Overview
Local radio stations are a great way to get the word out about your location and your offerings. There are tons of opportunities for radio station promotions…from on-air give-aways of products to sponsorship of events or contests.
Through promotions, you can get on-air mentions without having to do radio advertising. And you can often do these via ‘trade’ (giving product away vs. paying money for the promotion).
Once you develop a relationship with someone at the radio station (DJ, promotions or marketing person), they’ll come to you with more opportunities.
Details
Radio stations are always having contests and giving away products and services to their listeners. First, it’s important to identify the stations you want to work with, then connect with them about working together.
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.
Contact the Stations
Once you have your target stations, you’ll want to identify the right person to work with. It may be a sales person, promotion manager or marketing director, depending on the size of the radio stations. Check out the “Contact Us” section of each station’s website to find the name of the correct person. The Promotions person is always a great start. Or if you have an idea for a contest, you could start with Contest person.
You can either present them with an idea (which we’ve found to be the best approach), or you can contact them saying you’d like to work together.
Dear Anne,
As an avid listener of ABC-FM, I’d love to discuss working with you.
Our full-service spa is about to celebrate it’s 2nd anniversary and we’d love to provide massage gift certificates to give away in one of your on-air contests.
I can be reached at 555.555.5555 and look forward to discussing with you further.
Sincerely,
Sarah
In our local marketing experience, we have found radio relationships to be one of the keys to success in promoting our initiatives, whether in big markets like LA or smaller markets like Asheville, NC. Having some money to spend on promotions or advertising is helpful, but building relationships is the secret to success. If the sales or promotion person knows they can come to you to support their initiatives, they’ll be even more likely to help you by supporting yours.
Examples
ABC-FM’s Burger of the Week
A local hamburger chain partnered with their favorite radio station, ABC-FM for a summer promotion, ABC’s Burger of the Week. Each week of the twelve weeks of summer, a hamburger from their line up was featured. They even named a burger after the station’s midday DJ. The promotion was promoted on-air daily with live reads (where the DJ reads a blurb live), with high promotion during mid-day (11am-3pm). Each weekday, they also gave away “Lunch for 4” for a listener to win lunch at the burger chain. Listeners entered to win the contest online, where the promotion was also being featured. An added bonus: the hamburger chain got access to the email addresses of those who “opted in” to their subscriber list via their “entry to win.” For a less than $5,000 and the cost of the product, this hamburger chain got a full summer promotion with a top radio station. It helped contribute to a record summer of sales.
Morning Wake Up Crew
A local coffee chain in Austin partnered with the #1 radio station in the market on their morning wake up crew stops. One of their local cafes prepared a gallon of regular coffee and a gallon of hot chocolate for the station to pick up Mon, Wed & Fri of each week at 6:30am. The only cost of being involved was providing the product. Another local chain provided the food. In return they got mentions on-air all week!
Listen each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning, as we tell you where to find our van stuffed with ABC warm breakfast sandwiches and XYZ coffee and hot chocolate! Just a little something to get your day off to a great start!
