Does Your Radio Station Media Kit Suck?

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Stop. Don’t answer. I already know. It’s embarrassing. It’s a big ole’ PowerPoint equivalent of Herb Tarlek (newbie’s – ask your boss). It’s tacky, loud, and completely out of touch with the reality of what advertisers expect. Now, I suspect there are three reactions to my question:

1. Your media kits are actually gorgeous and contain the perfect balance of content and design. Who are you people and will you marry my daughter? Really. Are there really one of you out there?
2. Your media kits are awful and you know it (good for you, isn’t acceptance one of the first steps to recovery?).
3. Right now, you’re saying to yourself, “They’re fine the way they are.” Why do I also think that you also allow your receptionist to tell prospect call-ins, “Let me get a sales rep for you.” Never mind…it’s just another pet peeve of mine.

Fact is, most all radio station media kits are an embarrassment. You can trust me. I’ve opened hundreds (literally, hundreds) of them, and 90% of the time, my reaction is, “Dear God. How can they expect to be taken seriously?” I do have the occasional, “Gee, that one isn’t completely hideous,” and once in the past five years have I looked at a media kit and was thoroughly impressed.

The question is; what can you do about it? I see one of two choices. My first choice for you would be to find a media kit outside of radio that you really like the looks of (Google “media kit” and you’ll end up seeing some big company media kits). Then, barter or pay a local graphic designer to give you a similar look and. I’m not saying to steal someone else’s design. Just use it as a guide. Now, if working with a designer is out of the question, then you’re on your own. So, let me share ten things you can do right now to update your media kits so they at least move from devastatingly bad category, to maybe acceptable:

1. Stop feeling the need to pepper the end of every sentence with an exclamation point. In fact, make it your rule to never use another exclamation point again. Ever. For anything.
2. Stop using that damn PowerPoint Word Art.
3. Quit with all the pages about your DJ’s. They don’t care.
4. Quit trying to see how much information you can fit on a page. Remember, “white space sells.”
5. You don’t win any contests by seeing how many different fonts you can have on a page…and if you are going to have one, make it a simple Arial, Time New Roman, Helvetica, or Verdana.
6. Eliminate the need to write your copy like you’re writing a promo. Speak to advertisers like they’re real people, not potential ticket buyers for a monster truck show.
7. Use tasteful images from a service like istockphoto.com. Cartoon clip-art is like a punch in the kidney.
8. Understand that center spacing does not make things easier to read. It makes it more difficult.
9. Remember to add your contact information (tastefully) on each page. If by some chance an advertiser wants to contact you, shouldn’t the information be there on the page?
10. It’s not a book, it’s a media kit. If you can’t share the features and benefits of a radio station in four or five pages (max), you’re talking way too much about yourself.

Bonus Tip – Never again use an exclamation point. OK, I said it twice, but I now know for sure this will be the one thing you’ll take away from this article. And that’s a good thing.

I don’t know how radio is the one industry that somehow we unconsciously decided we just would not move with the times and improve the quality of our sales materials and media kits. I don’t know where we came to the conclusion that a manager with zero design skills or a near minimum wage sales assistant that has never sat in front of an advertiser became the people in charge of producing our most important face-to-face sales literature. How will you ever be taken seriously if your sales materials look like they’ve come out of a 1995 time capsule?

If you just can’t find any help from the outside because of budget constraints, and you must produce your media kits in-house, just remember the following: Design is a lot like dancing. If you don’t have much rhythm, don’t try to go out there and bust a move. Just keep it simple and try to get by without making your partner cringe.

Tagged as: media kit