We are considering doing our first radio auction with a percentage of the proceeds going to fund scholarships at the high schools in the area. Can anyone share pro's or con's to radio auctions.
My first con is : this will open up the idea to every business/foundation, desirable or not in your area.
Pro is: it can be the best PR for your station.. But set guidelines to help you choose who you will do this for in the future.
Pro: your sales team hunting up biz for this may make new acquaintances for future business.
We do a weekly auction, that is a plan B, after annual pitches that is great for those that do not "have the budget".
Good Luck.
1 - Food items get the highest percentage. Get lots of multiples and sell them for a set price. Have a "Discount Desk" where you check in periodically with the latest food deal.
2 - Try not to let the furniture stores pawn off failures from 5 years ago.
3 - Fun things do well. Unpleasant things (tax prep) have not been that successful here.
4 - Items where the price is often "flexible" are not good choices.
5 - Keep it moving on air or you'll lose your audience.
6 - Auctions are a good thing to sell to your collection problem clients.
More negatives than positives.
Every other non-profit in town (and their board members/biz owners) will be angry when you can't do for them what you did for others. If you ever cease to do the auction, the non-profit will be more angry with you than if you never did it. Auctions re-establish the value of your product. Never do auction items with a business that will not spend the same amount in cash with you.
We do a United Way Cake Auction live - 2 mornings 8a-12n. Cake donaters are scheduled to come in at 15-min intervals. We post pictures of the cakes and cake makers on line. The schedule is announceed ahead of time so friends, family and co-workers are aware of when 'their' person will be up. It's all brought into us by United Way so we simply run the auction - we have nothing to do with choosing or scheduling what is auctioned. This works fairly well because it moves along quickly, has local people on the air in a fixed context, promotes something everyone understands. We simply facilitate this auction and all proceeds go directly to United Way.
The idea of doing this for a local school sports boosters is a great idea - especially if you carry local sports broadcasts for this school. If the boosters are willing to assemble the auction you could do the same set up as we did with United Way. If (a big IF), however, you have to pull in items and assemble the auction with commensurate airtime and production then the money part of this becomes... sketchy. If you run it as a standard radio auction (trade auction items for airtime) and just donate a percentage to the boosters, your auction profit will become non-existent or run into the negative. You still have the commissions to sales people and backroom organization as an expense.
If you have not done a live on-air auction before, be aware that not all on-air personalities are naturally or particularly adept at this. Listeners expect to pay around 50%-60% in an auction like this. It will not work on-air like the charity auctions at a dinner where bidders get in a battle and end up paying more than the item is worth since 'it is a charity'. So the on-air talent has to 'work' the items, keep interest up, maintain bidding coming in. You need people on the phones who know what they're doing. We also do a radiothon for cancer for a local hospital - for this we produce a series of interviews with care providers from the hospital who explain the need, where the money goes, the people who benefit, etc. That is time consuming but boosts participation and helps to keep a pace (of sorts) for the radiothon. You may need to do some of that to create the need for potential donators to fill.
Our stations have been doing radio auctions for 25+ years. We're up to 3 auctions yearly on some of our stations. About 15 years ago, 2 staff members came up with the idea that a percentage of the proceeds could go to a non-profit organization. The owner at the time said absolutely not as it would open up a can of worms from every non-profit out there. Although a great idea as most "auctions" have an organization that profits from it, we decided against it in the end.
It's funny, without fail after every auction we do, (even after 28 years); we'll get a new listener participating in the auction asking "who does this benefit?" Our staff is trained to say that it benefits all involved! The businesses give us certificates/items on 100% trade in which they get commercials for; it's a promotion for the radio station and you the listener get a great deal as you never pay total retail value. The listener usually says "oh, gotcha! Sounds great!"
Pros
1) It brings in instant cash/revenue to the station. Listeners (at our stations anyway) have four (4) days following an auction to come to the station and pay for their merchandise they were high bidder on.
2) Its on-air fun. Your DJ's have to keep the fun and excitement going throughout, or you will lose your audience.
Cons
1) Its very hard to get a client to spend cash with you once they get involved with auction. When you're pitching your clients, remind them that the auction is in addition to the cash they are already spending with you. Some will say no, but cash is king, so never give up $$ for auction dollars.
I hope this helps and I'm happy to chat more about it if you'd like.
Dave Isby
GM
WSBS AM/FM
Great Barrington, MA 01230
413-528-0860
413-441-9249 (c)
