We can overthink prizing and get caught up such exciting and needle-freezing contests as The $1000 Free Money Text.
The Wolf in Greensboro gave out Twinkies when there was a Twinkie shortage and The Phones Melted™. Ditto with Power in Atlanta with Patti Labelle’s sweet potato pies and The Phones Melted™. KLUC in Las Vegas with turkeys the day before Thanksgiving? The Phones Melted™. Townsquare Media in Boise did haircuts and The Phones Melted™. B-103.9 in Ft. Myers decided to give out ten packs of $1 scratch off lottery tickets and The Phones Melted™.
And then you have movie tickets.
I got desensitized to free movies by the mid-1980’s. It seemed like we were doing a screening every few weeks. A decade later my neighbor asked if I could get a pair of tickets to some Harrison Ford movie from my client here in the Twin Cities. They sent four tickets and 19 years after the fact Kent still mentions the time he and his wife and another couple went to Mall Of America to see a movie for free.
Movies are the Entertainment Universal. Some people like watching golf on TV and some people don’t. But if you went out and randomly asked 1000 people if they enjoy going to see a movie, all but one agoraphobe would respond in the affirmative. They just might not agree on what kind of movies they like to go see.
For instance, Hot 89.9 in Ottawa did MILFs or, Mom’s Into Love Flicks and sent women and their friends to see “chick flicks” that their men would never be able to stomach.
Power 96 in Miami has single-handedly created some of the best contest methodologies in Radio in their 40+ years but one promotion that nearly broke the phones was Food And A Flick: win two movie tickets and a gift card to a restaurant. That’s a date night and the audience went nuts trying to win.
Movies can also trend, be iconic and/or be a social phenomenon. There are going to be one or two films a year that everyone is talking about, anticipating and even camping out for. These have then become a Position that you need to own.
One such film was “Days Of Thunder” when I worked in Charlotte. It was film in Charlotte, it was NASCAR….every station wanted a piece of it. To the point that the studio just decided to kibosh any station-exclusive screenings or ticket give aways. So we just got on the air and gave away $10 bills and declared them to be “The only free tickets in town to ‘Days Of Thunder.!” The studio loved it. Our competitor’s heads exploded.
What can you do to make your screenings or ticket giveaways, if not special, at least better than the other stations in town?
- 99% of your listeners will never ride in a limo. Add a limo to the theater as a grand prize.
- Have as many of your jocks there as possible. Have them standing at the tops of the aisles, greeting the listeners. What a great opportunity to press-the-flesh. Most stations don’t even HAVE a jock go. What a waste.
- Give one of your winners the opportunity to do a quick video review as they exit the screening. Not some erudite film critic. Debby from Anoka who is an actual person who lives in the market and probably has more similar tastes that Michael St. Stevens with The Tinsletown Minute.
- Also, 8 Second Movie Reviews on the morning show, the day after the screening. “We have Paige from Scandia, how did you like ‘Cheerleader Slumber Party’ in 8 seconds?” “Thanks Ryan, BODACIO…” “Thanks Paige.”
- One of the Newcap stations in Canada created a slideshow of station images to play on the screen before the movie started. As opposed to that awful movie trivia thing that usually runs.
- Find an alternative place to show the movie. In a park. At a wavepool. At a block party. At a drive in. On the ceiling at the IMAX.
- Send tickets to highschool papers. Wild in San Francisco does that and the station gets massive love in the papers when they review the movie.
- Is there a theme you can play off of with the movie? I did a screening once for some awful stupid-crooks film. I had cops come in and arrest the DJ who was introing the movie in the midst of her spiel.
- Can you do after-parties at clubs? Keep the party going so-to-speak? Who wants to go home at 9:30. Bring a ticket you got to the screening to (client) and get some free appetizers.
- If the movie is scary, give out adult diapers. If it’s romantic, let some listeners watch it from a bed in the front row.
- If you have an agency that places all of the screenings in your market, then they usually have a list of people they send tickets to. Do “Movies For A Year” and get some winners on the list. Think about it not like a radio person but as a listener: I could go to dozens of movies for free??? Hell yeah. What do I need to do?
Have fun with them. People love movies. They’re the Entertainment Universal so these will always great prizes.
Conversely, hooking up people with free Netflix? Try it with some kind of web contest. Match the movie murderer to the movie victim. Finish the movie line. Match the songs to their movies. Just anything other than click-and-register.
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