May 2009 Archives

Saturday May 23, 2009

Season 3 Episode: "Entertainment or Nothing"

Airs on Radio One:
Monday 25 May 2009 11:30 am
Saturday, 30 May 2009 4:30 pm

It's no secret that entertaining messages attract audiences. But today, as advertisers, government agencies, business and educators are learning entertainment is fast becoming the only way to reach an audience. Terry O'Reilly explains how all kinds of modern messages are being wrapped in entertainment, or are tied to engaging ideas. He'll explain how that is driving some unlikely players- including the Pope, the Queen, major corporations and government ministries, to such entertainment-skewed media as YouTube.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30)

Categories: Past Episodes

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Saturday May 23, 2009

Season 3: "The Museum of Persuasion"

Airs on Radio One:
Monday 1 June 2009 11:30 am
Saturday, 6 June 2009 4:30 pm

Anyone remember subtlety in advertising? Or longform ads with irresistible prose? Or the quaint, old-fashioned jingles that were once the mainstay of national advertising. Terry O'Reilly has collected them in a magnificent new Museum of Persuasion. And he's just itchin' to take you on a tour. He'll offer a nostalgic look at ways advertising has reached people in the past, and show how it points to where the craft of persuasion is headed.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30)

Categories: Past Episodes

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Saturday May 16, 2009

Season 3: "Great Canadian Campaigns"

Broadcast date: May 18 & 23, 2009
Originally aired:: March 7, 2009

There's no "Made in Canada" label on ad campaigns: but Terry O'Reilly often wishes there were. This week he proudly tells the story of some Made-in-Canada success stories. They're ad campaigns with maple syrup in their veins; how an idea resurrected from a wastebasket put one retail chain on the map; how a campaign that ran on TV just six times is still talked about, nearly four decades later. And how a three-word ad phrase brought a nation to its feet.

Listen to this episode as streaming audio (runs 27:30)

Categories: Past Episodes

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Saturday May 9, 2009

Season 3: Episode "Marketing the Invisible"

Broadcast dates:
Monday 11 May 2009 11:30 am
Saturday, 16 May 2009 4:30 pm

It's easy to understand a product when it has a snappy label, fits in your shopping cart, and stores tidily on a shelf at home. But how can you get excited about a brand that's invisible? How do marketers tweak your interest in something you don't see or touch? Brands such as insurance and services and, say, a Pentium chip pose some interesting problems in the ad world. This week Terry O'Reilly shows how marketers make the intangible... tangible.

Audio is not available at this time.

Categories: Past Episodes

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Monday May 4, 2009

Q & A with Terry O'Reilly

This was first featured in the Radio One Newsletter. (To subscribe, become a CBC member)

Great Ad Ventures

Each week on The Age of Persuasion, host Terry O'Reilly journeys deep into marketers' minds.

This week, the advertising guru provides insight into his own life and career.

If you could interview anyone, who would it be?

Bill Bernbach, the greatest adman who ever lived (1911-1982.) Bernbach was so wise and so innovative. His agency, Doyle Dane Bernbach, was The Beatles of advertising. I've lived by his words my entire career.

What's your favourite ad campaign?

That's easy; it's the famous campaign for Volkswagen done in the '60s. It was so smart, so witty, so honest and so groundbreaking. Created, of course, by Bill Bernbach. It's the gold standard in the ad industry to this day.

If you could pick anyone to write your biography, who would it be?

Steve Martin. His biography Born Standing Up was honest, insightful and hilarious. He has an eye for the ironies in life (which I relish) and I know I would laugh out loud reading what he would have to say about my career.

What do you usually talk about over dinner?

Above all, my family loves talking about the funny, odd, ironic things in life. Along with pop culture, what happened that day, my hairline, and my daughters always seem particularly interested in stories of my wife and I growing up.

What's your greatest passion?

Without question, my family. I spend every available minute with them that isn't being eaten up by work. Heaven for me.