[BC] Good and bad remotes...

[Dana Puopolo]

A remote should be loooked at as an infomercial imbedded within normal
programming. As such (and I speak from experience-I was GM of an all
informercial TV station), remotes on a station should only be done every other
day within the same daypart. In other words, only do a PM drive remote on
Saturday and Monday-but it would be okay to do a midday remote on Sunday. Why?
It prevents burn. People quickly get tired of remotes, which causes them to
lose effectiveness. Same thing happens with infomercials, which is why strict
separation rules apply when airing the same or a similar product.

-D

------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 12:06:01 PM EDT
From: Mike McCarthy <Towers at mre.com>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: Re: [BC] Good and bad remotes...

Yup....

As Rockwell notes, the best remote is one which the client see business 
increase as a result.  It doesn't matter how many people show up.  It's the 
ones which conduct business that is important. The higher the percentage of 
those attending who do, the better for everyone.

The purpose of the remote is really not to whoop the station.  It's to 
promote the client and their product/services. I find it very short sighted 
when a manager or client comes up and states the remote bombed because few 
people showed up.  My question to them is, "Did the client do any business 
with those that did AND did they do any business with anyone before or 
after the event as a result of the event and it's promotion?"

I get some really blank stares and some stammering because they finally see 
that the success/failure of a remote is not measured by the sheer number of 
people showing up on the day or during the event.  It's what the client 
derives from the total effort.

There are events where the station over does things and the client is 
unprepared for the whole spectacle.  Their staff is unprepared for the 
onslaught and unable to meet potential or real customer expectations, 
needs, or wants.  Or the crowd is simply too much and people simply drive 
by. So having too many people is also a bad thing.

Managers who determine a remote's success/failure on the sheer cume of a 
remote are terribly short sighted.  Used properly, remotes can be very 
profitable for the client AND the station.

MM

At 11:31 AM 4/4/2007 -0400, Cowboy wrote
>On Wednesday 04 April 2007 11:22 am, rockwell at rmci.net wrote:
>
> > The following Tuesday, the client calls the station and
> > wants to book another remote.   Same thing.  No promos.
> > Just the talent.  Period.  I'm thinking to myself "Why would
> > he want another one after practically no one showed up to
> > the first one?"   What I found out later was that of the 10
> > people that came in that Saturday, 9 of them bought homes.
> > It was actually one of the most sucessful (for the client)
> > remotes we had done for months.  And he remained a good
> > client for a long time.......
>
>  You stumbled on a client that fully understands the blind pig story.
>
>  We, in radio, are so used to ratings and numbers that we sometimes
>  forget the quality of a lead.
>  For instance :
>  If you sell fuel pumps, are you more likely to sell them in a furniture
>  store, or an auto parts store ?
>
>  That client understood well that the chances the folks showing up
>  were more interested in HIS product without all the hoopla, than
>  the chance of finding those same folks in a much larger crowd who
>  only show up for the "show" !
>
>  Ratings and numbers are not unimportant, though.
>  This same scenario replayed on a station with much higher numbers
>  has a greater chance of driving 11 or 12 or 13 listeners to the venue 
> than the 10
>  who showed up, and if only one more sale results, that's *greater* than
>  a 10% increase in revenue.
>  A not insignificant increase, even though the "efficiency" of the remote 
> is less.
>
>  If 1000 people showed for the remote with promotion,
>  but only 8 had bought, now who wins ?
>
>  True, even a blind pig finds an acorn now and then, but put that pig in
>  a pen carpeted with nothing but acorns.........
>
>--
>Cowboy
>
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