Our station wants to do a "Fix My Ugly House" contest, basically an outside makeover. House Painting? Maybe a Fence? New Landscape? or Lawn Service for a year? I need some input on how to make this a contest that will not only generate buzz, but dollars for the station...any and all input is welcome!
Our stations have done "Backyard Makeover" and "Kitchen Makeover" promotions in the past. Typically the structure is based on something like pay $XXXX to be a part of the promotion, and trade $XXXX value in prizes for equal value in spots.
Its worked great for Equipment Dealers (lawn mower, etc), Lumberyards or Green Houses (supplies), Grill Retailers, etc.
Be wary of trading for services with landscapers or contractors, it tends to get moved to the bottom of their list, if it happens at all. If you are going to do so, try to work with a bigger company.
Our local HBA does a promotion called 'Ugliest Room Makeover' - it's basically the members of the HBA contributing materials and labor and then the HBA solicits banks, insurance, et all as co-sponsors. We have been a media partner which would have worked except for the way the HBA insisted on running the contest. So what I have here may be more of a what NOT to do with this kind of contest.
For your outdoor makeover: First - set a value, e.g. a $15000 makeover. If this is largely a landscaping promotion, then limit it to landscaping - not home exterior rehab which could suck up all the money. Second - the registration. Anyone can register with a photo of their yard but it should be really easy to register - on line, at locations all over the area, with participating vendors - and then possibly involve a group of landscapers and/or landscape suppliers (garden centers, Home Depot and others) with the idea they will spread cost with one doing sod/lawn, one retaining walls/drainage, one creating beds with plantings, a water feature, etc. This may not be decided until you get them all in one room to review the photos, they make the choice and then divvy up materials, et al. You could sell varying levels of sponsorships or equal sponsorships. Third - promote, promote, promote. The landscapers will sign on with enough exposure so include 100 promos over a 2 month period plus some kind of spot schedule. Put the registration on your website, post pictures/video on your website of the finalists, the winner, the progress. Check in with the winner on-air periodically. Talk with landscapers on-air about tips for great grass, planting, maintenance, et al. Do a lot of before and after when it's over.
The mistakes the HBA did here is they budgeted too little, included too few members, underpromoted, made it hard to register and dragged it out way too long (4 months). A long promotion period takes a lot of money and planning to maintain interest. They had a registration period of 60 days, took 30 days to decide on a winner and then 45 days to do the makeover.
Timing wise for landscapers, you may want to check with them. They are probably busy early in the summer so if you had registration in late June and did the project by the end of July it may work better for them. If you have a parade of homes you could time this with that so the new yard is included.
This can be a disaster if you're not careful. We worked with a few clients to do an "Ugly Kitchen" promotion. They helped us get other vendors involved. Some of the vendors never came through with product and services, the project took forever, and the winner kept changing their mind about the exact products they wanted.
