I first wrote this Midwest client’s :30 radio jingles and a direct mail project. Then, their East Coast agency asked me to edit the Home Page script and FAQs section for an innovative, interactive Web site: www.my2020.com/. Have a look…
Lasik-1 :30 radio jingles:
I wrote these spots for a client in the Midwest through an agency on the East Coast, which proves I don’t have to live in your town to write, direct and product great radio copywriting for you:
1) Lasik-1 Jingle: Country Version”
Lasik-1: Country.mp3
2) Lasik-1 Jingle: Rock Version”
Lasik-1: Rock.mp3
3) “Lasik-1 Jingle: Easy Listening Version”
Lasik-1: Easy Listening.mp3
As a San Francisco copywriter, I’ve written, directed and produced over 450 radio commercials for packaged goods, services and technology clients.
Here are a few of the “as produced” MP3s for my favorite radio scripts for clients as diverse as:
• Caesars Tahoe Resort Casino featuring Ken Nordine of “WordJazz” fame to describe “The Caesars Odyssey” promotion within “The Glory, The Grandeur, And The Games” theme.
• Greyhound Lines with a :60 jingle for their casino service to Reno, Lake Tahoe and Atlantic City.
• Farmers Direct Auto Insurance with a humorous twist to a serious subject.
• Foremost Foods Cottage Cheese with Paul Frees (former voice of Scrooge McDuck, Capt. Crunch, Boris Badenov, and many other animated cartoon characters).
• And Barron Mortgage Company with one of their mortgage brokers telling a few humorous success stories.
Listen to these :60 Radio Commercial MP3s now.
Caesars Tahoe : Caesars Odyssey Promotion [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Greyhound Lines :: Casino Lucky Streak [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Farmers Direct : Expensive [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Foremost Foods : Cottage Cheese Test [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Barron Mortgage Success Stories [1:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadAs a San Francisco copywriter, I’ve been an ad agency staff and freelance copywriter for virtually every financial institution in California, from Bank of America and Wells Fargo to Charles Schwab, Visa, and some dot coms, like Yodlee and Intuit.
Here are my favorite ads, ad banners, and radio commercial that I created as a San Francisco copywriter and direct marketing copywriter for Bank of America.
1) Bank of America — As an Associate Creative Director at Grey Advertising, San Francisco copywriter, I wrote this campaign of three newspaper ads for BofA’s Home Loan division. The ads were to have run for six weeks. But after only two, the client asked the agency to stop running them because the phone lines were swamped with a surplus of calls. Offering BofA’s lowest rates and the first ever refinancing adjustable rate home loans were also contributing factors to their success.
Download Ad #1 PDF
Download Ad #2 PDF
Download Ad #3 PDF
2) Bank of America/Nation’s Bank Animated Banners – For Carat Interactive Ad Agency, I wrote a bunch of banners for BofA after it became Nation’s Bank. (Of course, it’s now called Bank of America once again.) See the banners — scroll down to bottom of page.
3) Bank of America Priority Plus Home Loan :60 Radio Commercial and Newspaper Ad — This commercial needed to demonstrate that the bank was committed to approving applicants for adjustable rate home loans in only three business days, rather than weeks. So I found the world’s fastest talker in New York City, flew her to SF for a recording session, and hired a male voice actor as her “translator” for this script. You really can hear every word she says if you listen carefully. “PLAY NOW” to hear the “Priority Plus Fast Home Loans” MP3.
Download Priority Plus Home Loan Ad PDF.
For three of the seven years that I worked at Ketchum Advertising, San Francisco, I was a copywriter on the KRON-TV NewsCenter 4 account.
For their news promotions, we would receive the news story scripts on a Monday each week. By Tuesday, we’d have created three newspaper ads with copy and layout, plus a radio script with three different tags.
This account forced me to think creatively, strategically and efficiently!
Here are four completed commercials of the dozens of radio scripts that I wrote for NewsCenter 4.
"Oak Knoll Hospital" [0:59m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download "Maintain Your Car" [1:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download "Single Parent" [1:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download "Feeling Better Blues" With Dr. Art Ulene [1:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadOne of my favorite clients when I was a young copywriter at Ketchum Advertising, San Francisco (now TWBA Chiat-Day) was also one of my first clients: Lindsay Olives.
Advertising copywriting, I believe, should be entertaining with humorous headlines. So here are two I wrote that I still like, many years later. The first was a recipe ad that ran in Good Housekeeping and other women’s magazine. For it, we dressed a model up like the Mona Lisa, so the headline was “Presenting Mona Lindsay’s Olive Meatloaf.” The bacon-and-olive meatloaf recipe tasted much better than it looked.
The second ad ran in football programs in the Bay Area (49ers, Raiders, Cal & Stanford) because the Lindsay Olive sales team would take their clients to the games. For this one, we created the fun Lindsay Olive “Half-Time-At-The-Football-Game” Game. Download the ad PDF.
For Lindsay, I also wrote and produced some hilarious radio commercials that won lots of major awards. The first was a Jewish Olive talking about his son. The second was a “nebbishy” olive who was very homely.
Listen to these two :60 MP3 Lindsay Olive radio commercials now.
Linday Olives :: Born Homely [1:03m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Lindsay Olives :: Yoo Hoo [1:01m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | DownloadA few years ago, I was asked to write a radio script and produce it for Hooked on Phonics, one of the world’s most popular reading tools for children.
My own daughter was beginning to read at the time and I strongly believed in phonics being able to help young readers to read better.
My script featured a father telling a bedtime story to his little girl. But he made it more entertaining for her by weaving in a yarn about the letters of the alphabet holding meetings, mergers, leveraged buyouts and stock options.
The bottom line is this call to action in the script: “If you’re a parent, you don’t have to invent stories to get your kids to love reading. Just go to the best place in cyberspace for help… the Hooked on Phonics Web site. Visit us today at A-B-C-D-E-F-G dot com. Take the FREE personalized reading assessment to find out how to help your child become a more confident reader…”
Listen to the MP3 now for the :60 “Hooked on Phonics Fairy Tale” radio spot below.
My colleague, Ivan Lee, and I created a series of five animated banners in various sizes for a now-defunct VoIP telecom solution called TomatoVine.com. The sizes were 728×90, 468×60, 160 x 60, 120 x 600 and 300 x 250.
View the animated Web banners here:
Listen to one of the :60 radio spots here:
Bridges Marketing Group of Walnut Creek asked me to write, direct and produce four :30 spots within a week in March 0f 2007. No problem.
Below are the first two of commercials: “Yo Dude” and “Baseball.”
Plus, a few years ago, I wrote and produced these two :30 radio spots for the agency’s tagline: “Fung Shui your holiday with BART: “Holiday Travel/Shopping.”
BART Baseball [0:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Yo Dude [0:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download Shopping/Travel [1:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download
