Make Contests Moments Of Choice

Know What Listeners Are Looking For

There are many theories about how to get and keep your listeners, but the truth is that in any situation, you have to know what listeners expect of your station -- then under promise and over-deliver. Naturally, it's a lot easier said than done ... especially in today's competitive environment. But the whole idea is to force your listeners to choose, and there are many theories on how to best do that. And each of these theories force to the surface moments of choice. You have to pick your battles ... and you must really know what your listeners are looking for. What would make them want to choose your station over your competition? Now before you say, "better music," that's almost a given. But beyond the music, what can you offer that could make a difference? One of the answers is a better contest -- one that in a moment of choice could accrue to your side of the diary or meter.

Sales Vs. Programming

Remember the good old days when the sales and programming departments could afford to (or at least think they could afford to) enter into hand-to-hand combat over client promotions and value-added giveaways? While the need to satisfy the client always remains a top priority at any station, consolidation has forced these two sparring partners to understand the separate-but-equal pressures behind driving the ratings and generating the revenues.

In 2008, the programming and sales departments have to work more closely together than in the past. Because of the demands placed on the sales department from consolidation and the inflated prices that have been paid for the stations, there's a stronger demand on revenues than ever before. Many programmers have made genuine overtures to sales, and sales people have made overtures to programming, to determine what they can do to more effectively sell the station.

Striking a balance between sales and programming can be difficult if the managers of both departments fail to understand the critical role both play at the station. Sales managers and PDs have to interact on a daily basis. If there is friction between the two, it's just not going to work. A programmer who views the top priority maintaining as on-air purity might not understand the financial realities of the market.

One of the realities that immediately comes to mind is the whole idea of contests. Programmers naturally want bigger budgets and huge prizes. Management wants to control the costs. The question becomes just how effective are contests and promotions anyhow?

The whole idea of about contests and promotions ... and whether or not they work, regardless of the size of the prize or even whether you have continuous contests ... is that it's good for a station to always be giving something away. Done right, contests can be made to work to build or sustain audience. The question this summer for a lot of programmers really comes down to this: Is it possible that a great contest could make a "music freak" change his/her mind?

First of all, designated caller contests might, at best, add a little excitement to the station this fall, but unless the air personality can make the contest fun and exciting for the passive listeners who are really only there for the music, even your best contests will mean little in the ratings game.

It doesn't matter whether you take the ninth caller or the 19th, if the listener is in a car, for example, and hits the button, you go instantly go from a P1 to a P2 and you've lost the game. The trick is to make the audience get off vicariously on hearing the contest played. If you can make them laugh, chuckle, think or play along, that's what's happening.

In a recent national study, it was determined that only about 18% of the people who listen to radio play contests, which means over 80% of your audience is not involved in these giveaways (this same 80+ percent would never buy a lottery ticket, never call into your station, never log-on to your website, and never even agree to participate in a contest).

Cume Conditioning

Another moment of choice occurs when you examine the benefits of an effective contest. When combined with the other elements, contests can help to build and maintain cume. They add excitement to the radio station and hopefully give a listener an additional reason to stay with you. We call it cume conditioning.

When you've done contests and promotions in the same market on the same station over the years, the audience pretty much expects (or becomes conditioned to expect) that when an artist whose music you play has a concert or there's another related event in town, your station will give away tickets.

Although they are an integral part of every music station's ratings strategies, contests and promotions are not really marketing steroids -- and if you're not careful, they can cause irreparable damage.

Damage is caused -- and contests can end up working against you -- when you reverse your priorities and the main concern of the station becomes the contest and not the overall entertainment value of the music you play. As long as you realize that the music you play and the features of the station have to remain in the forefront of what you do at the station, you're all right. Then when you add contesting it simply adds spice to the overall plan. It's a lot like adding vegetables and seasoning to the meal. As long as you don't put so many vegetables and seasonings on the plate that you totally forget about the meat, it will work.

In other words, when there's a lot of contest hype with little or no substance, or if the contests are so overbearing that they take control of the station, you've got problems.

Research continues to show that the music audience can become very anxious and excited about participating in contests if they are clever or exciting. If your air personalities are sharp enough to get them to play along, and if you can make it one of the reasons they listen or listen longer, you've scored.

In its proper perspective, like anything else, contests do have their value. You could take that same argument and apply it to "no-talk segues," for example. They can be a good thing, but if they were all you did on the station and you never said the call letters, it would be damaging.

You've got to find a way to tie the contest into the music or image of the station. Just giving away cash and trips or paying bills can get dull, believe it or not. Furthermore, you have to be careful with certain levels of escalation that can become dangerous. In other words, there's that need to always out-do yourself. Listeners need to realize that contests and promotions are just a part of programming, and you have to keep them in perspective.

Get Aggressive With Your Promotions

While you can't artificially hook listeners with promotions and giveaways, if the promotions are part of an aggressive, well-thought out campaign, it can work for you. Any station that does giveaways and big promotions knows they're obviously just part of a tool to get ratings.

Even the most aggressive promotion or contest has to be fun for the listener. There's got to be a little P.T. Barnum in it. Good personalities presenting entertainment for the listener beyond the music is the key. You want to give listeners a chance to become part of the station. Winning makes a listener participate. When a listener becomes a participant, they feel a part of the station. Picking up a prize at the station makes them special and part of a relationship that no other tool can do. They hear and like the personalities and music. They win a prize and they come and see the station. Maybe they get a tour or a bumper sticker or a T-shirt. They're touching something they don't normally get to touch.

he reality is that we're in the business of entertainment. Whether you're an artist on stage, an air talent in the control room, a writer, a programmer or a MD doing the music logs, you're in entertainment ... and a large part of the job of entertaining is to be fun.

A big part of the entertainment element is that fact that you give people a chance to win things they might not normally be able to afford to buy. You've got to provide some sort of escape value or bonus to listener. In a day and age where people have to choose between groceries or filling up their tanks, by giving them upfront concert tickets, you're almost performing a public service.

The reality is that today many people don't have an opportunity to go out. Contests just have to be a form of responding to the marketplace. While part of the competitive nature is also to be more aggressive promotionally, you still have to walk a thin line. It's a line around the moments of choice we're all forced to make.

Word!