The Idea
The Zimmer Marketing team set out to create a year-round program highlighting the best local businesses—and decided to jump in with both feet into the Best Of arena. While their cluster of radio stations is based in Joplin, MO, Joplin sits on the edge of Missouri, and their audience extends into Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. To ensure they reached their full audience, they reflected this broader footprint in their branding by naming the program Best of the Four States.
The Execution
The Zimmer Marketing team’s Best of the Four States program is tightly focused and strategically executed. They maximize sales opportunities by running a three-phase ballot, allowing them to sell during the nomination, voting, and winners phases. They also secured a title sponsor, providing that sponsor with exceptional visibility to their largest audience of the year—while locking in a larger overall sales package for the Zimmer Marketing team.
The Best Of the Four States operates in a market where several other media platforms run similar ‘best of’ campaigns, which underscores that a well-promoted can thrive even in a competitive environment.
The Zimmer Marketing team begins with on-air teases and social promotion ahead of launch to build excitement and their prospect list. Once the Best Of is live, they use ALL of their available marketing and communication channels to drive nominations, including jock talk, on-air promos, social media posts, database emails, push notifications, and more.
After the nomination phase ends, the team implements a dark period dedicated entirely to selling before the voting phase begins. Once voting opens, they return with another strong promotional push, using the same marketing and communication tactics as the nomination phase.
Accessibility and branding are also a major focus for the Zimmer Marketing team. They created a centralized landing page for their Best Of that includes everything a user or advertiser might need – access to the ballot, a media kit, previous winners, and more. It’s yet another way that the Zimmer Marketing team sets itself apart in a competitive market.
The Results
The Best Of the Four States proved to be an audience driving machine, generating 2,600+ promotions opt-ins and 2,500+ title sponsor opt-ins. The program also secured $40,000 in revenue for the Zimmer Marketing team, further proving that there is still plenty of opportunity for broadcast media in the Best Of space..
Perhaps even more importantly, the Best Of the Four States works as a powerful top-of-funnel tool, as it not only drives revenue, but also attracts many businesses that otherwise would not be typical Zimmer advertisers, thus exponentially expanding their reach into new categories and relationships.
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Matt is a Customer Success Manger at Second Street. He works with our partners to help them succeed with engagement campaigns, and is also our in-house expert on running successful ballot programs.