During Mike McVay’s Radio Programming Secrets teleseminar, someone asked:
Many stations use loyalty programs through their websites to engage listeners. How effective is this as it relates to ratings, and how much on-air time should be devoted to promoting it?
McVay: I have worked with loyalty programs in a number of markets, and I like them very much. The problem is that some radio stations get so hung up overpromoting them that it becomes white noise.
In Atlanta, the radio station we worked with for a long time had its own loyalty program. The syndicator who sold it to them sold it to them with:
“You’ve got to promote this two times an hour, every hour. And all the contests you do and everything you do on the air should run through the station’s website.”
Well, at some point, if it becomes fully about promoting the website, you are alienating a part of your audience.
Now, let me interrupt myself. I have zero problem with promoting a website, and I think you should use your radio station to promote your website.
But if there’s never a “call in to win,” if there’s never a connection between “I’m listening to the radio” and “I call the radio station,” then you’ve lost that connectivity that’s always been a direct stream with the listener.
So my suggestion would be to use the loyalty program to reward listeners for listening longer, but don’t make it so overwhelming on the air that it clutters the programming and decreases time spent listening.
Don’t make it so intrusive that it irritates the listener. Don’t make it so frequent that it becomes white noise and it loses its effectiveness.
O’Day: It shouldn’t be competing with the station’s on-air programming. It should simply be another interesting thing that is being shared with the audience.
McVay: Yeah. This is the frequent flyer program. I use my frequent flyer number when I book my plane ticket.
I get to the airport, and I use my frequent flyer number to get my seat assignment out of the computer. When I get on the airline, they announce that frequent flyers will earn 1,000 miles today. And they tell people how their frequent flyers sign up. When I fly enough, I can get free tickets or I can use that mileage for hotel stays or other prizes.
I don’t have someone tell me two times an hour during my 5-hour flight to L.A. how many miles I’m getting for flying to L.A. that day.
O’Day: If you’re taking a nap, they don’t awaken you to ask if you’ve joined their frequent flyer program.
Mike: Exactly.
O’Day: Actually, you know what? A more apt analogy might be: You’re watching the in-flight movie, and they interrupt it to talk about their frequent flyer program.
That might be the analogy for radio, where it actually is getting in the way of the flow of your programming and it annoys people rather than augmenting what you’re doing.
McVay: Right. Absolutely. That’s a great analogy.
Excepted from Radio Programming Secrets.
