Every radio station in America is regularly faced with the daunting task of creating promotions…except for Classical stations. Some people listen to that stuff whether or not you give them things. Anyway, during each Arbitron period, most program directors pull out what hair they have left, agonizing over the best way to give away huge prizes, increase TSL, create compelling radio and (most importantly) not get fired! This task is even more daunting for those of us in Christian radio because the competition is SO big, and our budgets are SO small. In fact, this exact phrase has been heard from nearly every CCM programmer’s office within the past year:

“Clear Channel is giving away ten grand HOW many times today?!?! How the…”

Relax. Next week their jackpot is only one Ford Expedition every hour. Ugh. Are they mocking us? Most CCM stations couldn’t even afford to put tires on one of those things.

When staring up at competition that big, it’s easy to get swept up in the ‘but I only have enough money to give away the free CD’s that Brian at Sparrow sent me last year’ syndrome. If this is your situation, please, call Brian and ask for some new ones. You may also want to consider these three sure-fire tricks to pulling off an effective, successful and memorable promotion. And by “sure-fire”, I of course mean “last-resort”.

It is tempting (and common) to combat your competition’s massive promotional campaigns with the ‘quantity not quality’ method. Some of us reason, “Maybe if I can give away enough stuff, it will appear that it all adds up to $1,000,” or a car, or whatever. These types of stations are running internet contests, doing seven separate morning show giveaways, playing the secret sound game, and dishing out CD’s all week to the first five callers who hear a song from any of the WOW albums. Ahhhhhhh!

Can you imagine what would happen if Clear Channel did this? Angry listeners in cars and office buildings across this great land of ours would be saying…

And the same phenomenon occurs when Christian stations throw too much out at once. Utter confusion.

You’ll save yourself an Excedrin sized headache (not to mention a hoard of confused listeners) if you can stick to one major contest at a time. A singular focus allows time for more on-air mentions and greater listener familiarity with your latest promotion. Now, if you could just decide what to give away…and how?

As a Christian radio professional you know about many things. Ministry, families, golf, doughnuts, and coffee come to mind. And, naturally, there are also concepts you don’t understand…like rave parties, happy hour, country music, and cars with less than 100,000 miles on them. That said, choose a promotion that both you and your audience can relate to and be stimulated by. Some perennial favorites have been the ‘Holiday Fly-Away’, the ‘Pastor’s Golf Tournament’, and the ‘Spend a week in the trunk of a Pinto’ contests. Choosing a promotion that you and your listeners can be passionate about is half the battle. Unfortunately, the other half is money…which you don’t have! So, passion will have to do. It is also essential, no matter how passionate you are, that your contests offer listeners something that they want. A prize that can’t die or run away is also helpful.

Not only should listeners want what you’re giving away, but the giveaway should be exclusive. In other words, if you can buy it at Wal-Mart - don’t use it! Exclusive prizes might include lunch with an artist, tickets/CD’s before you can buy them, and merchandise with your station logo on it. Before you get too excited though, I’m not thinking of the 3,000 floppy plastic key chains with the logo from three years ago sitting in your storage room. Exclusive, maybe…stimulating, no. You’ll have to think of something else to do with those.

Now that you have a myriad of giveaway ideas floating through your head, it’s time to decide how much to spend. For some this is very easy…

“Spend? Money? HA!”

For others it’s a little tougher…

“Let’s see, I know I dropped a quarter in this station van somewhere!”

Whatever your situation, the key is to remember the difference between ‘cost’ and ‘value’. Cost is the actual price your station pays for the prize, while value would be the implied worth to the listener. With little or no money, we’re looking for something high in value, but low in cost. And unless you know something that I don’t, this concept rules out cash…and floppy plastic keychains.

Try this. How much would a listener pay to have dinner with your morning team? Fifty dollars…a hundred dollars…five hundred? What about lunch with an artist or author? You can give these away for next to nothing, but there is an implied value to your audience. Voila!…a cheap, but effective promotion! It’s exclusive, and (depending on your morning show) it’s something the listeners would want. (Note: In order to make this contest effective, please remind your air staff to do such things as wear shoes, tuck in their shirt, and use silverware at dinner.)

While I realize that these three steps are not the cure-all for battling the big boys, they will certainly help point you in the right direction. If you can master the art of creating promotions that offer valuable, one-of-a-kind prizes at little or no cost to you…congratulations! If not, program 1-877-BIG-BUCKS into your speed-dial, and try to increase your promotional budget with $10,000 from Clear Channel!

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