Way back in August, Dave Beasing put out a great memo to Jacobs Media clients, urging stations to consider on-air and outside marketing campaigns that are listener-generated. We’ve touched on this topic several times in this space as well. In the best spirit of NeoRadio, the idea was to engage the listeners to do some of the heavy-lifting, and actually create advertising and/or ideas for the station. In the Business section of the Detroit Free Press, the lead story – "If They Make It, They Will Watch" describes how corporations as diverse as Home Depot, MasterCard, Converse, and Chevrolet have jumped on the bandwagon. There’s now even a website devoted to consumer-generated ads, AdCandy.com.
Just over a half year later, Dave’s urgings have proved to be on-target. It seems like every time you turn on the TV, consumers are in a position to help design advertising, or even choose between ads.
Several of our clients hopped on board, including WMMR (Preston & Steve’s outdoor campaign), The Hog in Milwaukee (name our mascot), and of course, the "Rock Girls" campaigns in both Seattle for KISW and in Chicago for The Loop (where listeners were intimately involved in choosing the best female spokesperson).
It’s not too late this spring. If you only had $10K to spend on spring promotions, how would you spend it? Giving away $1,000 a day for a couple of weeks (listeners have been virtually dulled to these contests) OR offering a grand to the best billboard caption contest for your morning guys, and then running a board or two around town to show off your winning listener’s creativity? OR maybe allowing video hobbyists in your audience to upload their own self-produced TV commercials for your station (based on your parameters). The best entries could be available for download and forwarding.
We’ll take the latter ideas any day. Not only do these listener-generated contests tend to produce ideas every bit as good as most ad agencies, but the buzz generated from these campaigns makes it all worthwhile.
MasterCard is now leading the way nationally with their new customer-generated efforts around their "Priceless" campaign. As company spokesperson Amy Fuller points out, "There’s a lot of value in engaging customers."
Well put. If any clients need some help quickly shaping a listener-generated campaign, guaranteed to generate talk, buzz, and some much-needed viral marketing, Dave is ready to take your call.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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