What your competition is offering as an incentive…

Let’s be honest: Radio loyal listener incentive programs aren’t worth a bucket of spit.

The idea that most listeners will change their daily routine to listen to your station at a specific time, so they hear the “secret phrase,” which they can then enter in the special box on your station website, to accumulate points they can then use to bid on stuff they would never spend actual money to buy, is as outdated as your local newspaper thinking most people will pay a couple of hundred dollars a year to have yesterday’s old news delivered to their house each morning.

If winning an $8 tshirt or free entrance to the local car club show was ever going to work as an incentive, you would think it would be now, when we’re all looking to save a buck any way we can.

The problem is, winning something I don’t want isn’t actual winning, and the quality of “incentives” most radio stations are now offering can only reinforce how bare the prize closet cupboards really are. Hardly the image you want for your station.

To make matters worse, wait ’til you see what your competition is offering in its incentive program: A round of golf with Tom Brady and Shaq…a poker and pool party at the Playboy Mansion…backstage passes to New Kids on the Block…a private box for the Beyonce concert.

Wait. You think your competition is other radio stations in your town? Maybe 20 years ago, or even 10, but not now.

So if you just saw the prizes, which incentive program would you think has more to do with “show business?”