Radio Sales Café

I am in a situation with a chain of 3 movie theaters all owned by one company. My younger brother is a manager at one of the theaters and so i already have a good standing with the company. I can get into the movies for free any time i want. What i would like to do is to present the Marketing guy with some kind of "Big Idea" on getting more people into the theaters during weekdays. I am not really sure on how i should approach this person with pricing. I don't really want to give them some outrageous price for ad's and scare them away but i also don't want to be putting in alot of effort if my station doesn't get anything out of it. What kind of "exchange" ideas would work? Any ideas help.... Thank You!!!

Hi John:

How about a registration box in each lobby for 4 weeks or so, with registration only Monday-Friday (you or the theater staff would have to put out the boxes Mondays and pick up the boxes Friday) and there would be one winner drawn at each location to win Free Movies for a Year! What free movies for a year is, is a free movie a week for 52 weeks! The theater owner would have to create a pass or something similar to give each winner. Our local theater has given us "Free Movies for a Year' several times and believe me, it's huge with listeners. Plus the theater doesn't lose because it's unlikely the winner would come alone, i.e., they would bring a paying person with them, plus they will likely buy soemthing from the concession. Your registration blanks could ask for email addresses so you could offer your theater owner that info for a data base for mailings. As far as cost I couldn't help you since I don't know your market or size but i wouldn't go too over the top cause your station also looks good. Of course there would be plenty of on-air promos,etc which you give a no charge and the client would just be buying a regular ad schedule. You tell him you're promoting the contest for free. Can't imagine why he wouldn't go for it....after all, how many people are probably getting in free anyway (like you!!!!!). Good Luck!

One of our guys brought this idea from another station, where it worked quite well. We haven't put it into action yet.

Theater supplies the radio station with 25 tickets each week for Tuesday Night Show (whatever night needs traffic)
Businesses that pay $200 a month to be a sponsor, get tickets to give away, plus their name in promos letting listeners know they can come pick up FREE tickets, at their business, while they last. In addition, the theater buys a schedule and a spot on the station's website.

Try "cross-promotions" where the theater ticket stub has value. Example, theater buys schedule of :60's, first :30 promotes the movies, second :30 says that ticket stubs get you free dessert at a certain (co-sponsor) restaurant, redeemed the same night. Sell co-sponsor restaurant schedule of :60's, first half promotes restaurant, second half promotes "free dessert with meal, with ticket stub from xyz-movie theater". (Every week sell different co-sponsor, both parties benefit from the cross promotion. You get rich and retire to south of France.

Indie Movie Mondays. Local filmmakers get their masterpieces shown, they round up crowds to come see their movies, station gets seen in positive light as bringing "art" to the community. If that matters anymore in Radio...

This idea is from RSC member David Birnie, of Broken Bow, NE: We have a Movie Theater client that is very agressive and has included us in promoting their shows. They have upgraded to digital and 3D and have two show rooms. This is being done is a town of 3,700 and a county population of 10,000. When they upgraded to digital they also offered ads for sale before the movies start. We put together our own 30 sec video ad promoting our FM Station. We promote the theatre each morning on our morning show. We do it by what we call "a live plug. It is a simple conversation about the theater and the movies they are showing and we always promote their web site at the end of the plug. They bill us for the ad on the screen and we bill them for 5 live plugs per week. We also run a short movie triva contest once a week on our morning show. Dave Birnie GM KCNI/KBBN Broken Bow Nebraska