A while ago, Zinc 101.9’s Scott Van Der Linden downloaded my 101 WAYS TO MAKE YOUR RADIO STATION INVINCIBLE, and along with nice words about the book (thanks, Scott) he offered a very smart tactic of his own:
At movie preview nights, don’t just welcome the listener at the door and intro the movie. Stand by the door after the movie and thank them for coming.
I did this by accident one night, and the reaction was amazing. Now I do it every time.
Once the listener has seen you introduce the movie and you’ve identified yourself, now they know who you are and what you look like.
270 listeners walk out of a cinema having really enjoyed a movie — and the last memory they leave with is you saying thanks for coming. It’s great positive reinforcement and gets you many more unsolicited calls the next morning from people who attended.
I’ve always urged stations to do a better job than the industry standard of welcoming listeners at station events — including movie screenings.
But it never occurred to me to make a concerted effort to thank each of them individually as they leave.
A wonderful, easy, smart guerrilla tactic to help make the most of a station event.
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I’ve done this , my offsider had done it before , i was quite shy and he went by himself , finally i did do it , at one time we linked arms like a married couple , we got some luaghs (we’re 2 fellas by the way ) and it was a lot of fun , i also used to be at the door when they walked in , we use to mark their names off as they walked in, it was great PR
Have a talent of the station thank each of them individually as they leave while telling them to go and talk about the movie on his or her facebook page, cause he or she will discuss it the next day and they might win more tickets for a upcoming premiere.
@D.: You could do that, but that’s the kind of “trying to bribe people into doing something for us” mentality that, unfortunately, is the default position of most radio stations.
The power of Scott’s tactic is that it doesn’t ask anything at all of the fans. Thanking them without asking for anything — very powerful in a world where it’s so rarely done.
Simple, brilliant. There were a few movies we could have apologized for as well. (:
When the interaction is real, done by a jock that really cares about what his fans think of movies, i don’t think it is bribing…