Does Radio social spot increase the strength of social causes?

MediaFriends, managed by the Italian broadcaster Mediaset, has organised a workshop for social entrepreneurs who want to improve the media communication strategy of their organisations.

The meeting was focused on radios and the role that they could play in a fundraising campaign. Four radio editors, Radio 101, Radio 24, Radio Norba and Radio Italy, representing the most important radios in Italy, were at the meeting to talk about the role that radio social spot could play for promoting social causes.

“Points of strength of non profit organisations are stories. For a radio communication it is most effective telling stories, than messages on what the organisations do.” says Alessandra Scaglioni, chief of Radio 24. “ I think that Italian non profit organisations should exploit more the power that radio has in reaching the audience, working on imagination.”

“If we consider the US experience,in using radio for promoting social causes, things go on differently” says Claudio Astorri, the manager director of Astorri Radio communication, a consulting company for broadcasting in Italy. “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the United States government agency, has established that Public Service Announcements, PSAs, have to be transmitted every hour by local stations free of charge. Radios allocate a certain percentage of their free air-time throughout the broadcast day to promote social events. PSAs ranges from 15 seconds to one minute and make the most economical use of the organization’s limited resources and personnel.The most common topics of PSAs are health and safety.”

For an effective communication strategy, it is important to design a message that will best fit the targeted age group, gender, occupation, and educational level of the Radio audience. It is also vital for reaching the audience that the purpose on the message will be clear.

The Mercury Radio Awards, the biggest competitions for the best radio spots, has dedicated a special category to community service announcements.

Click here to listen to the social spot winner of the 2008 edition of Mercury Radio Awards

To find out more about radio social spots tips visit www.psaresearch.com