Overview

A radio station broadcast on-site at your location is a great away to build awareness and drive traffic and trial of your products. This is a great activity for new store openings or for the big launch of a new promotion or renovation.

Details

Partner with a local radio station to be on-site at your location, either for a live broadcast (radio station actually broadcasts from your location) or live on-site promotion (radio station sends their van and promotion crew to your location and promotes their appearance on-air).

In many bigger markets, it’s cost prohibitive to do a full “live” broadcast from a location, so live on-site promotions are more likely. These can be just as effective as long as there are lots of on-air promotions. The team on site can even call in to the live show on the air to promote your business.

This activity will probably involve paying the radio station some type of fee, so you want to tie it into something big…Grand Opening, Grand Re-Opening, Anniversary Celebration, or other big event.

Identify the Stations

You probably know the key radio stations in your local market that you can target…the stations you listen to, and most importantly, the stations your customers and potential customers listen to.

If not, use this site to find the full list of stations nearest you and links to the station websites.

Radio Station Locator Website

Contact the Station

Once you’ve identified the stations you’d like to work with and know the big event you’d like to promote, contact the promotions person at the radio station about the opportunity to have them on-site for your event. This person is usually listed on the “Contact Us” page of the station’s website.

Dear Leslie,

My wine bar is a huge fan of your radio station. We regularly play it for our customers.

We’re celebrating our 3rd anniversary next month with a day of wine tastings and festivities. We’re very interested in having ABC-FM on-site for the celebration.

I can be reached at 555.555.5555 and look forward to discussing with you further.

Sincerely,

Joe

You can also plan to do some fun things on the day as additional tie-ins with the radio station, like playing off of the radio stations radio frequency numbers. For example, if the station is 98.7, offer 98 beverages or invitations for the first 98 callers to the station. Or, you could offer a special prize to the first 98 visitors to your event. This builds excitement and gets your new store talked about on the radio.

Plan out all the details with the radio station, including what time they’ll be on-site. Be sure to provide them with information they can read on-air.

Join us Saturday at Joe’s Wine Bar on Park Avenue from 1 to 4pm for their 3rd Anniversary Celebration. There will be lots of cork-popping fun, wine tastings and giveaways. Joe’s Wine Bar, Your Neighborhood Wine Spot.

Event Day

Put together a spectacular event and plan for big crowds. See In-Store Events for more details on planning In-Store Celebrations.