(By Paige Nienaber) Radio has a cyclical history. We’ll rediscover something, run it into the ground, lose interest, and then forget about it for a decade. That’s something I hope happens with “Enter your email to win these great concert tickets!”
In 2010 we rediscovered High/Low. As we should. Ditto with Secret Sound in 2015.
One methodology that has always been successful is Match Game. It’s great because it requires people to follow along on your site and also to listen so they can track the bad guesses. (Only the matches are revealed on the site.)
You can also theme it for things like holidays or pandemics.
On the grid, hidden are pairs of graphics. Like “$100” or “Jason Aldean Tickets”. You take a caller and they pick two panels, for instance, #17 and #65. The talent says that behind panel #17 is dinner for two at Trout Air and behind #65 are tickets to the Auto Show. People listening along write those down. When a future contestant gets an Auto Show, you then know you have a match should you get through on the studio line.
Make a match and win it, and continue trying to match until you miss one.
It’s a really good promotion for things like December when you often have a lot of prizes that need to be bundled.
And now, on with the Dumpage.
Great Radio Characters
Characters are great. They help differentiate the station from all the other brands doing the same thing: traffic, gossip, and even events calendars.
JACK in Dayton has their Jacktivities list of stuff that is happening in the market. They’ve chosen to have it done by an intern named Ricky who goes wildly off course at the end of each report. It reminds me of Dready D who was the character that drove SPF 104.3 in Boise, which was their summer umbrella. He was a Jamaican poolboy who the owner’s daughter was green carding and at one point, Dready had more followers than the afternoon talent. Here is some Ricky.
The Hippie Song Of The Day
The best music feature that you might not have heard of, from KSPN in Aspen.
Cut The Cord
Back To School and the last week of August is what’s next on the promotional radar.
If you have someone on your roster of talent like an Amy Kaye or a Dez or an Elizabethany who are people you’d actually want the listeners to meet (they’re polite, personable, non-slovenly, and fun to hang out with), then Cut The Cord With (Talent) has been done a few different ways. But the basic concept is to do a week of “things” that will allow moms to kind of get through the process and drama of their kids going off/back to school.
At Kiss in Boise with Kate McGwire all five activities were done through clients.
- Monday: Wine & Art
- Tuesday: Driving range
- Wednesday: Book club
- Thursday: Rafting
- Friday: Skeet shooting
Easy peasy. It can be sold and it’s terrific marketing and also acknowledges something that is happening in the lives of the audience.
Tinder Moments
“Celebrities reading mean tweets” was pretty much toast in 2015. But NO ONE has had artists or entertainers who are rolling through to shlep a project, read creepy Tinder notices. The closest I’ve seen is when Amy Kaye at Y-94 in Fargo has done Tinder Tuesday and acted out some very disturbing things she finds on Tinder.
Polar Audio
If Boom in Toronto can initiate faux technology that will turn your car speakers into heaters in January, then shouldn’t our streaming get the latest in science gadgetry and be able to cool your home car or core just by playing the station?
Family Five Packs
No one does Family Four Packs because of something that Coleman Research published. We do them because we got 200 tickets to some kids event and we need to give them away.
One of the stations is going to “adjust their cash contest for inflation” and double the money on Fridays. “A thousand dollars just doesn’t go as far as it used to…”
Cool. Add a ticket to the pack and announce that you’ve made the same adjustment.
Free AC
KKLZ in Las Vegas has been using waterpark tickets as part of their Beat The Heat promotion, and they do, in fact, have heat to beat. Everyone qualifies for an AC unit. That…is a great prize.
Waterpark Day
There is stuff like this in the monthly “date” e-blast that you can jump on. Max Media in Denver jumped on Waterpark Day, which is July 28th. Why wouldn’t you want to be giving away these tickets during a heatwave?
Santa School
I’ve always enjoyed the “DJ who has never done something and really wants to learn how and do it just one time.”
- Like Jo Jo Wright cheering a high school football game.
- The morning guy at Alice in Denver being a male stripper for a night.
- Jay Kruz at 94.9 in Cincy who took some lessons and tried a night of stand-up comedy.
So, what if the morning guy (or woman in fact) since they were little, always wanted to be Santa? It was the ultimate “cool thing” they wanted to do. With the help of some professional Santas, he/she learns the do’s and don’ts and ‘what to do if’s’, and then debuts at a client on a Saturday in December. Maybe people need to donate a toy to sit on his lap.
It would make a great video series as he gets coached and makes his transformation and ultimate first appearance as the Big Guy.
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Paige Nienaber insults/consults more than 100 radio stations on Fun ‘N Games (Marketing & Promotions). Find him at CPR Promotions. Read Paige’s Radio Ink archives here.
Hey Charles. That wasn’t what i said. Match Game requires that you listen and call in and you get the subsequent winner audio. The web element is just so people can track the guesses.
Let me see if I got this straight, you guys want people to do scratch-off style or touch screen style matching games on the internet?!, really?! Just honor Gene Rayburn by doing an actual, LIVE, Radio Version of Match Game, ON AIR, with or without Radio Characters(you choose), and as far as Radio Characters go?!, Phil Henry had his day before people caught on to what he was doing in Florida, it’s a CHEAP way to do a Radio Show or Podcast, in my opinion, even when Rover’s Morning Glory does it with his studio crew(who are just tweaking their voices and Rover just sounds like a clone of George Noori anyways), if you are a lone person in a studio, in a desolate area of the U.S. with a limited listening audience, then DO voices, otherwise, make like Dave Coulier and CUT…IT…OUT✂,👉, 🚫!!!, as far as creepy Tinder stuff to read ON AIR goes, Kimmel’s Mean Tweets had it after Letterman’s Viewer Mail, meaning, DON’T GO INTO A DRY WELL WHEN IT’S BEEN DRY FOR YEARS, use radio logic, and DON’T GO WITH WHAT RADIO CONSULTANTS SAY ABOUT IT, THEY HAVE NO CLUE, BOTH YOU AND YOUR FANS DO, NOT SOME PEOPLE THAT WERE PAID BY THE STATION(OR NETWORK) THAT AIN’T THERE ALL THE TIME, it may seem insubordinate, but it’s THE TRUTH. Just a Thought or 2.