Radio contests offering large cash prizes with apparent ease of accessibility (e.g., all you have to do is have the birthday we announce) usually are used to build cume — to increase the station’s cumulative audience.
(Those contests also should feature a “conversion factor” designed to change listening habits, rather than just to get someone to sample the station one time. We’ll talk about that another time.)
But why do radio stations around the world conduct the typical, everyday, “free movie passes/concert tickets” contests?
Not because of Listener Greed.
Or Quarter-Hour Maintenance.
Or Instant Gratification.
A standard on-air contest is simply a method of strengthening & enjoying your relationship with your listeners.
Analogy: You call up a friend and ask, “Hey, how about going to dinner and a movie tonight?”
Your real message is not about dining out or movies. You could eat dinner by yourself, and your friend is perfectly capable of attending a movie without you.
“Dinner and a movie” are simply an excuse to enjoy the relationship you share with that person.
And that’s what an “everyday” on-air radio contest should be: an opportunity to enjoy and to strengthen the relationship you already have with your listeners.
Here’s the problem.
Out of the, say, 50,000 listeners who are tuned in at this moment, your morning jock is about to put a lucky listener on the air, someone who either has won or might win a contest. She is very excited. She’s won (or might win) a contest, and she’s about to be on the radio!
Meanwhile, you’ve got 49,999 other listeners at work, at home, and in their cars. And they’re thinking, “What about me?”
You’ve got to make that contest worth listening to for them. It has to be….
Entertaining.
Funny, provocative, challenging, dramatic, suspenseful, outrageous ….something that involves those other 49,999 other listeners.
They’re rooting (apologies to our Ossie and Kiwi readers; that term means something very different to them) for the contestant to win…or hoping she loses. They’re “playing the game at home.” They’re amused or intrigued or enlightened or relieved.
And I’m sorry, but “10th caller wins the coffee mug” doesn’t do it. No one is going to sit through the commercial break to find out who the 10th caller is. (They know it’s not them, which is all they care about.)
Neither are many listeners likely to wait around to find out, “What actor wrote and starred in ‘ROCKY?'”
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>>They’re rooting (apologies to our Ossie and Kiwi readers; that term means something very different to them)<<
Just curious, what does this mean for them Dan? 😀
Silly me. I thought it was for advertisers who wanted to run an additional schedule and were willing to trade a prize for the extra ads and mentions…
FYI Rajesh –
“Rooting” in Australia and New Zealand – refers to having casual sex…
“Rooted” means that it is stuffed/broken …
It is a good point you make Dan – but something occurs to me reading this – you state what the problem is – but no solution – I would have thought that those people not wanting them to win are also participating – in their own way.
How else can you engage besides making the experience funny and amusing?
The listener involved might not be amused at you making fun of them or simply giving them a sound effect of “Wrong Answer”.
Should all contestants who are on the air – recieve a participation prize?
What is the solution ? My brain hurts trying to figure this out?
Aghhh – now my brain is rooted.
The solution is, don’t be the staus quo, and put some thought into your contesting.
“Caller 9 Qualifies” is BS, and nobody cares what 42% of women do every morning right outta the shower….
Whatever happened to “Theatre of The Mind”? Think of contests that not only engage your contestant so that THEIR personalities can take stage, but also provide some entertainment to your listeners….
Listeners hear OUR voices every day…over and over. The more you engage your contestant, the more the OTHER people are drawn in, because they’ll STILL want to know if their funnier, smarter, more clever than the person that got through.
Greetings:
Theatre of The Mind is King! If you do not see life with a tilt to it you may not have the ability to use (Theatre Of The Mind) You have to see the show in your mind before you can write the script , hire the actor,produce the bit and then go on stage with it. Of course you are all the above.
Liner Jocks are like little robots with no (Theatre Of The Mind) I refer to it as Controlled Insanity.
Thanks, Tom
Wow Dan… u bet you are right… but I’m looking for the solution too. What kind of contest would make you pick up that phone and call?
@Shruthi: I have an entire book…