Black Friday Ideas???

    • 1 posts
    November 15, 2015 4:22 AM PST

    I work for Spirit FM in the UK. Black Friday has always been a US thing and correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it is the first Friday that falls after the Thanksgiving holiday.

    In the last 2-3 years, it's now caught on massively here in the UK. So I want to pick the creative brains of people that work within the radio industry in the US. I am wondering if you may have run certain promotions or ideas that is beneficial to both potential clients and listeners alike?

    Thank you in advance!

    • 30 posts
    November 16, 2015 10:56 AM PST

    IMHO, it depends on your advertisers.

    Are they trying to get people into the stores, or get them to order by phone and web site?


    You "could" advertise a RingWord along with their phone number, web site, whatever. They won't remember the phone number anyway, but I realize people still feel comfortable doing that. The RingWord makes them unforgettable, simply because it is a mnemonic device that IS the product or service. You can't forget how to reach someone advertising GoPro cameras if your RingWord is GoPro.

    There is no cost or obligation (for the first one, so all of your advertisers would get one free). 

    Probably uses 2 seconds of air time, for a lifetime of orders. What phone number can do that?

    The other folks in here are more knowledgeable than I about getting people into stores during the holidays using Radio. 

    Good luck with your program. I hope we can help.

    • 14 posts
    November 16, 2015 11:44 AM PST

    We usually do a remote broadcast from one of the larger stores on Black Friday, beginning at 6 AM, serving coffee and donuts that we barter out. We also have prizes that are part of the package price for the remote and we give away one every quarter hour. Most of the time we give gift cards so the winner has to go into the store and spend it..and always buys more than the card amount!  Our remote lasts 3 hours, which is about as long as the early crowd lasts. Then it is shopping as usual. Our package price for a 3 hour remote is $3,000 with an additional $300.00 talent fee per person.  $100 per hour in gift cards and then we trade the donuts. Last year we went through 15 dozen donuts and 6 gallons of coffee in about 1-1/2 hours. $3,000 is not a bad haul for one day!

    • 84 posts
    November 16, 2015 12:41 PM PST

    We've done a big push to "SHOP LOCAL" and one year did a coloring book with a bunch of LOCAL business "deals" that we handed out at the Thanksgiving parade. Even though you don't have time to do this.... you CAN do it next year. ;-)

    You can also do this.... have "local specials" announcements every 15 minutes on the radio. Letting people know where they can save on stuff from LOCAL stores!

  • November 16, 2015 4:12 PM PST

    We also do a "Shop Small - Shop Local" campaign in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce in our town. We are a small market and must compete with the bigger towns with malls and big box stores. I apologize, I do not know enough about your area to offer specific insight, however we have enlisted the help of statistics that show how much of each dollar spent with a local merchant stays in the community and how shopping close to home impacts the health and overall well-being of the local community. These are benefits for local merchants and local customers who live, work and play in our community. Conversely, money spent online or in another town has a zero percent chance of any money coming back to our local economy and money spent with major chain retailers/restaurants/franchises in our town return substantially less than local 'mom & pop" retailers. This link is geared towards what we call "Small Business Saturday" and is the day after Black Friday but it may offer some additional ideas that will be helpful: Shop Small  We routinely encourage all merchants to participate in the Shop Small - Shop Local promotions as they offer free gift wrapping, drawings for free merchandise and gift basket giveaways at their stores. 

    One large-ticket retailer who couldn't afford to give away an item they sell (think RV dealers, used car dealers, etc...) put together dozens of small packages of "homemade cookies" (cookies from the local grocery store bakery) with half a dozen cookies per colorful package and each package contained a random "discount coupon" worth anywhere from $100 to a little over $2000 which was $xxxx corresponding to the number of the new year (as in $2,016) off the purchase price of an item from that retailer valid, for the next calendar year. While at first I thought it sounded a little 'cheesy' the retailer reported it to be one of the biggest successes ever because everyone got *something* as they got to pick a festive bag of holiday cookies with a random dollar discount inside. Everyone got cookies and at least $100 off a future purchase and there were many dollars off discounts that were less than the maximum but more than the minimum.

    And finally, we have a group of retailers who choose to participate in combining as many shopping experiences as possible under one roof for a Small Business Expo - creating a fun, mall-type shopping experience for customers who can go to a central location, park once and shop many local favorites, all of whom have all set up for one day and one day only with specials on their merchandise. Many retailers who specialize in gift items simply bring three to five examples in varying price ranges and take orders to be picked up in their regular retail store at a later date, ready for gift giving. One way to gain exposure for merchants and encourage participation by the customers at this type of event is to incorporate a scavenger hunt or add a bingo card to use as an entry into a drawing for a table of merchandise that includes an item (value of $10 or so) donated by each participating business.

    Hope that helps!