Fastest form of communications is visual in the brand development process
March 18, 2015
By Ken Gasque
In a recent blog I was praising the power of the visual’s ability to communicate, —“We buy with our eyes”—and a reader, a friend and a Radio Sales Rep, took me to task and said not so fast, radio is a pretty effective medium as well. He’s right. Some of the best advertising I have ever witnessed has been radio.
Back in the 50’s and 60’s there was a creative talent that the National Association of Broadcasters hired to illustrate the power of radio. He produced a few radio spots that the member stations broadcast from time to time to inspire and convince their prospects and customers that radio was a good medium to use. He illustrated how powerful a creative message could be and how to make radio more viable and a better experience. It worked. Or at least it did for me. I still remember one of the spots.
The writer and producer was the talented Stan Freberg. I was telling my reader about the radio spot from memory adding all the sound effects and quoting the clever copy. However, I discovered later after listening to the spot again that I had enhanced it considerable. I am going to give the version I remembered and then you can listen to the spot for yourself and you will see the difference.
The purpose of the radio spot is to convince a sponsor that radio was better than TV. Stan Freberg is the radio sales person. To make his point Stan tells the sponsor he is going to create a sundae the size of Lake Erie. Lake Erie has been drained and filled with chocolate. Thousands of cement mixer trucks will descend on Lake Erie churning their whip cream cargo and dump tons of whipped cream into the chocolate lake and then the Royal Canadian Air Force will fly over and drop a 10 ton Maraschino Cherry on top while 25,000 extras will cheer loudly. The commercial starts and you hear the whip cream going into the lake then Stan cues the Royal Canadian Air Force and you hear the whining of planes flying over and you hear the cherry being released. It drops like a screaming bomb, it hits with a splash and the 25,000 extras start cheering. Do you hear it in your mind? And do you SEE it? Then Stan says, “Now let me see you do that with TV.”
I saw it and remembered it. However, without realizing it I became involved in it and enhanced the visual. Stan Freberg did not have thousands of cement mixer trucks making the whipped cream. He had a ‘mountain of whipped cream’ which he had magically slide into Lake Michigan not Lake Erie. www.ittybittyurl.com/2DO4
If you ever listened to radio dramas such as Gunsmoke you know your mind creates the visual and you become part of the story. You still ‘Buy with your eyes” because your minds eye sees the action. Radio allows you to see yourself in the action.
The real magic of radio is you can create anything. You can have 10 ton Maraschino Cherries and lakes filled with chocolate and whip cream. You can have the Coliseum in Rome or the Grand Canyon filled with books as Amazon did when it first began and needed to create awareness and build its brand. You can create an experience. Experience is what brands are and that is an essential part of the brand development process. Seeing something in your mind can be the same thing as being there. The real magic of radio is creativity and how you can involve your listener. You are limited only by your creativity.
My favorite Stan Freberg production is Stan Freberg Presents the United States of America, Volume One: The Early Years.
About Ken Gasque
Ken Gasque is a brand image-maker, marketing planner and designer. Ken works with small companies and Fortune 500 companies who recognize the need to differentiate their products and services to stand out in a cluttered market. Ken is a highly visual, outside-the-box-thinker on advertising, branding and marketing—his work reflects his belief that “We buy with our eyes.” Ken writes and lectures on brands, design, images and brand development.
