Copywriting for radio and TV

Fundraisers are fundamentally copywriters. When thinking about how to advertise your product/campaign it is important to know how the advertising world works so that you can use it to your advantage. Here is a brief outline about Radio and TV. Writing taken from Patrick Quinn's Copywriting Manual. You can purchase your own hard copy of the book described by Patrick as 'a workbook. It lays out the nuts and bolts of copywriting, and then shows you how to assemble them via tried-and-tested methods.

If you wish to receive a copy (135 pages) please telephone UK on 01721 730 350 and his address is One-to-One, Cowieslinn, Eddleston, Peebleshire, EH45 8QZ.

Cost is approximately £30 at the time of going to press. Please tell him that you got the address from Alba Fundraising Ltd.

Everything about press copy, generally speaking applies equally to radio and television commercial scripting. Your spot must be attractively presented and contain information useful to the recipient.

Timing

Both radio and TV commercial can be bought in 10-second segments. As far as writing them is concerned, the more time you have at your disposal the better. However, good things, creative things, can be done even with nominal 10-second spots.

Pauses have both a dimension in time and an auditory value.

For more modest budgets, however, there is a thing called mood-music. You will find libraries in both regional radio stations and those recording studios, which tackle commercials. Mood-music is specifically produced for use as sound effects and, to use it, you pay only a nominal fee. The same goes for pure sound effects: doors closing, hooters blowing, applause and the like.

Radio station or commercial studio

Once you have your radio scripts you need to produce it. You can either take the script to your regional radio station, or employ a private recording studio. Either way they will hire the necessary voice-over artists, source any effects, and lay the sound down for you.

Writing to a voice

When working with big names, it's important to study their particular brand of humour. That goes without saying. Just as critical is an intimacy with their pace, timing and idiosyncratic usage of key words - quite apart from catch-phrases, chuckles, sniffs and sighs.

TV

There is two kinds of TV script: the storyboard script and the shooting script. The first is an outline script, which is used by art directors to rough out a visual storyboard. The second is a precise rendering of your script and is produced by the director of the film. It details the exact timings of every scene, and indicates camera direction.

With television you are working in two mediums at the same time: sound and pictures. Therefore, the script is split into two separate, but synchronised, parts: audio and video.

In the advertising scheme of things, television is certainly the hardest hitting of all the media. Television has the benefit of visual stimulation, the attraction of immediacy and the advantage of reaching its audience when it is most receptive: when people are relaxing in their own homes.

Patrick Quinn runs a series of exercises each containing 3 projects for you to work on to firm up your skills. Our project is assessed in writing. One of the exercise topics is Radio & TV Commercial Scripting. Contact him on the address in the introduction if you are interested (Price £35 per exercise).

Summary

Obviously as a fundraiser you need to know how the above works. Patrick believes that anyone can be a successful copywriter. Most fundraisers are having to copy write at some time due to time pressures. It is a very useful skill to have.

Even if you do have Agencies working with you it is good to be able to recognise what is good and will work and what is bad and may not. After all, although acknowledging the expertise that agencies have, it is recommended that fundraising is slightly different to a usual selling strategy and it is up to the fundraiser to provide the professional fundraising side of an advert.

There are other ways to get on TV and radio and that is to find mediums where you can be interviewed e.g. talk shows etc. There are also companies who will set up interviews for you with regional radio stations. They suggest that you get a celebrity to talk on behalf of your organisation as of course this is easier to attract attention. Then they get the celebrity in and set up a series of interviews. This is both economical and the celebrity can do a lot in a short space of time. One such company is Online in London (address in Resources Centre).