The Problem with Promotions

[ajkillian]

I am a listener. An avid listener of radio. Some could call me a radiophile. Except I don't actually fornicate with my radio. I do sincerely love it though.

And while I do love local radio (even the corporate-owned "local" stations), I do notice an inherent problem with promotions, and it's evident with some of the posts I've read on this website. People are on here looking for ideas to promote this or that--all in the name of getting more listeners. And that's great to try to expand your audience.

However, a lot of times stations forget to connect with listeners. Many times stations will forget that these aren't just pairs of ears on the other end, they're people. Sure, sometimes a station will stir up some controversy. Occasionally, that buzz will translate into ratings, but then they'll ride the coattails of that publicity and get complacent.

From a listener's perspective, here's the number one rule to get us to listen: connect with us.

That's it. Make us feel like we're a part of your station, a part of your "family."

That's what a lot of these music-only stations (like Jack-FM) don't realize. There are people on the other end of that signal, and they want the interaction. That's when they start wearing your t-shirts, going to your live remotes, and buying from your advertisers.

I hope I don't offend anyone with this post, but it's an abservation from a listener who grew up going to station-sponsored movie premieres and reverse drawings for cars. In fact, my family wouldn't have had a CD player in the late 80's had it not been for a radio contest. (We were the first ones in our subdivision to have one!)

Anyway, have a great day. And thanks for listening.

All the best,
~Aaron~<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by ajkillian on 02/27/06 03:54 PM.</FONT></P>

 

[hitliner]

Hi Aaron,

Thanks for your insightful post. You are very right about listeners feeling like they are part of a radio station's family. I don't think you'll find one promotions person here who would dispute that. We all know that just because we give away cars, trips and such, this doesn't mean we're making a one on one connection with listeners.

So, how do we make that one on one connection and make is successful? I'll tell you..if you have the answer, you need to market it cause everyone in the biz would want it. I can think of some examples off hand, but making successful connections can be as hard as word-of-mouth advertising. I see you didn't give any examples. Do you have any in mind?

What I will say is that radio must get out of the studios and hit the streets. There's a reason so many station have street teams. This is a prime example of making a one on one listener connection. With these, listener's can put a face on a radio station. They feel special cause they're talking with someone who actually works for the station they listen to. And I'm not just talking about promotional events like movie screenings, club and concert appearances and such. I'm talking about being at the 7-11 at lunchtime with free Slurpees, being at the 10K race with free PowerAid or just crusing the city and stopping unplanned at a high school, shopping center or record store. Do you always have to have prizes to give out? No. Visability, be it by a station van or uniformed staff member, is a major key in making connections in the community. Just saying hi and giving someone a bumper sticker can make a difference.

OK..I've rambled enough. But you are right about the importance of making the listener feel more a part of the station. You know you have a truly legendary station when you can achieve that status.

 

[Starscream]

Aaron, thanks for your post, but here's some other insight from the other end.

A big problem with this situation is money, especially when it comes to budgets. You need money to create a street team and pay them. You need money to create station premiums, like t-shirts, bumper stickers, cups, and the like. You need money (and/or trade) for station vehicles, branding, supplies, crew, etc.

I would absolutely love - love - LOVE to be able to take a bunch of interns, put then in station gear, throw them in a station truck, and have them go out and promote the station. But you can't have the interns drive the truck for insurance reasons. And you can't always find part-timers with availability during the week because unfortunately, radio pays crap and they're working other jobs.

When the weekend comes, we have sales events that we must go to. That blows our availability for other things.

Another problem with this is looking "small" or looking bad when you do promotions. If you look small or bad, it may reinforce a NEGATIVE image with the listener.

Example: I worked at a station where they sent us to a concert - a CONCERT - with 5 t-shirts. Five shirts. Reason? "T-shirts cost money." So sure, I can give a t-shirt to someone, but then what if someone else wants a t-shirt, and I don't have any more to give? That's smallball, and that can undo the positive image I made in someone's mind by making a negative image in someone else's.

You gotta make it work with what you've got. And sometimes, if management doesn't "get it", what you've got is small, and you have to go from there.



> I am a listener. An avid listener of radio. Some could
> call me a radiophile. Except I don't actually fornicate
> with my radio. I do sincerely love it though.
>
> And while I do love local radio (even the corporate-owned
> "local" stations), I do notice an inherent problem with
> promotions, and it's evident with some of the posts I've
> read on this website. People are on here looking for ideas
> to promote this or that--all in the name of getting more
> listeners. And that's great to try to expand your audience.
>
>
> However, a lot of times stations forget to connect with
> listeners. Many times stations will forget that these
> aren't just pairs of ears on the other end, they're people.
> Sure, sometimes a station will stir up some controversy.
> Occasionally, that buzz will translate into ratings, but
> then they'll ride the coattails of that publicity and get
> complacent.
>
> From a listener's perspective, here's the number one rule to
> get us to listen: connect with us.
>
> That's it. Make us feel like we're a part of your station,
> a part of your "family."
>
> That's what a lot of these music-only stations (like
> Jack-FM) don't realize. There are people on the other end
> of that signal, and they want the interaction. That's when
> they start wearing your t-shirts, going to your live
> remotes, and buying from your advertisers.
>
> I hope I don't offend anyone with this post, but it's an
> abservation from a listener who grew up going to
> station-sponsored movie premieres and reverse drawings for
> cars. In fact, my family wouldn't have had a CD player in
> the late 80's had it not been for a radio contest. (We were
> the first ones in our subdivision to have one!)
>
> Anyway, have a great day. And thanks for listening.
>
> All the best,
> ~Aaron~
>

 

[ajkillian]

Starscream and Hitliner,

You both bring up some excellent points here, and I appreciate hearing from the "other side" on this issue.

I know that most people on these boards don't come on here just trying to get a few extra ears, but I did want to point out what makes good promotions. I know, I know--I'm not in the business, so what do I know? But I am a part of the business, so I think my point of view is somewhat relevant.

Anyway, to address some of Hitliner's comments, I think that "hitting the streets" is a good way of getting your station's name out there. However, it's only part of it. And you asked to mention some ideas, so I will. There are a couple of stations in town that ran the "fugitive" promotion. And they worked. A local CHR/Rhythmic station ran it and successfully knocked its competing station off the air. On the flip side, another station ran the promotion in this area, and it didn't seem to help this last ratings period. In fact, their ratings are down a little bit.

The difference? While the second station (with an entirely different target audience, I might add) did a great job working the promotion and connecting with their audience, they didn't follow through. The promotion ended around Halloween, and they went back to business as usual soon after. This was the perfect opportunity to take their promotions to the next level, but they didn't. The ratings reflected that.

What should they have done differently? For one, they should have hyped up the conclusion of the contest more. The "fugitive" was "found," and they had a five minute interview on their morning show with the winner and a two minute interview with the fugitive at around 9:00 AM. Plus, the fugitive "snuck out" in the middle of the interview and didn't really give the radio audience a chance to ask any questions of her. It was very odd. And while I know that this particular "fugitive" didn't want the publicity (which was odd in and of itself), to someone who wasn't privy to this information, the contest looked rigged. It ended so abruptly that the audience was left feeling very unsatisfied. (I know I was, and I had even gotten the inside scoop on this promotion.)

Starscream made some good observations from personal experience in that promotions takes money. This is true. But at the same time, you can work closely with your sales team to make promotions pay for itself and possibly be a good stream for NTR.

Example: you want to print up some new bumper stickers to promote the station's brand new logo. However, you don't have the thousands of dollars lying around in your budget to do the printing. Solution? Approach a local restaurant chain to advertise on your stickers. They can print $1 off coupons or happy hour ads on the back of the stickers. Team this up with a month-long promotion with the restaurant, and you could make your station a nice little profit.

There are a ton of good promotion ideas out there. And actually, if you just ask your audience what they want, you might find yourself in a sea of doable ideas.

One station had a promotion going last year to "make your own contest." People could submit their ideas for what kind of contest they want to see their station put together. My idea? Bon Voyage to Bonnaroo. I told them they could team up with a local RV company, Budweiser and Bonnaroo to make one hell of a nice grand prize: one RV, a weekend's worth of beer and a pair of gold passes to Bonnaroo.

They told me I had a great idea, but unfortunately at the time Bonnaroo was only weeks away. There was no time to put together a gig like that.

Anyway, to address Starscream's concerns of a lack of funds, I agree that money is an issue a lot of times. But teaming up with a company who already advertises on your station to create promo materials (like limited edition t-shirts, coozies, etc.) is a great way to bypass that. Plus, a lot of companies will barter with you. You could approach a local t-shirt printing company to do your next batch of shirts if you run "x" number of ads for them.

I've also seen several stations connect with their audience by providing free lunch (or breakfast) to a local listener's office. Who pays for it? The restaurant, of course! They get the publicity from your station talking about them all week and putting their name all over their promotion and contest webpage, and your station gets all the credit!

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with me.

All the best,
~Aaron~

 

[hitliner]

Your right about street presence being a part of it. But it is a MAJOR part. Music is music. You can find Kelly Clarkson on any station. It's what you wrap around the music that makes a station a hit. And your fugative promotion goes to support my idea of valuable street presence. And you're right about following up and keeping the energy going after the promotion. Were there follow up, on air promos? And street visablility doesn't take major money. If you can't get the interns out during the day, the the promotions director or staff should get out there.

And you're right about premiums like bumper stickers. You need to co cop trade with companies to do that. T shirts are a much more valuable commodity than bumper stickers and I wouldn't hand them out at concerts because once one gets one, another and another wants one. Save them for on air contesting.

But let's not forget that a station always needs to spend money and give away prizes at outdoor stops. Be somewhere at rush hour with movie passes. Be at Starbucks when they taste test their new coffee. Be at a mall where people can enter a drawing for a trip (a trip which you will thread thru several contests). Just being out and visable is the big part. Everything else is frosting.

 

[Starscream]

> Fugitive Promotion

Fugitive is a great promotion. I spearheaded our own Fugitive promotion, and it was a massive success.

But the Fugitive promotion costs money. From consultant fees (it's trademarked), to prize money to the winner (can run anywhere from 10 grand to 50 grand) along with billboards and advertising (which can probably match how much it costs for the winner's prize).

I would LOVE to do Fugitive and other listener-intensive promos. But there's two problems to this...

The first one is the old showbiz axiom that you keep them wanting more. It's ok to have downtime between major promotions. The double-edged sword is that if you just pound listeners over the head with contest after contest after contest, it will get confusing, plus they may think a contest is lame and tune out.

Second one comes back to money. As a wise old man once said to me, you can't give a car away every time you crack a mic.

 

[Starscream]

> Your right about street presence being a part of it. But it
> is a MAJOR part. Music is music. You can find Kelly
> Clarkson on any station. It's what you wrap around the
> music that makes a station a hit.

Agreed - programming is very important.


> And your fugative
> promotion goes to support my idea of valuable street
> presence. And you're right about following up and keeping
> the energy going after the promotion. Were there follow up,
> on air promos? And street visablility doesn't take major
> money. If you can't get the interns out during the day, the
> the promotions director or staff should get out there.

Fugitive - see my other post in this thread about it costing money.

Street prescence - I agree with you that we should get out there, but with how streamlined stations are, (I work for a 12-station group) it's very rare that I can take time out to just drive the van around and do a street hit for four hours. I can get away with it maybe once a week, but I can't pound it every day.

My part-timer crew is mainly college students who graduated up the rank from interns. They can't work during the day because they are in class. And even if they're not in class, you have to stick to a budget of hours allocated for them. If there are sales events going on that weekend, you have to keep that budget for those events.

This goes back to wanting to use the interns to drive the trucks, but that's when you run into the insurance problem. It's very very very very very rare you get an intern that you can trust enough to drive the station's vehicle. In my time in radio, I've had the following things happen:

1) Intern is in the station vehicle with the windows rolled down, listening TO ANOTHER RADIO STATION.

2) Intern turns on the station vehicle's remote PA system - and ANOTHER RADIO STATION IS PLAYING.

I wasn't around for this, but I've also worked for a company where an intern who was allowed to keep the vehicle overnight was busted for a DUI in the vehicle.

There are lots of logisitics and problems in this equation. Much like pimpin', promotions ain't easy.

> And you're right about premiums like bumper stickers. You
> need to co cop trade with companies to do that. T shirts
> are a much more valuable commodity than bumper stickers and
> I wouldn't hand them out at concerts because once one gets
> one, another and another wants one. Save them for on air
> contesting.

You want to give out T-shirts at concerts BECAUSE if a person puts on your t-shirt at a concert, they become a walking billboard for your station at a venue with 20,000 people. If you have 50 t-shirts to give out at a concert, then that's OK. You can't do it when you have five shirts. Giving t-shirts over the air is OK, but you can make a much bigger splash at a large venue. Besides, giving out t-shirts all the time makes you sound small. My station gives out two t-shirts on the air per day. One AM Drive, one PM drive, and always part of a prize pack to make it sound "big" on the air.

> Be at Starbucks when they
> taste test their new coffee.

And immediately, a GM and a GSM freak out because you're giving a major national corporation with money to spend on advertising free air-time. Not happening.

> Be at a mall where people can
> enter a drawing for a trip (a trip which you will thread
> thru several contests).

And immediately, a GM and a GSM freak out because you're giving a mall represented with an agency with money to spend on advertising free air-time.

GM's and GSMs freak because you can't go to a lot of places because they have money to spend and they don't want to give them free plugs.

The flip side is that you can't go to small places who can't afford air-time because people can't find them or they just make you look small.

Welcome to the catch-22 of Radio Promotions.

 

[nuzguy]

As a noted authority in and successful practitioner of radio promotions once said, "Make them relate to PEOPLE, keep the promotion simple,fun to participate in, and easy to win." Some projects seem to fall victim to promoters who spend so much time trying to make the project a creative masterpioece that they lose sight of the original objective--to prompt people to listen (or to force listening as another aggressive specialist put it). It seems that all too many promotions at stations around the country have such complicated rules and requirements to play that listeners are scared away, not lured in. Well planned and executed promotional schemes can cost very little, if anything, and reap huge rewards. Or the price in lost listenership can be massive, indeed. Plan well and KISS.

 

[Starscream]

As a noted authority in and successful practitioner of radio promotions once said, "Make them relate to PEOPLE, keep the promotion simple,fun to participate in, and easy to win." Some projects seem to fall victim to promoters who spend so much time trying to make the project a creative masterpioece that they lose sight of the original objective--to prompt people to listen (or to force listening as another aggressive specialist put it). It seems that all too many promotions at stations around the country have such complicated rules and requirements to play that listeners are scared away, not lured in. Well planned and executed promotional schemes can cost very little, if anything, and reap huge rewards. Or the price in lost listenership can be massive, indeed. Plan well and KISS.

Is this a dig on Fugitive? I have ratings that say otherwise.Fugitive sounds intensive, but it's simple - find the guy, ask the question, win the cash. It's branded as reality radio - and that's EXACTLY what it is.We're currently running our second fugitive promotion. I had a listener come up to me and tell me what a good time she had "listening to the crazy people run around on the radio."I had asked her if she was involved looking for clues, and she said - verbatim - "No. I just like to listen."Well-planned, low-cost promotions that aren't hack, played-out, or hokey? Do tell.You can't do 9th caller anymore. It's lame. You can't do song of the day anymore. It's lame. "Phrase that Pays"? HORRIFIC.

 

[ajkillian]

Since my first post on this, I have found out some behind-the-scenes info about the B's first attempt at the fugitive promotion that has left me more than a little jaded. During the B's Fugitive I contest, I had used some fairly advanced audio filters to kind of reverse engineer and polish the fugitive's voice and found it to be the station's program director Jeff Jarnigan. I called the station up and played for different DJ's "my discovery," and I was assured by several different of them that it wasn't Jeff--just a coincidence. Every DJ I spoke to told me I was crazy. I didn't really believe them. Seriously, if a voice during a promotion happens to sound like the PD, chances are it's the PD.When I was ten minutes late catching the Fugitive I back in October, I saw Jeff Jarnigan and told him that I was the one who had descrambled the fugitive's voice. He said he had heard a recording of it and was amazed at how much it sounded like him. He said it definitely wasn't him though--just a coincidence. The B.S. was practically flowing from his lips.Cut scene to recently when I recently ran in to an old friend of mine who had worked at South Central. I had brought up the Fugitive II contest and how I had put a recording of the first "fugitive" through some filters and it sounded like Jeff Jarnigan."That was you?!" Apparently, word had spread through SC that someone had taken the fugitive's voice and descrambled it to find it was Jeff. But Jeff had told the DJ's to deny it was him.Nice.I asked my friend why Jarnigan was so against a listener knowing the truth, and the person said there was a lot of stuff going on at the station that was testing the ethics of the employees. This person said that some of the rumors about the Fugitive I contest really made a person question the contest's legality.It blew my mind.I knew the Fugitive contest was a sham, but I didn't think it was illegal. This person didn't go into details, but I can only assume that things like when the Fugitive said she was at Krispy Kreme, she really wasn't. When she said she was at Thompson Boling Arena, she really wasn't. And just who _is_ Mary Rankenberger? B-97.5's first Fugitive, that's who. But right after the contest, she scurried back into obscurity.Anyway, apparently the station learned its lesson from it's first attempt at the Fugitive promotion and made some changes for the second round, which ended last week.It didn't end with a grand finale and blatantly obvious clue about Market Square where if you happened to be heading downtown and listening to that one last clue, you could snag $10K. This time it ended at a Medic Blood Center. That first Fugitive promotion really disillusioned me to the magic of radio. Jarnigan didn't have to lie or make his employees lie to me. He should have just said, "Yes, it was me! Now take your audio filters and shove 'em!"I wasn't out to "get" the station or the promotion. In fact, Jeff Jarnigan's drive time show gave me the idea to put the recording through some filters. A girl had called Jeff and claimed that she took a recording of the fugitive and ran it through one of those voice disguisers from Radio Shack, and the voice turned out to be a woman. I did the same thing--only digitally, and it turned out to be Jeff.I guess this is a perfect of example of THE PROBLEM WITH PROMOTIONS.All the best,~Aaron~

 

[Starscream]

Aaron... no offense - you're the one who pulled back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz, and now you're claiming you're disillusioned with the "magic of radio"?I mean, so what if a PD was lying to you about this? He was protecting "the show" in PT Barnum sort of way.It's professional wrestling, it's show business. It's not national security.

 

[ajkillian]

Aaron... no offense - you're the one who pulled back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz, and now you're claiming you're disillusioned with the "magic of radio"?

Starscream,Ya' know I wasn't pulling back the curtain to exploit the wizard. I was legitimately playing the Fugitive game. I thought by running the fugitive's voice through some filters would give me a little edge. Hell, the PD was the one who gave me the idea to descramble the voice in the first place! If he hadn't had a girl call and claim to have descrambled the voice, I probably would have never thought to descramble it myself.I guess my big beef with it was that he didn't have to lie to me. He could have just said, "Okay. You got me. Haha. You know our secret. Now keep this between us, okay please?"I did get my revenge though. After I figured out what program they used to disguise his voice, I pranked the station with my own fugitive clue:"My voice sounds like a chipmunk;This much is true.Follow me to the restroom,And you're sure to smell some poo. [Bbbbbbbpppppppt!]"Yes, I'm a twelve year old at heart.In the end I don't like being lied to; that's all.All the best,~Aaron~

 

[Starscream]

Aaron:Considering you're going on an industry message board, you're proving Jeff right by not being up front with you. He didn't lie to you; he was protecting his product. Let's say he did talk to you about fugitive methodology - you go on a messageboard and blab about it?This board is searchable by Google. You put in a couple of right phrases into Google, and you run a huge risk for messing up Fugitive promotions in other markets. I'm not commending the PD for what he did - if he did in fact used a masked voice of an ON AIR TALENT to be the fugitive, I think it's stupid - but for you to confront him about it just makes it worse.Don't be "that guy".

 

[ajkillian]

Considering you're going on an industry message board, you're proving Jeff right by not being up front with you. He didn't lie to you; he was protecting his product. I'm not commending the PD for what he did - if he did in fact use a masked voice of an ON AIR TALENT to be the fugitive, I think it's stupid - but for you to confront him about it just makes it worse.Don't be "that guy".

First off, Starscream, he did lie to me BECAUSE he wanted to protect his product. You can't say he didn't lie. He lied. And he ordered his staff to lie. He made me "that guy." He could have just said, "Look, kid, it's just radio. It's a show. It was me. I masked my voice. Just keep this quiet, okay?"It's unethical to run this promotion like this--to have clues floating out there that aren't true. Is it even legal under the realm of contest rules and regulations? Probably not. Look, my friend probably shouldn't have said anything, but this person was doing an internship and word like this got around to this person. How was the PD to know that we had a friend in common? He probably had them say no to C.H.A., and he didn't think it would get back to me. But it did. And now they're left with a fairly jaded listener.How does confronting the station "make it worse"? I wasn't confronting them. I was sold on their radio tricks, too. I was excited and called up the DJ's because I thought they were sucked in to the game, too. Call me naive. But don't accuse me of trying to stir something up. I wasn't. I was playing the game, and my sleuthing led me to find that their afternoon DJ was making the calls. That's all.Don't accuse me of anything here. If the station screwed up, they screwed up.Remember: I commended them for doing a fair promotion the second time around. Or at least it appeared fair. I didn't play the second time because the first time left me so damned disilluisioned.All the best,~Aaron~

 

[JoeFromTomsRiver]

First off, I've never taken part in a radio contest that didn't go something like this: "Be caller #9 and receive two free tickets to ______".

I do have a few things to say about this "Fugitive" thing. Ive never heard about it until now but it sounds VERY shady and I question the legality of it if what I'm reading is true. Sending listeners out on a wild goose hunt for a contest that is RIGGED from the get go is beyond un-ethical.

As someone said, this 'isn't National Security" and really isn't that big of a deal, but I don't see why program directors should have carte blanche to scam the listening audience.

I don't buy the argument that "its like pro-wrestling" or whatever. 99.9% of the pro-wrestling audience knows what they are watching is just a show and not a real sport. The wrestling fans consciously suspend their disbelief when watching the match. But NOBODY in the listening audience would have ANY reason to think that this "Fugitive" contest wasn't on the up and up. If this thing isn't a SCAM, nothing is.

To the guy, who went through all the work to figure this all out, did you think of going to a local news station w/ this information? A popular radio station running a fixed contest when the prize money they are offering doesn't even exist is definitely something they might decide to look into.

 

[ajkillian]

Taking this to the local news media would kind of be a moot point now--since the first contest was back in October. Plus, they seemed to have made up for it with the second fugitive as those clues legitimately led to the "capture" of someone.

Anyway, I'm afraid everything I've said is hearsay. My friend is _not_ going to blow the whistle here because this person would like to be a viable employee in this market. If this person came out against the station, you can pretty much bet all hopes of employment in this region would be dead in the water.

So without this person's account, I don't have a leg to stand on.

Maybe I should call the program director and confront him myself. I still have the file saved on my computer. Perhaps I should just email it to him directly and see what he says--eight months after the contest.

Anyway, thanks for the support. At least somebody's giving my post some love. Everybody else on here seems to be defending B-97.5's unethical contest practices.

All the best,
~Aaron~

 

[mypunkrockromance]

Wow this was a crazy post and I just had to respond.

No one will EVER know what it's like to do promotions unless you've actually done it. It is such a unique animal, I don't think it could ever be described.

A promotions person is the bridge between the sales staff and the programming staff. And these two departments are frequently at war. It's business people versus creative people, people who want to make the most money versus people who need good ratings for their station to survive.

I deal with six different program directors and all their on-air staff plus 10 salespeople. The salespeople have to try and sell everything that programming comes up with, if they don't, programming thinks sales is lazy and they don't care. It's an ongoing, almost daily battle.

And then you get into the listener aspect. I would like to believe most of us do what is fair for all the listeners but sometimes it just is not possible to accomodate everyone. And it is never possible to please everyone.

Our stations have some of the sweetest listeners and then we have listeners who we could hand them a million dollars and they would want something else the next week or the next day even.

We aren't perfect, no one is. And as we always say here, "It's just radio!"

 

[Stewy]

To have promotions in this day and time of corporate radio you have got to get "the powers that be" to understand that there should be two seperate promotional budgets for each station; one for station promotions (gets listeners) and one for sales promotions (makes money above the cost, rule of seven). KISS is essential. Integrety and credibility is even more essential. Double blind is the way to choose, period. Don't give in to the bean counters that can't see farther than the expense line. Fight for your right to promote!

 

[RussAllen]

During the B's Fugitive I contest...

That's all I needed to read to LOL. WJXB did the fugitive twice on a "soft rock/AC" station. Great contest WRONG station. But we all took it as flattery since we'd just done the fugitive contest 6 months before and another station tried to shadow us by doing it with their find the fugitive and "win your share of $5,000 in prizes".

My point being that part of the problem with promotions is:


stations doing promotions that don't come close to fitting the vibe of their radio station
stations ripping off other station's promotions (tends to happen alot with WJXB since Jarnigan got over there)
stations shadowing their competitors promotions instead of coming up with something compelling for their own P1's

Of course, given what happened in Sacramento recently, all the cool promotions may have just become a liability.

Soon, we all may be taking caller 9 :

 

[blowtorch]

Put yourself back in a listener's shoes.

Do you want to have to jump through a bunch of hoops to win a pair of tix? Or do you want to hear the jock say, call now, be #9 and you're going to the concert?

Maybe we always want to do fancy, creative, cool, and new promotions and contests because we are bored with caller 9 and other staples of radio.

Thoughts?