I’m a card carrying, dues paying, meeting attending member of I.L.A. ( I Love Acronyms). The station in Memphis did FLU Shots (Free Liquor Unlimited). The station in San Diego did SPF (Summer Prize Fun). Albany did FML (Free Music Live). But I detest K.I.S.S. or Keep It Simple Stupid.
Not that keeping it easy and simple-to-play is bad, but most PD’s f’ it up and dumb it down to being a stinking boring pile of pablum. Zzzzzzzz. So when one of the PD’s said in regards to a meet and greet backage for Taylor Swift “We’re just going to K.I.S.S. this”, I knew it was going to suck.
They took a prize with a perceived value equal to that of some eastern European economies and did “Click and Register on the website”. 64 people entered. By no one’s standards or matrix does this qualify as a success.
It was so boring to listen to that no one wanted to be associated with it.
The flip side of that is what I call The ‘And Then’ Theory of Convoluted Contesting.
If, in the description of how to win, you use “And then” more than once, you’re screwed. Some people refer to this as ‘jumping through hoops’. As they would say on the playground in 6th grade: same dif.
An outstanding example was a Hormel chili campaign from several Superbowls ago.
- Go to your Sunday paper and then
- Wade through the Brazilian rainforest of coupons, find the Hormel coupon and then
- Go to the station website and then
- Register your name and then
- Listen for The Morning Nutz™ to call out your name and then
- Call in and answer a question based on the coupon
And then, in no less than 8 markets no one entered.
And then, the client went crazy and blamed the industry for failing to market their promotion correctly as opposed to radio managers going crazy on their PD’s and promo people for doing such an awful contest without fixing it.
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