Showing The Flag

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 16 Apr 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: politics, radio politics, showing the flag, top of mind

I’ve always been analogy retentive and one of the fallback metaphors I use a lot is that Radio is basically politics. Except we’re ALWAYS running for election. And when someone straps on a 1980’s style pager dealie or sits down at the kitchen table to try to remember who they listened to the previous week, they’re either voting for you or against you. Read more…

Anti-Social Media

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Uncategorized 29 Mar 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: customer service, hootsuite, James Cridland, Mike Gartell, social media, Tweetdeck

Radio has, like we always seem to do, take something like social media and look at it with a very one dimensional vision: “Hey Bob, now we have another way to spam and annoy our audience.”

Granted, it would require “work” and “effort” but Twitter and Facebook have given us wonderful ways to court listeners and create fans.

Take this amazing story from Morton’s Steak House where they snatched a tweet out of the ether and created a true and loyal fan. Read more…

Terms That Need To Be Killed Off

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 17 Mar 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: played out term, played out terms, played out terms for radio

As members of the esteemed Communications Field I don’t think it’s lost on anyone that we fall into traps, ruts, patterns and other lawn hazards when it comes to naming features.

Tommy Kramer had a great line:

“If everyone is doing something, DON’T DO IT.”

So why would you have a weekend theme or prize term that’s been used by everyone else in town, Read more…

It’s All About The Balls

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 04 Mar 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: ball fascination, balls, gerbil balls, KSFM, roulette wheel

If you think about it (and I do, late at night, in the dark, playing with my guns, updating my Enemies List) promotionally, great things come in round sizes.

Let’s discuss, shall we?

We’re in Show Business. If the lottery just had a fish bowl with some random numbers in it, it wouldn’t have as many people hovering in front of their TV at 9:59 with hands full of soon-to-be-worthless tickets they bought at the Kwik Trip with their kids bake sale money.

Think about it: before there was a prize wheel, there was roulette. As opposed to having a short line of bored people trying to spin and win a key chain from Exxon at their remotes, KSFM used to have a roulette wheel. They’d have 38 listeners over the course of 15 or 20 minutes put their names on squares and they’d spin for something decent like concert tickets. Read more…

Missed Connections

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 11 Feb 2014 Comments: 1 Tags: christmas morning show, connecting with your audience, man on the moon, morning show, radio audience, radio contests, radio promotions, target audience

Arbitron has always been the great whipping boy of Radio. When we drop unexpectedly and dramatically, it’s because “(Bad word removed since the internet is no place for profanity) screwed it up. Again.”

And when we go up, it’s because “(Really bad word for an act that is illegal in Alabama) finally got it

right.” Read more…

It’s Intern Hunting Season

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 26 Jan 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: interns, internship, radio interns, summer interns

In Minnesota we have some annual seismic shifts in your lifestyles and they all seem to have “Opener” as a suffix. Deer opener. Fishing opener. Duck opener. Twins/Vikings home opener. And of course, “The friggin’ beer ain’t a twist off Wally. Get me da opener, will ya?”

2014 is certainly a different time for the industry. It wasn’t all too far in our past that you’d start getting resumes in January and by March had your Summer staff pretty well chosen and locked down. Read more…

A Trifecta Of Digital Resolutions

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 03 Jan 2014 Comments: 0 Tags: New Year resolution, new year resolutions, promotion, radio promotions, resolutions, social media

Resolution #9

It’s very easy to leave the web and social media alone since many of your have actual departments that do that. But you should seriously take a minute a day just to spot check what’s getting posted. If you’re at a station in Florida in June and someone puts up “A new study shows that most people believe hot chocolate tastes better when served from an orange mug”, go and discuss the relevance of that. Honestly, it’s lame in Buffalo but in Florida, in June….? And yes, that was an actual post. Read more…

New Years Revolutions

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Uncategorized 07 Dec 2013 Comments: 0 Tags: New Year resolution, new year resolutions

I was never good with resolutions. The one about the thing at the place with the stuff? I didn’t

make it past noon on the 1st inability to commit and my weak resolve. Damn. Damn. Damn.

Here are a few things to resolve for 2014:

The Positions of The Promo Sutra

Posted by: Paige Nienaber In: Promotions 14 Nov 2013 Comments: 4 Tags: Concerts, KDWB, promotion, radio marketing, radio promotions, weekend contesting

When discussing Radio and marketing, there are a lot of valid political metaphors and analogies that get bandied ™ about. It is a lot like a campaign and when people are strapping on meters or filling out diaries they’re voting for or against you. Hopefully you shook their hand, made a case for your product and will get their vote.

There are also a LOT of football comparisons too. Especially when it comes to elements of the game.

The Minneapolis paper will, on a Sunday in the Fall, break down that day’s matchup of the Vikings and whoever is about to kick their ass. Read more…