Maine Business Owners Find Advertising Inspiration From Away

Quick. What is the number-one job of every commercial that is purchased by a Maine small business owner on Portland radio? (Cue final Jeopardy music).

If you answered that the most important job of a radio commercial is to sell a product or service, then you would be wrong. Oh, so wrong.

The number one job of a radio commercial is to be heard. Only if a commercial is heard can it be remembered. And only when it is remembered, can an ad on Portland radio create a sale.

To buy a campaign on a Portland station, all anyone needs is a calculator and a budget. But injecting that ad into the medial temporal lobe of the brain (the place memories are made) is a little more challenging.

You see, the exact second a radio commercial starts, the listener is being bombarded with 11,000,000 other pieces of data. The human brain, however, can only deal with about 50 chunks of that information at a time, Yikes.

So, how can the commercial for a car dealer in Westbrook or a salon owner in Falmouth, or the appliance store owner in Standish compete against the tsunami of data wresting for the attention of a target customer? That I can tell you in one word: CREATIVE.

Creative Is King

According to a recent study by Nielsen, the most potent component of a commercial that can convert a Portland radio listener into a customer is the creative. It is more important than reach. More important than frequency. More important than targeting. Creative drives sales. Creative is king.

Maine Small Business Advertising on Portland Radio Commercials

Most Maine small business owners are usually a master of their craft. Real estate agents know how to give a house curb appeal. Dentists know how to give smiles sex appeal. And attorneys know how to win cases for clients on appeal.

But ask any one of those business owners to write a commercial and the flop-sweat begins due to the lack of inspiration. Most merchants figure they lack the originality to be part of producing an original commercial.

Originality, it turns out, might be a little overrated. After all, any magician will tell you, there are only seven magic tricks in the whole world and every illusion performed is just a derivative of one of these seven. For a comedian, every old joke is new if the audience has never heard it before.

So, when it comes time for a Maine small business owner to advertise on Portland radio, it is okay to help themselves to a bit of inspiration from what has come before. In the words of Pablo Picasso, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.”

Take a listen to these 5 awesome radio commercials from the furthest corners of the globe. Each is guaranteed to provide a dose inspiration to the least creative member of Maine’s small business community. I can only hope that one day, small nuggets of these examplary ads can be transformed by a tire-store owner in Biddeford; a restaurant owner in Waterboro; or a CPA in Buxton into an attention grabbing campaign on Portland Radio.

1. “Barry The Disclaimer Guy” Advertiser: Ice Break Extra Shot Ice Coffee. Producer: The Monkeys Agency, Australia

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