Niall Power is Head of Station Sound of Ireland’s Beat 102 103 radio and often participates in radio promotion juries. He started his presentation with answering the question why we should promote radio. He stated that the main reasons are reach, talkability, market share, launching a new show and utilizing station platforms. He also mentioned that one should interact with the listeners.
Niall got straight to the point and named 10 best promotions from all around the world according to him. He let the specific videos from certain platforms speak for him.
The first one was from Ireland’s radio Red FM that named themselves Ed FM for a couple of days after a famous pop singer Ed Sheeran. It is an example of how a strong personality draws in more listeners. On the contrary, Niall appreciated UK’s Absolute Radio Kevinfounded by Kevin, an amateur radio host whose goal was to play the newest debut songs by world’s best artists.
Another way to engage with listeners is to plan a competition and motivate them to take part in to win a cash prize. There were two promotions like this in Niall’s list. New Zealand’s ZM The Box, where a listener had to guess a number code to get to a secret box, see it’ s contents and win 20 000 dollars. The other one was from Niall’s home station. He spent three days On the run and listeners had to physically find him in order for him to return to his morning show. This was an idea to make some noise after lifting lockdown restrictions.
In conclusion the key takeaways for making a great radio promotion are to ensure your mechanic is not overly complicated, give it a serial effect, have a 360 approach, know that budget isn’t everything and most of all – be creative!
Niall closed his speech with a quote from a content director of Kiss Radio from Australia
“The greatest radio promotion should be explained and understood in the title alone.”
