Non Traditional Revenue = Ratings And $

Generating ratings is obviously the primary goal of any program director. However, the reason we generate ratings is to generate revenue. There was many a year that I as a programmer was swept up in the "art of programming" versus understanding that the real reason we exist is to make money. Please do not misunderstand what I am saying. I am not saying that you should prostitute your radio station's product. What I am saying is that there are many great promotional and programming opportunities that can generate revenue. We didn't call the special events and promotions that we create for sales "non-traditional revenue." However, that's the handle many use today in regard to labeling those promotions and products we create that generate revenue. The purpose of this memo is to share with you some of the better Non-Traditional Revenue tactics that I am familiar with. These are the ones that I most frequently suggest to our clients.

The Great Auto Show

The Great Auto Show is simple. There are six cars and one winning listener ... who takes their pick of the six cars. Someone actually wins a car, for keeps. Six different auto dealers participate by purchasing an advertising schedule on the station. Each car dealer gets a remote (on-location) broadcast... one per week for each of the six weeks of the contest. Sell an advertising schedule to the shopping mall, or another location that can host a major event. On the first Saturday following the event, all the contestants show up for their chance to win their choice of the six cars. Display all six of the cars.

This is a promotion that features point-of-purchase and phone-in or email online registration. There is one grand prize (win the car of your choice), 25 runner-up prizes (valued at $100 or more per prize) are used to qualify the winners.

Here's how it works. You have listeners call-in-to-win when they hear their name. Plan to have 25 (or more) finalists. They all show up at event for the backwards drawing. The last name left in the barrel picks the car of their choice.

Let me get into even grittier details. You will want to get six different car dealers (different makes) involved. They each buy a pre-determined schedule and receive spots, promotional announcements, and are entry points for the contest. You should also include one remote from each dealership as part of the package.

Here's the BIGGIE... whichever car the winner picks, you will buy from the dealer for cash. Since the cars on this list run for $18,000 - $30,000, you will want to get at least a $5,000 - $7,000 commitment from each dealer.

You will need to do the following:

1. Print entry blanks and get some entry boxes/displays.
2. Have each dealer display their car with your entry materials in their showroom.
3. Arrange smaller prizes for the qualifiers.
4. Arrange a location for the final selection of the grand prize winner.
5. Schedule the remotes from the dealer locations.
6. Prepare print ads for the newspaper with slicks of the six cars. Chances are, you will not be permitted to mention the dealers in the ad if its trade space, so don't promise print exposure to them.
7. Plan to pick up entries from dealers at least twice weekly.
8. Prepare and distribute a press release on the contest.
9. Prepare and send letters to all qualifiers, letting them know when and where to be for the final drawing. They may designate a substitute contestant if they will not be available at that time, but someone must be present at the final drawing to represent them.

Win Back Your Life (or The Listener's Choice)

If you're targeting women, then this is a great promotion for you that enables you to generate a lot of money from a lot of different sources. We give you your life back. Whatever you can imagine can be bought and given away, and underwritten by the product sponsor in question.

The most recent research I have seen shows that women suffer from "time poverty." That is to say they are time impoverished, having no time to tend to themselves due to the fact that they must tend to family, home, work, and their community. Think about your own lives. Women today have so little time that any spare moments are seen as a luxury.

The average female starts her day 30 minutes earlier than she used to so that she can get herself up and get ready before she has to get the children up and ready, and get the significant other ready and out the door for work or school. She then leaves for the work place, making mental notes on the ride in as to all the things she has to accomplish today both for home and family along with work.

The workday runs quickly until lunchtime. Her lunch is spent running errands to the dry cleaner, drug store, or stopping by the school to drop off a homework paper that was forgotten by one of the children. It is a fast-food lunch that's picked up in the last 15 minutes of the lunch hour and eaten at their desk or in their car.

3pm brings the telephone calls from latchkey kids. Settling disputes, offering advice and instruction as to what they are allowed to do and what they may not do, directing the family remote control while trying to continue to do her job.

At 5pm, when most men are thinking about what chores, errands, or activity they'll enjoy during their time of the evening, these mothers are thinking about "what's for dinner?" as well as crafting an agenda of activities that will need attention that evening.

At 6:00pm it's cooking, doing a load of laundry, and helping with homework... all at once. At 7:30pm its mom's taxi to and from soccer practice, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts, or church youth groups. At 9pm it's chasing the children up the steps to get ready for bed. It is not until this point that she has a chance to finally sit down, take a load of her feet, and say "ahhh."

With any luck, it's early to bed (by 11pm) and another day ahead of her of sleep deprivation. This is what the time-impoverished female faces.

Give them their life back!!! Create BIG prize packages with small qualifying prizes. Each prize package is so big that you may only be able to have one, two, three, or four winners. I can't imagine you having more than one major winner a week on this four-week promotion.

Winners score prizes that make their life easier; i.e., a month's worth of maid service, Meals To Go to deliver dinner every week night for a month, dry cleaning, prescription pick-up, a delivery/errand service at your beckon call, the yard taken care of for a month, a car wash a week to keep your vehicle clean in and out, and anything else you can think of that would make this person's life easier.

Prizes can be sold in prize packages. Advertisers provide the specific prize and receive promotional consideration. Third party advertisers pay for naming rights in an effort to underwrite the promotion and generate revenue. Do not allow more than five sponsors to be mentioned in any one promo. Thus, ten sponsors are likely the maximum so that you can rotate two promos with five sponsors on each one.

This promotion is best utilized as a final part of a four-week sweep. I think it will generate talk and help increase your rating recall when Arbitron contacts individuals for the post-analysis phase of the rating sweep.

The methodology that I am suggesting is that listeners who are tuned in during the morning are recycled into later in the day ala the Song-of-the-Day. They call in later in the day and win a qualifying prize that qualifies them for the weekly (or in the case of one winner, monthly) grand prize. Daily prizes should also be things that improve one's life; i.e., complete manicure and pedicure, a visit to a tanning salon, three free visits to a health club, etc.

This promotion warrants highly produced, descriptive and creative, paint-a-picture promotional announcements. Sell the FANTASY of the prizes in your recorded promos. Keep the advertisers' messages inside of their commercials.

The Cruise A Day Giveaway

Radio stations have given away cruises in the past and made revenue by selling cruises. The latest generation of broadcasting cruises for NTR comes from the on-line cruise specialist iCruise.com. Have you heard of them?

iCruise.com is one of the largest most respected sellers of cruise vacations in the world. Forbes Magazine named it one of their "best of the web." The folks at iCruise.com are to cruises what hotels.com is to hotels -- the best of the best. What's really great about iCruise is that they are owned by a group of former broadcasters who are very successful in our industry.

What I believe is best about iCruise is that you receive free cabins, or the cash equivalent, as part of an on-air promotion for programming giveaway and you can generate 2.5% non traditional revenue for your sales department every time one of your listeners books and pays for a cruise through a station targeted URL. For instance, you have the opportunity to permanently place the iCruise logo/link on your website. Your station will then receive this unique URL (www.icruise.com/yourstation) and will be able to show revenue generation on your website. Utilizing promotions that drive listeners to the web not only help you build a database, but keep the sound of the product as clean as possible, while creating "found money."

Radio stations also have the opportunity to air iCruise.com per inquiry ads. Per inquiry is where radio stations fill unsold inventory with the iCruise commercials, thus increasing the opportunity to generate revenue. The per inquiry spots are created and supplied by the iCruise radio pros and again drive listeners to a specific phone number or website where you receive a percent of each sale.

We've already had experience with iCruise with several McVay Media client radio stations. Listeners love winning cruises. iCruise creates turn key revenue generating radio promotions. They offer stations a chance to give away a free cruise on their website as well as giving away cruises on the air. There is a special side benefit whereby they will give you, the broadcaster, a "radio discount" on your next cruise.

Do not look at this as a "sales only" opportunity. This is a promotional and programming opportunity to give away cruises, and make revenue. It enables you to have a promotion that airs in primary ratings sweeps (Spring/Fall) or airs as a maintenance promotion during the less important sweeps. The campaign can air year round and become a maintenance promotion that creates residual-like revenue.

For more Non-Traditional Revenue generating ideas, visit www.mcvaymedia.com.