1. Radio Advert
Evaluation
By Jamie Boon

2. 1. What creative decisions did you have to make to solve problems and
how did this depart from your original plan?
It had to be 30 seconds long and when we finished our first advert it was
35 seconds long. This was five seconds too long and as a result we had to
edit it to make it shorter and within the time limit. We had to remove the
wave sound in the beginning of the advert which is a shame because it
really set the scene for the advert and make it really easy for listeners to
realize what the advert is about. This meant that the advert jumped
straight in and it could have been better had the waves sound was
included in the advert. There was also a small issue when choosing the
music, as there was really nothing that fitted well into the background. I
wanted a calm background track in the advert to make it more
appealing to listen to and it took me a while to find one track that worked
well. When recording there was a lot of laughing and dead air which just
added more work for us when we had to edit it. We also had to re-record
other parts of the advert due to this to make it more believable. Overall it
really didn’t depart much from our original plan, this advert still represents
what we were trying to sell to the listener except we did not have the
wave sound in the beginning.

3. 2.Both individually and working with others how did you work and what
challenges did you face?
There were a couple challenges I faced when making the advert. Working
with others was never a problem, as I was familiar with everyone and this
made it easier to work with these people. One of the challenges we faced
was having realistic voices – we had to call in people from other groups to
help us with the voices of two characters. We worked pretty well in the
sense that we got our recording done really quickly which gave us a lot of
time left over for editing purposes. This meant had a lot of time to perfect
our advert and make sure there was no dead air or voice distortion. The first
problem we had was making sure our script was good enough. Working
with someone else meant that we both have to agree on something for it
to be included in the script. This often lead to disagreement when writing
the script and took us a lot longer than it should have to complete it.

4. 3. What advertising techniques did you use to hook your intended target
audience?
There were a couple advertising techniques we used to hook the
intended audience. The main technique we used was repetition – this
meant that the name of the company we are talking about (waves surf
shop) stays in the listener’s mind while they are listening to the advert.
We found this to be very effective as the people who listened to this
advert thought it was effective and did the intended purpose. Another
technique we used on our advert was making our company sound
really good. We often used things such as description of the company
and what it did to portray how good it was, but in an enthusiastic
manner that engaged the reader.

5. 4. How did technology enable the creative process? Was it difficult to
use any of the equipment and did you learn any skills?
Technology made the creative process easy. We used a recording
device that was easy to use so it meant we had an easy time recording.
We re-recorded certain parts of the advert to make them sound better
and not distorted with unnecessary background noise. I learned how to
use the recording device from using it in our advert and I now feel
confident in using it. I also had not used Audacity in a few years so it was
nice to become more familiar with it again.

6. 5. What conventions of radio adverts have you used or not used and
why?
The conventions we used helped to make the radio advert more
believable. We used a couple conventions such as bedding music and
overenthusiastic voices. We also originally had a wave sound in the
beginning which would immediately tell the listener what they were
listening to but we had to take it out due to issues with it being too long.
We also included contact details and persuasive language to persuade
people to come to waves surf shop and spend lots of money.

7. 6. What or who are you representing in your advert and how?
In this advert I am representing the stereotype of surfers. Generally
people recognize them as laid back and American with a loud and
obnoxious voice. I have done an accent in this advert that is also loud
and pretty relaxed which is what people think most surfers are. This is
good because people can relate to those stereotypes and instantly
recognize who the person talking is.

8. 7. What feedback did you get and did this help you realise anything
about your product?
The feedback I received said my advert was really good. There were no
issues with voice distortion or bad editing and the people who listened
to it said it was good. It helped me realize the importance of good
recording as I listened to other people’s adverts and they had problems
with sound and it had a big impact on their advert.