The Pro Bono Group has unveiled the first two PSAs in its latest campaign, “The Pro Radio Project.”
Mike Occomore and Larry MacInnis, founding members of the charitable endeavour that has produced radio spots over the last few decades in support of causes from Feed Ontario to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, said the group of creative and production professionals had been musing for awhile on how to support the radio industry itself in economically challenged times.
“For months we have been thinking about a project to assist the radio industry — as a way to thank the many broadcasters who have supported our various Pro Bono causes over the years,” said Occomore. “We intensified our thinking after the negativity in the news recently about ‘radio not being a viable business.’ We, of course, know that is not true.”
The campaign’s initial spots are targeted at potential radio advertisers, with “First Time Mom” and “Just Moved Here” conveying that radio is where prospective customers are.
Among those the Pro Bono Group consulted for the project were industry veterans Ross Davies and Dave Charles; Dave Daigle, VP of iHeartRadio, Local CTV & Bell Media Studios; Perry MacDonald, VP, Advertising Sales & Partnerships, Bell Media; Scott Johns, Vice President & Revenue Management and Local Sales at Stingray; and Steve Macaulay, VP of Sales at Durham Radio.
The campaign has the full support of ACTRA and WANTED Sound+Picture, who donated donated studio time and sound designers, in addition to Radio Connects, which will help distribute the spots to stations across the country. The ACTRA performers featured include Noel Johansen, Linda Ballantyne, Tony Daniels, and Matt Edison.
Fresh creative will be supplied to stations by Pro Bono Group every six to eight weeks.
Read our feature story on Pro Bono Group here and find more of their PSAs, available to radio stations free of charge, here.
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