The media house has noticed a steady rise in responses to its on-air and online competitions, and this trend has been growing since the onset of the Covid-19 lockdown in March.
The best results are achieved when there is a good balance between reward, effort required to enter and entertainment value.
Nadia Pieterse, senior creative executive at Algoa FM says “Our listeners respond exceptionally well to mechanics which involve solving clues; riddles and general knowledge quizzes.’
Competitions that provide entertainment value or that incorporate ‘theatre of the mind’ elements, generate much more interaction than those which do not include a fun element.
Without this interaction, competitions become background noise.
Simultaneously, the path to participation is very important and therefore entering the competition, should not require too much effort on the part of the listener.
“A competition mechanic, which requires a quick and simple answer via Telegram or SMS, will always generate more entries than one where time and effort is required to enter... or that has too many steps and instructions to follow,” says Pieterse.
Algoa FM, which is the biggest media house in the Eastern Cape and Garden Route, leverages its on-air, online and on the ground platforms to help advertisers to reach and connect with their customers.
A happy national client who used radio platforms around the country to introduce a new service wrote: “They (the Algoa FM team) were organised, motivated and an absolute pleasure to work with. We had an amazing response. Stronger than the Western Cape in a number of areas.”
The type of prize is also important across all platforms, says Pieterse.
Algoa FM’s listeners respond best to competitions offering instant cash prizes, followed by those offering grocery vouchers.
Competitions with daily prizes render better results than those that only offer one grand prize to be won at the end of a week.
It has been our experience that listeners would rather have many opportunities to win smaller amounts than one chance to win a big amount.
The best results in respect of the number of entries are achieved through the momentum generated over a five-day competition, where a ‘live’ winner announcement takes place daily between Monday and Friday.
What has also come to the fore is the power of the relationship our listeners have developed with the on-air personalities at Algoa FM.
“It is always surprising to me how well Algoa FM presenters are known in the community,” says breakfast show co-host Lee Duru.
“Even though we are primarily a radio station, people recognise us as presenters when we go out.
“We can also see from the responses on our social media feeds that people value our opinions,” she adds.
An example of this is a motor vehicle dealership which sold nine people carriers – twice their target of four for the campaign – simply by offering a presenter the opportunity to drive the vehicle.
Listener interest was sparked by the presenter sharing his driving experience, with “the campaign having the dealership humming along with people all week,” according to the client.
“The success of competitions hosted on Algoa FM is testimony to the power of radio – it provides the ultimate path to purchase by connecting people to products and services like no other medium,” says Algoa FM managing director Alfie Jay.
“My team of champions guides our clients to success from concepts to competitions that work for our audience; deliver results for our clients and simultaneously, provide us with increased opportunities to interact with our audience. It’s the most powerful three-way winner,” he adds.
This is what another national client has to say: “Good morning my radio team – I just want to thank everyone. Your efforts this week have been super human.
“I cannot express how impressed I am with everyone who made this campaign possible.
“Once again you have demonstrated the power of radio, your dedication to making our clients happy and how to get things done. You deserve all the success that comes your way and are an absolute privilege and pleasure to work with.”
