All’s Well That Ends Well

Problem: Radio stations typically get “freebies” from local merchants in partial exchange for advertising time. These freebies are used for a variety of promotions and are an important way for radio stations to create interest in their stations. It seems KZAP had a few sets of tickets for a Shakespearean play at a local theater and decided to give them away. The DJ announced enthusiastically, “Okay folks, we’ve got great theater ticket this weekend at the Old Globe Theater for “All’s Well That Ends Well,” a Shakespearean classic. The fiftieth caller gets the tickets, so call 555-1234 right away. And they waited and waited, but the phone lines were nearly silent. So they tried again the next hour with the same results. Two more efforts met with the same fate.

Analysis: Ho-hum. So what. Their listeners were tuned into a different station, WII-FM, What’s In It For Me. Their offer failed to generate any enthusiasm with their listeners because they failed to give them an experience that they could relate to. OK, free tickets, but to Shakespeare? Not exactly everyone’s choice for an exciting theater experience.

Solution: At a meeting the following day, the general manager of the station recalled something he had read a few days before. People get excited about getting dressed up for a classy evening out. So they changed their pitch to the following, “If you’d like to have an evening out, want a reason to get dressed up and do something really classy, we’ve got just the ticket for you….. free tickets to see Shakespeare’s ‘All’s Well That Ends Well.’ Tickets go to the fiftieth caller.”

The phones lines lit up and the tickets were given away immediately. What was the difference? The audience was into the experience, not the vehicle. The play was secondary. Think of the emotional value of getting dressed up for a night out doing something classy. It’s light years ahead of simply attending a play by the Bard.

Are you getting your prospects involved emotionally or simply providing less than stimulating intellectual information?