Who Thinks Radio Station Contests Are Rigged?

We’re just a week away from The NuVoodoo Fall 2019 Contesting and Marketing Guide. It’s our latest free webinar, debuting on Wednesday, September 11. You’ll find registration links for any of three sessions of this new webinar at nuvoodoo.com/webinars. We’ll be diving deep into all things related to contests, promotion and marketing.

You can pick the right prize, the right entry method, create killer promos and use cost-effective external media to support your game, but none of those things has an impact on listeners who don’t think they have a shot at winning. If listeners don’t believe the game is legitimate, it’s doubtful their behavior will be influenced by your contest tactics.

We’ve been tracking skepticism in radio station contests for a number of years now. We were saddened to see the numbers who believe “most radio stations contests are rigged” creep up a little bit in Ratings Prospects Study 14 this June. Compared to our January study this year, the skeptics crept up four points, now at 29% of our sample – and ballooning up to 41% and 45% among those within our sample who profile as likely PPM or Diary participants.

These are aggregated numbers from our samples of over 3,000 respondents per study across all PPM markets. We know that perceptions about contest legitimacy vary widely from our work conducting perceptual studies for client stations. While there are always a few skeptics out there, some stations are viewed with far more suspicion than others. You hate being one of those stations, but you love it when you’re competing with them.

When we ask those who believe station contests are rigged why they feel that way, nearly half say stations are trying to trick people into listening more. Of course, that’s absolutely true (!). The next three answers all point to a lack of transparency in contest procedures and practices. And they’re among the pieces to focus on if contest legitimacy is something your station needs to fix.

We asked respondents what stations can do to prove their contests aren’t rigged. Given the wide range of digital tools available today, there are lots of possibilities. We’ll show all the answers during the webinar. While we have a lot to cover, we promise we’ll take no more than 45 minutes (including time to answer your questions):

• A review of contesting best practices from the NuVoodoo playbook.
• What the key advantages of FM are among different format constituencies.
• If Smart Speakers are really THAT important (including our initial experiences with Echo Auto).
• The Social Media platforms that your station needs for organic reach and paid reach.
• Who skips pre-roll video ads … and who doesn’t.
• What the best contest packaging opportunities are.

NuVoodoo VP Product & Business Development, PJ Kling, and I will dive deep into all things related to contests and marketing, divvied up by ratings likelies, demos and format constituencies (including thirteen slices of music P1’s and four types of talk P1’s) in The NuVoodoo Fall 2019 Contesting and Marketing Guide. Register at nuvoodoo.com/webinars.