We've been out and about visiting another client. This week we went to see David Couch, MD and Creative Director at Maple Street Studios, a leading UK based creative agency specialising in sound. Ok, so we didn't make it live on air, but we did chat to David about the radio industry and Maple Street Studios' approach to creating successful radio ad campaigns.

Hi David. Tell us a about Maple Street Studios. 
We are a creative agency that specialises in SOUND.  We’re most famous for our radio campaigns (in any language!) but we’re also a creative partner of Spotify who use us as their creative team for campaigns across Europe and in America.

David, what’s your role a Maple Street?
I’m the Managing Director and Creative Director all wrapped up in one.

Do you believe that visual forms of advertising and audible forms are equal in their effectiveness, or do you think one is more effective than the other?
I don’t believe one form is more effective than the other; it’s all about using the right tools for the right platform.  TV has it all and yet for every gem of an advert there is no shortage of crap.  The big mistake is when people apply one way of thinking to everything. A good example is wordy, overly-complicated billboard ads that are clearly just a bigger version of a magazine ad, or when a radio advert is clearly the audio lifted from a TV commercial.  It’s absolutely right to have a cohesive theme for your campaign across all media, but you have to appreciate that each platform requires its own unique creative approach in order to be effective.

What general demographics do you believe are most easily reached through radio advertising and why do you believe this is so?
The latest audience figures for radio are amazing! 92% of the UK population listens to the radio every week and within that, commercial radio gets an average of 13.2 hours per person per week.  EVERYONE listens to the radio, even when you don’t think you do. Climb into a London Taxi and you’ll probably find yourself listening to TalkSport. Go shopping on Oxford Street and chances are you’ll hear Capital or Kiss.  Radio delivers every demographic.  You just need a good agency (like us, hint hint) to give you the insight needed to target that demographic and the right creative idea to compel them to do something. 

How critical do you see the role of music in radio advertising?
Sound and in particular, MUSIC is to a radio ad what FONT and COLOUR are to a billboard. It’s not just what you say it’s HOW you say it. You could record the same script with the same voice and lay that over five different types of music and each version will make the listener FEEL slightly differently about the brand.  It is so important and yet frequently, overlooked.

Can you give me an insight into the process of creating an ad for radio? At what point is music considered? 
The way I work is different to most creative people I meet. If a brief inspires the idea of using music I often spend ages finding two or three pieces of music FIRST and then I write the script to the ebb and flow of the track as opposed to writing a script and then trying to shoehorn in a piece of music. I despise lazy, overwritten scripts so a trademark of my work is letting music feature in the advert, a bit like having an additional character. 

From a technical point of view, what sort of equipment do you use in creating an ad?
We have two studios with Pro Tools, a large voice booth with 6 microphones, zillions of sound effects and of course, people like yourselves whose musical offering helps inspire us.  We also have beer on tap in our main client studio. That both helps and hinders at time! 

In the studio at Maple Street. 

What would you say is your most successful campaign to date? Why do you think it was so successful? 
Ecovision Energy. This client installs solar energy in your home and arguably has a very ‘visual’ offering. When we met they had never used radio so in the beginning our focus was entirely on the creative.  We needed to find a way to communicate a number of tactical messages as well as selling the look and feel of a brand that most people have never have heard of.  Once we got that in place  we worked with our sister company RadioWorks to plan and buy four ‘tester’ stations that targeted their client demographic. To date the results have been outstanding. They are now on more than 30 stations and the direct response results have surpassed all targets:  A happy relationship.

David, thanks so much for you time. Now, can we go and try out that beer tap in your main client studio...?

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Maple Street Studios can be contact via their website at www.maplestreetstudios.co.uk