Planning in advance for the holiday season can make for a more lucrative period to end the year. Even with everyone deep in summer fun, it’s time to get ahead of the season. So, get on your Christmas hat and consider these strategies now, way before a single holiday decoration is on sale:
Sponsorship Opportunities: Engage early with local retailers to design smart campaigns to bring shoppers in the door. It may be sunny and warm but it’s time to start talking about programs for your sponsors to sell their holiday items and snow tires with your prospects. Maybe there is a new business in the market who needs help planning for the season. Be their resource for marketing and beat your competitors in the market to their door by dropping in with candy canes and a plan for 4th quarter. It will be novel and likely a welcome jump on the season.
Special Events: Create unique fun events the bring buzz to your stations like Santa pics with pets, partnerships with new local charities in your community, holiday parties at local breweries, exclusive holiday movie premieres and even special showings of classics. It can take time to craft the perfect promotion so starting now allows you and your sponsors to make smart and effective choices for the future instead of rushing through what’s easy but maybe not so inspired.
Cross Promote: Remind sponsors that they can utilize your online presence to promote their businesses. You can make their promotions online as important as the event with contesting and interactive posts that draw listeners in to share with their community. Folk’s love sharing their home holiday decor, ugly sweaters, fav recipes, awful uncle stories, etc. You can lean into this with your advertisers online and build belonging around both of your brands.
Metrics and Reporting: Provide potential sponsors with data and insights on listener demographics, engagement rates, and past holiday season successes to make a compelling case for investment and go out with it this summer. Create a podcast that documents successful campaigns, with real feedback from advertisers you can share with prospects. Get testimonials. Dig up holiday activity on your social feeds from last year to share now.
By leveraging these strategies, you can effectively prepare for the holiday season, engage listeners, and attract valuable sponsorships. Audio1’s Custom Format team has 5 holiday formats for radio stations to launch November 1st including Urban, Pop, Country, Traditional, and Christian. They can help you get ahead of the holiday with a turnkey solution for programming advertisers will gravitate towards during 4th quarter. The formats are all jockless so you can be localized and can be customized with stations positioning. You can find out more information here.