Hello all. I am new to radio and in a small market where Car Dealerships are generally the big spenders from month to month (from a local not agency standpoint). They love remotes, unique ways to drive traffic, and different station sponsorship (i.e. studio naming right, etc.)
My particular client is a HUGE Humanitarian. He loves doing things that him feel good, and look good in the eyes of the community. Annually, he does a big Christmas event where hundreds of volunteers deliver presents and trees to less fortunate families.
He has slowly been fading off the radio waves, and I want to get him back on. The only advertising he is doing right now is on a competitor station in a "Free Money for Fuel Giveaway." Again, hitting the humanitarian thing while getting his name out there. He has been a long time client with our station, and an even better friend. I'm looking for some outside of the box ways to drive traffic to his lot and make him happy.
When I call him I want to be able to say, "I FINALLY have something for you, but when I show up make sure you have a mop...because I am going to BLOW YOUR MIND."
Help me out here guys, any ideas are much appreciated.
I would think a remote at a pet shelter, that he pays for would be great and he can give discounts to those that adopt.
Say the amount they paid for their pet they can get off a new/used car.
If he pays for the remote every month, you can give him psa (pr) ads saying he is sponsoring this and you'll be at
such n such a shelter on a specific day. With some paid supporting ads as well.
I like the idea! I'll have to put something together and run it past him next week. Thank you!
Check with the local Chamber of Commerce for upcoming community events. Check with the local PD for the annual Night Out On Crime which is the 1st TUesday in August. Find out if his church has any special community celebrations.
The best thing a rep can do for sales in general is to pay attention to what's going on in the town and get your clients involved through on air promotion.
This dealer needs a strategy to cement his image or branding - a part of that being quarterly non-profit/community participation or a profile for the charity angle.
Blow him away with an annual calendar that maps out an ongoing branding campaign (jingle, music bed, slogan, production format, whatever you can do for him) with monthly sale or factory incentive event scheduling weeks 1&3 and quarterly community-based promotion (not necessarily airtime - public relations can fulfill some of this at little or no cost).
In choosing community-based groups or activities these have to make sense for a car dealer to be optimally effective. So they or it should be something related to safety for children (car seat checks at the dealership), teens learning to drive (a component in the local HS driver ed classes), a free learning seminar with lunch for women (changing tires, checking oil, tire inflation, etc), visits to elementary schools re: bike/skateboard safety (watching for traffic). That kind of thing. You can provide news coverage, PSAs - even on-air interviews to help with these projects and participations. It demonstrates that the dealer doesn't just sell a product, he cares about what happens after that product leaves his lot.
Developing the right image over time is 100x more effective than random unrelated community stuff. Of course, the owner should be willing to pay membership fees for salespeople to join JayCees, Lions, Rotary, 4H, et al so those people can make contacts and occasionally get their names/photos in the local paper or news releases for helping on this or that committee/project.
The upshot is you build an annual for him at cost that incorporates your own media support at no cost - like a value added. The consistency will pay off for him.
I don't necessarily think being a great humanatarian translates into traffic or sales. If that's his goal, however, he needs to find something he can own.
What about the XYZ car dealership Teacher of the Month program? A pizza party for the winning teacher's class every month at the school. You can and should have other, smaller sponsors (no more than 5). Put a pretty good price tag on this. No ads, just name mentions. You can't say Teacher of the Month without mentioning the dealership first. PR value, news stories, pics on website, etc. Show him a base, branding schedule to go along with this.
