It seems like everyone outside of radio and television assumes that every station has an 18-wheeler full of prizes sitting out behind the studio. For most stations, this is far from reality and quality prizes can sometimes be few and far between.
If you happen to be in ‘drought’ as far as prizing goes, this doesn’t mean that you don’t have any rewards of value to offer your listeners. You just need to think creatively and create an ‘experience’ that your listeners will value. Oftentimes, the rewards that ‘money can’t buy’ are more prized by your audience than what’s on the shelf at their local store and cost you next to nothing.
Here are several ideas for ‘experiential prizes’:
Unseat the Swami/Capture the Throne – reward a member each week for having the most accurate predictions of the outcome of events you talk about on-air (sports seasons, awards shows, reality shows, etc.; many of these can be set up to run in your rewards program). Let the winner from last week make their predictions on-air for the coming week. How many men would love to be recognized as the equivalent of Chris Berman’s Swami, and how many women would love to be put up on a pedestal as the ‘Reigning Queen of Reality TV’?.
VIP Event Access – Create a velvet rope experience at your events for a select few members. Don’t limit yourself to just the times when you have a meet & greet or front row tickets. Set up a special access section that only a privileged few can enter. Get a sponsor and offer free food & drink to only these VIPs.
15 Seconds of Fame – Give your members 15 seconds of fame through an on-going series of on-air member profiles. This can provide the member with bragging rights and water cooler fodder, and if done right it may just be a great commercial for the station. Create a theme for it (e.g – 99X’s campaign ‘I am 99X’, Icehouse’s make your own commercial, etc). Let members submit what they would say through a survey in your program, pick the best ones and call them to get the recording.
Studio Audience – Make it a regular habit to reward a few members by inviting them into the studio each time an artist or celebrity visits. WXTU does an excellent job doing this with their ‘Triple Nickel’ studio experience.
Dinner/Lunch with a Personality – This one needs little explanation and you may already do it periodically. Think about combining this with the VIP event access and/ or 15 seconds of fame ideas mentioned above.
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