Have you ever created a promo showcasing the amount of winners and the total number or value of prizes on your station?
What did you think the aim of that promo was?
Was it to show how much you give away compared to the competition?
Was it to make people listen longer to see if they can win a part of the loot that you give away?
Was it to showcase sponsors? Or attract new sponsors?
Was it to ‘just freshen up the giveaway promo’?
Was it because you had no new promo to run but you needed something?
In the past few years I have had to write promos for each and every one of these reasons.
I took over writing promos from someone else because… every single promo they wrote was copied and pasted from previous spots -and- there was no difference from one year to the next.
They sounded horrible and beige and honestly so similar that you could predict what was about to be said next.
Now, they all involve using different language, different takes, different production and different wording to get the message across to new and old listeners, and old and new clients.
You want to highlight the total number of prizes given away in a period? There is nothing better than a fast edit of the jocks saying what listeners have just won, with a mashup of the winners reactions.
Want to showcase the list of clients who have sponsored competitions, have the audio grabs of the jocks voices saying what they have won thanks to…
Want to showcase the prize pool value? Ka-Ching sound effect every single prize you run though with your grabs.
A simple ‘us vs. them’ promo can show how many things you have given away with just a list of prizes, and crickets (or similar) – or a sarcastic and bored ‘you won a bag of potato chips – yay!’.
The single most important thing with any prize promo like this is to show the energy, the value of ‘name association’ and how much the prize means to a winner. Its even better – if you can – get the winner thanking the client specifically (sure its great if they say the station name – but a clients name is better).
Don’t just have your station voice run through a list and try to make it sound awesome – go with proper grabs, listener reactions, competition actuality – make it real, fast and fun – it will make people listen…
“You could be the next winner!”
