The author is owner/president of Sound Advantage Media. His commentaries appear here regularly.
Radio promotions are a crucial programming (and sales) strategy. Which 10 criteria increase the success of your next big idea in both the short and long term? And away we go…
Suppose you have regular brainstorming meetings to map out the big picture for the next six to 12 months. In that case, you’ll benefit from this checklist to evaluate ideas and create a win-win-win situation that makes your community, sponsors and audience feel valued and engaged. Does your new radio promotion, contest or sweepstakes achieve the following 10 things?
Reinvent your radio promotions.
Fourth of July: American Trivia: When listeners correctly answer American trivia questions, award them with American-oriented prizes: Apple pies, baseball game tickets, ice cream, a free wardrobe for mom, etc. Don’t make the questions too easy, or it becomes boring very quickly. Use your website to let listeners register to win.
1. Offer something (partly) original
You can tailor your promotions and benchmarks to your market, competition, format, and audience by using what’s already working. If you’re the second CHR in your market and want to grow, try new ideas; if you’re the top AC, rely on proven concepts. See if you can adapt or refresh successful promotions, e.g., turn “We Pay Your Bills” into “FM Means Free Miles” or “Day Off with Pay.’”
2. Gold: Own part of a gold mine
Or uranium. Or silver. Or an oil well. The key is to give away shares of stock in a highly speculative venture that might pay off with big profits. By giving away shares of a stock, you’re allowing your winners to take part in a risk-free gamble … free because you’ve got sponsors putting up the money for the stock.
We have learned from Ian Walker that success depends not only on the marketing budget. So, before spending another $50,000 on your next major promotion, unless you have sponsors who will pay you for it, why not see how far you get with some priceless creativity? You may also want to run big and small promotions alternately — so the big ones will stand out more, your listeners won’t get tired, and you’ll save some money for other essential things.
3. Increase brand awareness and recall
The best radio promotions generate free publicity and social love because they are different and engaging. If you’re the first station to launch a listener into space, as Q-music in the Netherlands has done, people talk about you! Increasing your brand awareness and recall not only helps in a diary market. Even in a PPM world, your brand matters to become a base station for heavy listeners who tune in many times a day — you must get (and keep) your name and frequency top of mind. So, while giving away $101.00 might not be the most original thing, it makes sense if you’re on 101 FM and call yourself X-101. In addition, you can create 360-degree promotions combining air with traditional and new media.
Grow your ratings on both the short and long-term, such as 3FM in the Netherlands. Cume and TSL highs during the annual fundraiser Serious Request may have ignited 3FM’s upward trend in the 20-34 target demo, overtaking the overall (10+) market leader, 538.
4. Meet your listener’s expectations
Sometimes, your sales team may pursue a sponsorship that could bring in revenue but lose listeners and harm your brand over time. Only allow promotions that fit your stationarity and meet your listeners’ expectations. Ask your GM for support in keeping your long-term goal in mind and in letting sales follow programming. Refuse to make a quick buck if a promotion doesn’t fit your brand values. Protect your programming strategy and brand DNA so you can keep doing what your audience expects. Your sales team will thank you later. They can charge more for spots when your ratings are up.
Only allow promotions that fit your stationarity and meet your listeners’ expectations.
5. Perception is reality, written on the wall
Create positive images and perceptions.
People’s existing perception is reality. Once they think you are playing too many commercials, they act on it and choose a station or streaming service they expect to play fewer spots. Radio promotions could help you weaken negative images, strengthen positive ideas and even replace negative beliefs with positive ones over time. If your station is X-101, you could introduce 101 Minutes of Non-Stop Music and handle commercial-break damage control.
6. Drive cume, TSL and share
The annual fundraiser 3FM Serious Request in the Netherlands — where three jocks from the station are locked inside a glass house for a week (with no food except for water and fruit juices) and play request songs for listeners and companies who donate to the Red Cross 24/7 — is an excellent example of how exciting radio promotions not only cause temporary peaks in cume and TSL, but also help you to increase your ratings over time and realize sustained growth by:
Engaging your P1 and P2 listeners and give them reasons to tune in more often during the day, e.g., “Listen at 1:01 p.m. for your chance to win $ 101 from X-101.”
Attracting new P2 and P3 listeners (who mainly listen to your competitors but will now sample your station and then) to drive your cume significantly.
Increasing your TSL by preselling several stages of the promotion, e.g., “Another chance for you to win $101 from X-101 in less than 10 minutes.”
Growing your share by getting more people (including your P1 listeners) to listen more often and for a longer time, thus building loyalty.
It is one of the most straightforward yet brilliant contests.
7. Time your promotion well
You wouldn’t want to schedule your $101,000 contest when others are running a (similar) major promotion now. Always look for the right moment to ask for your audience’s undivided attention and avoid running (too many or similar) promotions simultaneously. Why give a concert trip to Katy Perry in Las Vegas and a meet and greet with P!NK (or a chance to win her pink Cadillac) simultaneously? Focus on one thing and promote it effectively to maximize its impact. Your listeners are being bombarded with messages day in, day out and not just on the radio. If your market is not highly competitive, you can promote for a week or two and give your listeners some rest before you launch the next one.
8. Money, cash, dollars, dollar bills, dollar bundles. Drive your sales revenue
Significant promotions are there to engage your listeners, create a positive image and grow your ratings. (As a commercial station) It would be best if you also profit from your promotion, contest, sweepstakes, or make sure it doesn’t cost you anything — design promotions, especially for new prospects. A successful collaboration might allow you to convert a one-time sponsor into a regular client who buys your station’s ads.
9. Engage your contestants and listeners
Regardless of the prize, few will call. “I don’t have a chance with hundreds of people calling” or “I don’t want to share my story on the air” could be among their reasons. While only a fraction of the audience will respond directly, engaging the others is vital; otherwise, they will tune out, which is the opposite of what we want. Therefore, create exciting promotions that sound great on air (and look good off-air, such as on your website and social media channels). One of the most straightforward yet brilliant contests is The Secret Sound. It uses theatre of the mind (the magic of radio), engaging both active and passive participants and making families at home or colleagues at work guess at it.
10. Support your (local) community
The essence of a brand, building communities through shared experiences, becomes very powerful when you unite people for a good cause. In 2012, The Twin Cities’ No. 1 Hit Music Station, KDWB in Minneapolis-St. Paul, turned into K-JABS for a day — including a different site and dedicated imaging — in a fundraiser for high school hockey star Jack “Jabs” Jablonski, who had become paralyzed after an accident. The audience response was overwhelming. You can achieve the same in your community by looking for the right opportunity. If you can spread the word about your station by encouraging your listeners to support a good cause through happy sponsors, you’ll make everyone a winner.
If you’d like to win the summer sales battle, remember that momentum becomes contagious. Success from one leaves clues for others to follow.
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