Local News Giveaway

[Lola S]

Ever since I went on that local news showing to advertise massage, one of the broadcast guys and I have become friends (well, we hit on each other anyway ). He's offered to use my gift certificates as prizes for their daily trivia. I'm donating about 20 of them so that it will run for 4 weeks every day. No charge or anything, basically free advertisement on the news daily. I'll be letting you all know how it goes to see if it may be something you want to try out. ;DEDIT: I forgot to put the whole reason of this post! Has anyone tried something like this, with trivia giveaways? Is 4 weeks long enough to get my name out for this type of thing? I'm not expecting a return on the donated gift certs, as I doubt they'll all be redeemed, it's more of a perk of getting to advertise on the news daily. How have things like this worked for you in the past? I'm offering a free 20-minute relaxation massage, with option to upgrade to a full hour for $30.

 

[vance1167]

Local News Giveaway

Hey, congrats Seforum.xxxg! I see big business coming your way with that connection.

 

[gothie_rex]

I like the idea that even if the certificates don't get redeemed you are still getting the advertisment on the radio.  Sounds like a good deal!Amazing what kind of connections you can get with a little flirting!

 

[Franky D]

Local News Giveaway

Seforum.xxxg,I hope this works better for you than it did for us.We worked with the local Top 40 morning drive show - top rated in the city. The host raved about us, mentioning at every break (over a dozen mentions in drive time, complete with phone # and web address). Even said he would treat his wife to our services for VDay. There was a "studio audience" of about a dozen folks who watch the show, get free food, chair massages and other sponsor goodies, who get interviewed and they raved about the chair massage and how great it would be to have us come to your home. All of this for free if you buy a block of ads.We sold the grand sum of 8 gift certificates from all the live air time. And this was two weeks before Christmas! Needless to say, the ads were a cash sink. Nobody really listens to that stuff, and they certainly don't write it down.We gave GCs to another radio gig - a sports talk show before VDay hoping to target clueless guys who would pick up the phone and solve their gift problems. We gave away 10 GCs, not one redeemed, only one sale.We were also featured with another company on a morning news segment in Philly. 10 Minutes about Spa treatments, us being the at-home option. We were flooded with calls - 90% of them wanting the 50% off your first visit the Massage studio that participated offered. See, they don't listen! Again, it was free, but we only got a couples massage out of it.We have even been the Lucky Deal of the month in Lucky magazine (the shoppers bible for 20 and 30 something women) on two occasions, but only had two small parties come of the 100K circulation in the area.Whether it is free or paid, big media advertising just does not do much in the spa business - and paying for it NEVER pays off.yet people seek us out online and book almost every day. I don't think spa is something you convince people to try - they want it (even if they have never had it) and will find it.

 

[PaintHorseLover]

Local News Giveaway

Masthera, ya, a little flirting never hurt anyone. Hehehe.R&R, you're right, the internet seems to be my biggest form of advertising besides word of mouth, so I tend to keep the website at the top of the search engines. I've never done any type of 'formal' advertising such as radio, tele, newspaper, etc. I've got a very small yellow pages ad (a one-liner) that I didn't pay for (not exactly sure how I got in there, honestly) and have gotten little response from it. This news gig is a new venture for me. The owner of the salon and I did that news show and only got one call from it, which was more than I honestly expected. There aren't any major holidays coming up that I could help with the marketing of gift certificates, so I'm not expecting a huge return on that part. I'm more or less hoping that this will just get my name out there to people who wake up early enough to watch the morning news, as they are usually the ones who work and get off work early enough to get a massage that evening. The gift certificates also say on them that they do not have to be redeemed by the winner, and can be given as a gift to someone who may need/appreciate it more, so I'm hoping that also gets word-of-mouth working for me to people that I haven't even met yet. If it flops, no big deal, it's not costing me anything. But any ideas that I may need to be aware of that may make it work better for me that I haven't thought of? When it comes to advertising like this, I'm a total newbie.Thanks!