Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Are You All Set For 2016 in Promotions?

As we wrap up 2015 your station should be well along in your plans for 2016 in Promotions.  In fact you should already have 1st quarter pretty set and 2nd quarter roughed in.

We often see stations wait till just before a book to start planing out the promotions.  If the budget is not very strong we end up seeing if we can work with clients, barter, or sponsorship's to get a good promotion off the ground.  The problem here is running to the sales team with lots of last minute pitches and a lot less opportunity to craft the idea or event to work for both the station and the client.

The other area is community presence,  Being a big part of the festivals, concerts, sports, and community issues that are entertaining is also something that has to be planned out well in advance.

Pulling it all together in a rush always leaves lots of opportunities in the dust.

The meetings are not that hard to pull together and with on-line calendars you have lots of template opportunities.

A lot of stations have fallen behind in promotions.  The staff's are smaller and it becomes harder to pull everything together with only a few bodies on the case.  All the more reason to take the time to make a plan for the whole year and stay a full quarter ahead in your follow up meetings.  Your sales team needs time and you also need time with the leaner staffs and tighter budgets.