A marketing wrap-up. It's about now!

11 Oct 2018

This month I was invited to give a short workshop to the marketing team at Tuks FM. Here are a couple of points that came out of the workshop:

Insights

Understand the radio is still a traditional medium that plays in many spaces, like digital. But at the end of the day, your marketing and promotions must live on the platform where you are giving your listener need, and where you are able to grow that audience first and foremost. By this I mean that campaigns that run solely on digital platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram are great, but have to have a tie in to something that is happening on air.

If you are looking for ideas, look no further than your station’s yearly calendar. Plan all campaigns that can and do run seasonally, in advance. Not only can you focus stronger attention to detail with these already successful and purposeful events and campaigns, but half of your creative year’s work is done for you.

On the point of dates and times – have a look around at what your community is running and is invested in on a yearly basis and get yourself in there. Make the calls. Book the days. And pitch up ready to push your brand presence. Find out why these are important to your community and use your marketing machine to drive bigger throughput and results with these partner campaigns.

How to start with the blank page? Well. Teamwork. Encourage creativity through brainstorming (the oldest and most effective trick in the book) – and punt out a page full of (any) ideas that your team comes up with. Trace through each one-by-one and start knocking the better ones from the best of your ideas.

Do you know your brand well enough? Where is it right now? Where is it going? What does it want to achieve? Make sure you always touch base with your station manager so that you are all on the same page. Assumption is the mother of all screw ups, but, to act intentionally as if you know better than your brand does is brand suicide.

In conclusion

To wrap up, let’s get back to your ideas. It’s simple. Inception. Implementation. Close Out. Let’s look at these more closely:

Inception: This involves the creative process of not only coming up with an idea but mapping out the road plan for you to make it fly. Discuss things like, why are we doing this, what is the benefit for both the station and the listener, is it feasible, when is it feasible, and where would it have to take place to be feasible? Who are your stakeholders in this campaign? Are they on air? External parties? Part of your team? The list of questions goes on.

Implementation: Make the calls. Draw up a responsibility matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Informed, and Consulted) – assign tasks accordingly. A fair amount of risk management is important here to get things moving in the correct way. Then get it done. If you need a budget, then it should be approved through the right channels. If you needed a space, you should confirm it. If you need on-air resources, be it interviews, pieces, or show stop placements, then make sure the programme manager and production manager are always involved.

Close Out: This is about getting all your ducks in a row, and then putting them to sleep. Sign off documents. Make payment. Archive receipts. And please, draw up a report of lessons learnt. You may have many, many other campaigns that are similar in nature and could save you a lot of time in the logistical nature of what is needed and perhaps even the correct people who need to do the job as effectively as it should be.