Radio Sales Café

Our group sells Sports as an annual program.  So many regular season only, regular season plus post at a discount, and/or post season at a premium stand alone.  These are presented to clients early summer.  We carry Volleyball, Football, Basketball, Gymnastics, Wrestling and baseball.  Revenue is always strong (not sure of what percentage of annual revenue) but almost always sold out (if there is such a thing in sports radio).  Level billed.

We sell high school football and basketball on a three-tier basis.  The annual plan gets sponsors ads in each game plus 5 ads during the week and other benefits.  We then have an 8-month season-only plan that gives sponsors ads in games only; then we offer a limited number (if available) per-game sponsors (at a pretty high per-ad rate).  Each sponsor gets 2 ads in a game.  Our first game is tonight (8/19) and we are in very good overall shape for the season, sponsor-wise.

We also sell on a tier basis. We have annual booster sponsors that receive all the sports we carry throughout the year - (local) high school, college and the NFL team that we carry as a fixed price per month. We also sell the individual sports seasons as a game sponsor, presenting sponsor, scoreboard sponsor or feature sponsor. These include Player of the Game etc. and are a premium rate. We get creative with these. For example, a local grocery store sponsors the "sack of the game" and donates a sack of groceries in that players (and school's) name to our local food bank each week-creates a lot of good will (we carry not only our home town team but a different local team game each week on our AM station). A local jeweler sponsors the "gem of the game"...you get the idea. NOTE- Please check with your PD's and/or sports director first before you go creating all kinds of these special sponsorships! Of course all of our sponsorships come with in-game spots, numerous promos throughout the week and open and closing mentions.

The key though is to look for those local  businesses (including NTR) who have Good Will pods of money that don't necessarily come from their advertising fund. The difference with doing it with radio is that those businesses who have this good will fund (they're the ones who have ads in the school year book, program etc.) can do that good will with your station WHILE promoting their business with a :30 second commercial! If they are NTR and don't have or want a commercial, we just write and produce as spot as ABC business supports local athletics and realizes the value of teamwork etc. If your presentation includes that their business will be valued as caring about and supporting our local area youth and in turn the parents will support their business, it's a no brainer. Happy selling!

We sell our high school sports in a booster club format.  Sponsors receive one-liners during the games and also get a spot package of 50 thirty-second ads to use at some point during the school year.  We carry football, basketball, regional and state wrestling and state track.  Towards the end of the school year we have the high school coachs give us nominees for male and female athletes of the year.  We allow our booster club to vote and the winners receive scholarship money to the college of their choice compliments of the booster club.  Our booster club numbers are very solid.

Here is what we are planning on doing when we are on air.  Our sportscaster club will include sponsor mentions in all games..the client will then get an extra bank of commercials that will run from 6a-6p that they can use over the course of the year.(and it is level billed over the school year)  Since all our games are at night..(and thus we are at low power) this gives our clients maximum coverage with their commercials.  Plus we are not limited by how many clients we can have as sponsors.  We do sell separately Pre-Half Time and Post Game sponsorships where the client will get exclusive commercials during their sponsored show.  Finally we sell 2 end of quarter sponsors(60 sec max) where their commercial will run.  

 

Now we are doing something for the football season..since we still not on air yet, we are broadcasting the game via our website at theriver1430.com  All we did was sell a mention package for the football season.

I have sold a lot of sports.  The first station I worked at was in a small town next to a big town.  Our music format was not as polished as theirs was, but we had the local teams.  Here are some thoughts:

 

1. It’s easier for some people to buy a thing – like games, than to buy a schedule.

 

2. Offer sports annuals at an attractive price – as Dave pointed out, levelized billing.  It should include spots in all the games you offer.  We gave annual people the first few games in the play-offs.

 

3. Don’t just offer the sports annual.  There will always be commitment phobics.  The “per sports season” packages should be significantly more than the sports annual.

 

4. Avoid game by games sales.  It takes over your salespeople’s lives.  Try to sell play off once at the beginning.

 

5. Offer choices.  It should never be a yes or no decision.  Always “do you want this or that?”

 

6. Avoid sixties in the games and really, do you even need thirties?

 

7. Remember, your audience for the games is rarely as big as your drive-time crowd.  Promo mentions are an important part of the package… even if your client doesn’t realize it.

 

8. Never raise rates after a loosing season.  Never. 

 

9. Loved Kathy’s idea for puns on their product.  I’ve also seen “Crunch time” for an auto body shop. 

 

Just a note:  I remember when you had trouble selling the girls’ games.  The last place I worked, the girls’ basketball was awesome.  The boy’s sports were … well … where “don’t raise rates in a loosing season” came from.

We also sell at different levels. Here's our "package". Much easier than trying to describe it! LOL

We broadcast as many games as our sports director can handle.  H.S. Football and basketball, college football and basketball and two of the three pro teams in Denver.  The package is attached.  I like it because it is flexible enough to fit almost anyone's budget. I have also attached our sports liners package.  Sold eight of these this month.

We sell packages that are billed monthly August through March.  A few clients like to pay up front for their packages - (8 months)  We have 30 sec, 15 sec. and name mention packages.  This covers all Football, Basketball, Volleyball and Wrestling, and includes tournaments.  Clients that do not want to do the regular season games are then contacted for extra sponsors during the tournaments.  This year has been a little harder as we have had a few businesses close and some change hands.  However, we still have a good base sponsorship for our sports season.  We also lost our play by play announcer after 14 years and now have a new one so that did affect us some too, as we are a small town.  Summer sports we sell separately.

 

We broadcast over 200 high school and college games a year, plus tournaments.  We have 33 sponsors, on an annual contract.  We have no trouble selling this program.  We also stream many of the games.  With two, (2), stations, we are able to air college and high school at the same time. 

 

Jo Ann Juliano

Not too serious as we're all FM and don't do play by play or anything of the kind. Tournament time, we've been known to pay a reporter and get sponsorships at that time.

We also have 3 tiers - price is based on # of in-game and out-of-game commercials in the packages. We do only the in-town play by play for football and basketball (boys varsity). Lions football and University of Michigan football are also included in the sports packages/schedule. On the football we have 'stringers' at the other area high school games calling in at the end of each quarter with updates and highlights from those games.  We have not in the past integrated the sports well with the regular programming, news and websites. This year we will use these elements with photos and video in the news during the week and on the websites (we have a news-dedicated website outside the normal station sites).

Sales have been inconsistent - definitely not as good in this economy which would indicate to me that these sports packages are a 'feel good/do good' buy for many. Part of the problem may be, as well, that we largely staff female salespeople and find there are certain things they do not sell as well as other things, e.g., sports and newstalk radio. We also have a number of these types of add-on packages that compete with our own sports:  the 10-Minutes School Closing Guarantee, Halloween bags, bridal show, country music show, on-air auctions, Christmas music programming, etc.

 

COULD YOU SEND ME YOUR AUCTION INFORMATION?  WE HAVE AN EZ AUCTION MONTHLY ON AIR AND ON THE WEB THAT IS PRETTY SUCCESSFUL....BUT ALWAYS NEED TO FINE TUNE.

[email protected]

 

We are rebuilding an AM/FM combo station and lack a sales staff. We are exclusive for IU and NASCAR on our FM station and exclusive for Purdue and the Cincinnati Reds on the AM station. We program local news along with ABC News at the top of the hour and have classic rock music on the FM and talk and religious programming on the AM. We carry sports from the local schools on AM - FM and online through streaming on our site.

any good ideas. i don't want to end up with a monthly package for all of this near $1000. we were offering all of our other sports -- the three high schools and both college teams for $750/month. if we keep that same amount for March - August, I think it would be fair to add in the racing (NASCAR, INDY and REDS as well as some spring sports of baseball and softball).

 

I want to try in the next few weeks to sell sports packages for the coming year, including high school and college football, high school and college basketball, and throw in girls basketball and boys soccer.

 

i would also like to package in NASCAR, REDS and INDY RACING to keep a good regular income coming all 12 months. Our sports programming is our best income but has traditionally lasted from August - March. We tend to suffer a bit from March - August.

I agree with comments on here that people will support local and regional sports more than just spot ad sales.