Steve Millard
Promotional/Marketing Danger
Where broadcast properties make a crucial error, is to assume that their average contest player is an average listener and a typical diary-keeper. Research has indicated this may not be the case. The worst thing that can be done is to build a research or marketing database designed solely on the feedback you get from contest entrants. They are not a realistic sample of the marketplace. Their affections are easily won based on the amount of dollars that are given away. The typical contest player is in it for gratification; he or she wants to win. They are just as likely to call one station as the competitor, depending on what you are giving away. If they are like most contest players, a week after the contest is over they won't remember which radio station they called or even if it was a radio station they called.
It is imperative for broadcast properties to conduct contests, not necessarily for the people who enter them, but for 90% of all listeners who will never enter them. Nine out of ten of a stations listeners will never pick up the telephone, never put pen to paper in an attempt to enter the station's contest. For every contest that is conducted, 90% of the audience will have little to do with it other than listen to it and must deem it enjoyable for the contest to succeed. The worst thing that can be done is to create a contest solely for the contest players which ignores the bulk of non-participatory diary-keeping listeners. Those types of contests are seldom ever rewarded and seldom ever create the type of impression that a radio station needs to make. Here are some rules and guidelines that I adhere to.
Keep it simple. Most contests go up in flames because they complicated the basic issues. They were to difficult to win. The ground rule is...the simpler the better. In this day in age when we are drowning in the sea of high tech excess, less in many cases will be more!
Make sure there are ample opportunities to win.
Build consistency into the contest and make the contest accessible. Listeners have to perceive they have the opportunity to play the contest even if they have no intention of doing so.
MAKE IT FUN! Build elements into the contest that are enjoyable to both the players and non-players. This is where the art of "Smoke and Mirrors" comes into play.
Understand that contests can not be isolated events. Once contesting has started and you wish it to be a benchmark for the property, it has to be kept up to some extent. If you are going to be a property where people perceive that they have an opportunity to win something, that perception has to be extended throughout the entire year. It has to be a regular part of what you do at the property (or at least what people think you do, i.e. "Smoke and Mirrors.")
Contesting or promoting a few weeks of the year is suicidal. I've developed a month-by-month promotional plan that attacks the station's weaknesses and has a specific goal in mind. I plot out every step and begin assembling what is needed now! Then, execute it on schedule.
The greatest hazard in overextending our promotional schedule is trying to do too much. Even the most exciting, most expensive or most clever promotion can get lost in the clutter if there is so much going on that everything gets top priority. Station promotions or contests must never turn into irritating clutter. The solutions are a promotional calendar for planning and promotional grid for on-air use. Using a monthly calendar, I write in all the promotional activity on it, even subliminal promotions. Then I write in when promos or liners should begin for each event. In order to accommodate the calendar, I find myself forced to plan each promotion and to balance the amount of on the air promotion that is done.
