quirky and somewhat controversial aspects of our primary is that the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election. This particular race was among four Republicans and one Democrat. I am pleased to report that the candidate whose radio advertising I was asked to handle, ended up cinching the top spot by a comfortable margin over the second-place finisher, another Republican, whose late husband had occupied this particular seat in the legislature until his (ultimately unsuccessful) battle with cancer forced him to vacate the position. The individual appointed to fill the remainder of his term, a former state legislator himself, chose not to run again.



My recommendation to my client was to start early and advertise consistently. Given the size of our sprawling district - larger than the state of Connecticut - we had several radio markets to cover. The plan was to introduce the candidate, her background and qualifications, and then build the campaign around the endorsements of people throughout the district who know and support her candidacy.



I did not want to use prepared scripts and risk having the individuals sound stilted and artificial, which is often the case when asking people to read from a printed page words that are not their own. Rather, I chose to interview - in person or over the phone - the people whose endorsements might be meaningful to voters. Most of these interviews lasted from ten or fifteen minutes; some took considerably longer. I had prepared a list of questions designed both to keep the conversation focused and to elicit meaningful answers. But we kept the conversation open enough so that each individual might have ample opportunity to share his or her insights.



As all experienced writers and producers well know, the greatest challenge (and the real work) is in the editing. I'm not referring simply to removing pauses, stumbles, "uhs" and all the little mouth noises - the saliva clicks, plosive pops, excessive sibilance and clipping - though this is certainly a part of the process, and can require scores of individual edits. Rather, I'm talking about the choice of which ideas, words and phrases to keep, which ones to leave out, and how best to combine them to convey the intended message clearly and effectively. It is painstaking and time-consuming; one might devote several hours of concentrated effort to the creation of a single one-minute spot. But this investment of time and effort often makes all the difference when it comes to the end result.



I created seven commercials for my candidate's primary election effort. Most of them went through several revisions and refinements, based on input from the client and her campaign staff. We ran them sequentially, each airing exclusively for a few days before being replaced by the next.



One of the ironies of the outcome of this primary race (to me, anyway) was that the candidate who theoretically should have conducted the most effective broadcast campaign, given his background in television journalism, his current position in marketing and communications, and his campaign promise to be, in his words, "your communications warrior" came in a distant fifth of the five candidates. He did his own radio spots, in which he sounded quite confident (some thought perhaps a bit cocky) that he was the man for the job. But his strategy, as embodied by his radio schedule, proved anemic. He ran ads (fairly heavily) for just two days during the entire campaign: the day the ballots were received in the mail, and again several weeks later, on the Monday before the election. By contrast, the top two contenders' radio campaigns were much more consistent.



Ultimately, my candidate's greater reliance on radio proved the best overall plan. Even her main competitor acknowledged this, specifically citing her radio campaign: According to a newspaper report:



Pat Hailey, republican candidate for the 9th District House position, said Fagan is likely in the lead because she spent more money and had an extensive radio advertising campaign.



Running for office? Enlist the assistance of a radio advertising professional who can help you uncover and tell the story that is uniquely yours. Put the power of radio to work for your campaign.