Latest MEDIA articles

(Time) Sensitivity Training

A recent Radio campaign gave me a nasty headache. It broke so many basic rules that I had to bang my head on the desk repeatedly just to make sure I wasn’t having some dreadful nightmare. Sadly, it was all too real. Since misery loves company, I’d like to share with you what I heard [...]

Strategic Versus Tactica

It’s a war out there. Tactical commercials are dominating the airwaves like never before. Clients are using short-term ads to list things like: current specials; hours of operation; years in business; and parking details. Information like this is the cornerstone of tactical ads. The trouble is, tactical ads are disposable. The spots change constantly with [...]

Magic Words

I’ve worked with a lot of sales reps over the years. Many were wonderful. A few were not. The vast majority, though, have been pretty good. There is however one rep that will always hold a singular place in my tortured past. Whenever I was up to my neck in last minute accounts and needy [...]

The Enemy Within

It’s Monday morning. A client has just delivered a stinging load of venom into your sales rep’s ear. Apparently, his radio campaign was “a failure”. The sales rep, in turn, passes this news along to the creative department, the production people and anyone else within range. The questions are always the same: Who dropped the [...]

First Time Jitters

Congratulations! You’ve finally convinced that new client to use Radio for the first time. It hasn’t been an easy sell so you want to do everything possible to make sure the campaign works. That’s good for Radio. It’s even better for the client. However, as the ink dries on the contract, the client starts to [...]

The Creative Sales Call

When I became a Radio writer, one of my first assignments was to go on a sales call. It actually surprised me that I’d be given such an important task right out of the gate. However, I soon discovered that I would attend all sales calls whenever the Creative Director was “too busy” (which was [...]

Television Proves Radio Works

The other night, while scanning the channels, a commercial came on that I had seen several times. On this occasion however, something caught my attention. Here’s the scenario: Man and woman (celebrities) in a long-running series of commercials based on a playful battle of wits. She offers him five dollars for his old telephone. He [...]

Plug The Leaks In Your Radio Commercials

A scourge is sweeping the broadcasting industry. It’s not new. It has been around for decades but from this day forward, you will have the tools to help rid the world of this insidious evil. My goal today is to help you identify, hunt down and plug “Effectiveness Leaks” that can creep into your commercials [...]

Thinking Outside Of The Box Office

Let me begin by stating, contrary to popular belief, no brand, trademark, or product appears on your television or movie screen by accident. There are numerous tools and technologies available to marketers, providing implied celebrity endorsement opportunities within filmed entertainment content. These product placements can be dramatically enhanced from media and sales promotion [...]

Television And The Decline Of English Canada

The following is a presentation given, at the University of Montreal and Simon Fraser University, to the Spry Foundation (as in CBC co-founder Graham Spry). The speech was presented by Daryl Duke, the Emmy Award-winning director and founder of Vancouver’s CKVU-TV who was recently inducted into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.
My questions involve a [...]

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