Opinion

Radiowatch - Yellow Pages
26.06.2006
Jonathan Barrowman, Head of Radio

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In an age where global information is available instantly via various digital search portals, it’s quite refreshing for a heritage brand to bravely bestow the benefits of one of the oldest forms of ‘search’ – the good old Yellow Pages. The latest campaign rekindles our affection with the brand and illustrates quite colourfully that sometimes it’s a tad easier, and perhaps more convenient, for your fingers do the walking through that big yellow book than to power up your laptop for a ‘google’.

Indeed, the recent Yellow Page radio ads make no excuse or reference to yell.co.uk, but confidently incorporate a sonic affect of a 1600-page directory hitting the table, flipped open and leafed conveniently to the right section. Something most people can identify with, albeit not quite finding the right section as quickly as creative licence allows. But for some audiences, the ad is affirmation that the Yellow Pages is far from redundant and can be a very useful search tool to find anything from mortgages to car insurance.

The strength of the brand is such that your mind inevitably drifts back to thoughts of JR Hartley when you see or hear a Yellow Pages advert, however the larger than life James Nesbitt is a strong candidate to usurp the fictitious fly-fishing author. The radio creative quite rightly amplifies the TV commercial and skilfully applies Nesbitt’s character to build a convincing scenario with other well-selected voices, all of which are extremely well directed.

Of course, Nesbitt is no stranger to radio audiences. He has co-presented on Christian O’Connell’s breakfast show and it’s got to be said - he has a great voice for radio. It’s instantly recognisable and his accent and tone are extremely entertaining. He is able to effortlessly charm the listener with easy dialogue and his on-screen (and off-screen) character is used very cleverly to this effect. Nesbitt’s ‘cheeky chappy’ persona brings natural humour to the script so the listener doesn’t tire of hearing the ad and therefore copy burnout is low.

The Yellow Pages creative demonstrates consistency across media and communicates a simple message very effectively. For a medium that can deliver high frequency it’s important to engage rather than interrupt listeners and this execution is an excellent illustration of how to do just that.