How to Align Promotions with Existing Initiatives to Drive Additional Revenue

by Liz Huff Second Street

If you are a TV station broadcasting pro football:

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You are probably already airing pro football games, having your Sports team talk about football on air, including football in news coverage throughout the day, and posting about football on your website in program listings and your sports section. You may even have a sports newsletter or mobile app.

You certainly have advertisers in your market who are passionate about football and want to be aligned with the excitement around it.

By adding a football pick’em (or any of these other football promotions) to what you are already doing, you can amp up this excitement (and drive even more revenue).

WRAZ-TV (FOX 50), a TV station in Durham, North Carolina, brought in $100,000 with a football-themed Tailgate Takeout man cave giveaway.

If you are a radio station covering college basketball:

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You are probably already talking about college basketball on air constantly, broadcasting regular basketball updates, including college basketball in news coverage throughout the day, and posting about basketball on your website in program listings and your sports section. You might also have a sports newsletter or mobile app.

You definitely have an actively engaged audience who loves sports and are passionately interested in what you are talking about who are going to be a very desirable audience for your advertisers.

By adding a basketball bracket, you can generate even more excitement (and drive even more revenue).

WEEI-FM, a sports radio station in Boston, Massachusetts, brought in $25,000 in revenue with a college basketball bracket! Plus, KFMB, a locally owned group of radio and TV stations in San Diego, California, drove $58,000 with a campaign featuring 3 college basketball contests – a traditional bracket, a custom bracket, and a sweepstakes.

If you are a newspaper publishing a holiday shopping guide:

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You are probably already featuring local businesses in a special section before the holidays, so why not make the most of the opportunity to add more revenue and crowdsource content with a holiday shopping ballot?

The Roanoke Times, a daily newspaper in Roanoke, Virginia, ran a Best of Holiday Shopping ballot to accompany their holiday Gift Guide print special section. They generated $70,000, and that’s not including any revenue from the associated ecommerce store. Including the ecommerce offers in the calculation, the paper drove nearly $100,000!

As you can see, adding promotions to existing initiatives can add major revenue. So, whenever you are planning which initiative to add to your calendar, ask yourself – how can I add a promotion?