1. Commercial Production Process
By Amber Goodship-Cox

2. Radio Commercials and Target Audience
Radio commercials are adverts than last seconds during a radio show. The adverts are put on the radio so that it can sell or show something.
They use codes and conventions in the advertisements which depend on which target audience the company is aiming to appeal to . Examples of this is that the company have to inform their audience about the product, entertain the audience and persuade them to buy the product advertised.
The companies need to alter all the components in their advertisement to fit their target audience. For example they will need to create the content , voice actors , music and sound effects to fit what their target audience is appealed to. For example an advert for a zoo is likely to have animal sound effects along with excited voices as it is targeting families.

3. Commercial Production Facilities and Locations
Large national radio stations have finances to use facilities and different companies to create their advertisements. They can afford facilities such as a studio and they can also afford a choir to create the music for their advert or digitally make the music.
Stations that are smaller and local , less mainstream or local radio stations don’t always have the funding to pay for facilities out of house so therefore they make it in house. They could also use celebrities or popular voice actors if they apply to the advert which will be more expensive than less popular and not as well known voice actors.

4. Job Roles
Creative Producer- This role means they create radio adverts as a response to a client brief as well as station promotions. They also generate ideas and then pitch them along with managing client briefings and writing scripts. They need to work closely with sales and marketing , sponsorship and promotion and programming colleagues in order to get the best result for the audience as well as the client.
Recording Engineer- Being a recording engineer means you will make high quality recordings of music, speech and sound effects. For this you need to have a good understanding of musical pitch, timing and rhythm.
Copywriter- They work with client briefs to conceive , develop and produce advertising campaigns. The copywriter provides the verbal or written word for the adverts. This includes creating slogans , catch- phrases , messages and straplines for adverts. As well as scripts for radio jingles and TV commercials. They also oversee the voice talent, studio production and distribution of the adverts.
Voice Actors- The job role of this person is to be the voice of the company. They need to be able to have a wide variety of speeds and tones of voice available. Some companies use celebrity voice actors so that it creates a memorable advert as they will recognise the voice. It will also entice a fan of that celebrity to buy the product.
Session Vocalist- These vocalists usually play live performances for adverts or write songs for the advert.

5. Music use in Radio Commercial Production
Sting- This is a short musical phrase that’s been pre-recorded. It can be used in broadcasting and films as punctuation. An example of this is at the beginning or the end of a section of a show or to show that there's a dramatic climax. Tag- A tag is a live advertisement of another show on the radio. Bed- Music underneath the commercial to create a theme. E.g. upbeat music for positivity.
Music is frequently used in commercials. Some adverts contain popular music however this is expensive due to the fact that music from artists that are with labels are governed by copyright laws which means that they have to pay a large amount of money for every 10 seconds of the song used in the advert. However , some adverts use non copyright music from creators or by using their own music that can be made digitally or by recording live music and editing it.
The PRO (performance rights organisation) gathers song writing performance royalties from music users and then get the songwriters and publishers to pay.

6. Budgeting and Finance
Voice over artist fees- The costs of a voice over artist for or a 15 second advert for a local radio station costs £97 and for a regional station it’s an additional 25% and for national it’s an additional 500% and for international its an additional 1000%.
The trafficking costs for advertising is charged at £2 per thousand listeners at one time.
The cost of creating a radio commercial is averaged £2000.
The cost of gaining the rights to music used would be £25000.
£1000 a week may also be paid for the advert to be played on the station.
Stations use advertisements from sponsors as a way to fund themselves . The more listeners the station has , the more money the sponsors will pay. On the most popular show of the day on the radio station (e.g. morning and afternoon) the costs of sponsors having their advert on the show increase as it means more people will hear the advert which means more people will want to buy the product. This is called a trafficking cost.

7. References
ages/studiosoundengineer.aspx
radio-advertising-copywriter/