Radio Trailer Research

Above is a radio trailer for the season finale of Doctor Who. The trailer opens with sounds of the Tardis - a sound that every Doctor Who fan will instantly recognise, this is to draw the audience in. It then cuts to a separate voice actor who says "Original British drama on BBC1" This is again to connect with its target audience who are mainly British. After this the audience hears a medley of small snippets of dialogue from various characters in the episode. The trailer then finishes with the voice actor telling the audience the date and time of the show, while the theme tune plays in the background.

Because the audience are limited to just their hearing when listening to the radio, the trailer has to exploit the most important, memorable sounds of the show. They do this by included the sound effects from the Tardis and the theme tune. If this were a television advert they may not have included the theme tune, they may just have used a short clip from the episode because when the audience can see the characters they know its Doctor Who, Radio Listeners don't have that luxury.

While I couldn't find any radio trailers for films, I think this radio trailer is useful to take notes from. After listening to it, I think that we should incorporate music from our film into the radio trailer so that the audience can make a connection between the two, this will make it more recognisable and connect with our audience. It is also important to use a clear, memorable voice for the trailer. The voice used in the Doctor Who trailer is deep and loud and easily distinguishable from the sounds behind it. It is important that our voice actor has a voice that won't be drowned out by the background sounds.