Basics: Updates to Promos

Today I’m in Phoenix, Arizona. A station is giving away tickets to the hottest sporting event in town. Hard to get tickets. A nice coup.

The tickets are being given away today, Wednesday, April 14.

The promo runs. Today. Wednesday.

But the promo doesn’t say “..win tickets all day today!”

No, the promo says “..win tickets Wednesday!”

Crap.

When you make a promo, there must be at least the following versions:

1. The one you run more than a week ahead, if any. That one will use the exact date.

2. The one you run earlier in the week. That one will say “BEGINNING THIS Friday (or whatever day), or THIS WEEKEND”.

3. The one you run the day before the giveaway begins. That one will say “TOMORROW”.

4. A different one for each day of the promotion. For the first day, it will either say “ALL DAY TODAY” or “TODAY” if it is a one day promotion, or “TODAY THROUGH -----“ for a multi-day promotion.

5. As soon as possible after you have your first winner, you need to record a version with audio of excited winners, and promote a sense of excitement and urgency. If it takes more than an three hours to get it on air, you are one sorry excuse for a programmer.

6 As you near the end of the promotion, you must use phrases like “LAST DAY” to further the sense of urgency.

7. After the promotion/giveaway ends, you must immediately run a promo to run that reminds listeners of what you just did (include the best audio of winners), tease with the promise that more is on the way, and invite them to continue listening. Invite them to join your station listener database so that they receive early email notification of whatever is next from the fun and games department.