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The winner takes it all...
How to successfully set up a competition - what to consider in order to get the best out of it for your station.
One of the most popular features on any radio station is the competition or give-away (the difference is the competition there needs to be an element of skill to get the prize). From a simple "answer the following question and the first to phone winners the CD" to more adventurous challenges where prizes can be holidays, cars and even large amounts of cash.
The first thing to remember is the on-air element of any competition is that it must be run for the benefit of the listeners, not the participants. There is no point in having one listener who walks away with a new widescreen TV if in the process you lose the rest of your listeners who were bored with the programme. So devising a competition means that you have to come up with a mechanic that either can be played along or where there is an emotional attachment with the participant.
All competitions need to be devised properly, considering everything from where the questions will come from to how the prize will be delivered to the participant. This is called the competition mechanic, and it's often easiest to draw it out as a flowchart.
There are in essence just three variations of competition:
- The Knowledge Recall: The simplest form of competion, as a straight question "Here is the question, now give me the answer"
- The Logical: A variation on the Knowledge Recall, where the contestant is given some clues, for example: "Here is the question and here are some answers, which one is correct?" Called logical, because you can normally answer it using logic.
- The Memory Recall: This one does not rely on knowledge, but skill at recall. Answers are given previously in the show, and the participant needs to be able to remember them.
For television examples of the above see The Weakest Link, Who Wants To Be A Millionnaire and Generation Game respectively.
There are other variations in the conditions of the competition
- Time: Are the participants playing against time? Do they need to get a certain number of points in a set time?
- Number of Contestents: Is there just one contestant, or are there two or more competing for a prize?
- Subject: Is the competition general knowledge, or is it subject defined? Do you tell the contestants the subject matter when they phone?
- Prize: Does the contestant win the prize automatically or do they go into a draw? Can they gamble the prize for a better one?
The first and most obvious rule of competitions is "KISS" - keep it simple, stupid (or keep it stupidly simple). You mechanic needs to be logical - and if you have to take anything more than one sentence to explain it then forget it and try something else. This is particularly true at breakfast, when people don't have time to hear you explain the rules, so it needs to be something they can pick up instantly. At weekends or nights you can make it a bit more complex given that you are more likely to have a dedicated audience who tune in regularly.
Questions
How hard do you pitch your question? It of course depends on who you are trying to aim your station at, and what the subject is, but the answer is easier rather than harder. Unless you have a massive or very specialised prize, you'll find most of the contestants aren't really bothered about what they are going to win. What they are looking for is the experience of appearing on the air. However, don't make your question too easy - asking, for example, what day it is will confuse your listeners into believing it is a trick question or you are desperate for calls. Make your question something that someone would have to actively have learnt.
Your question of course depends on your audience, and it's very important you consider who you are trying to get to play as to what you ask. For example, if you are targeting 45+ there is no point in asking them to name the five members of Girls Aloud. Asking "who plays at Anfield?" will provoke different reactions in football fans and non-football fans (it's Liverpool), where the non-football fans will see it as a challenge whereas the football fans will see it as too easy.
Be extremely careful with your questions - you have to be dead certain that the answer you give is the correct one. A classic example of this is the question what are Mozart's first names? The standard answer is "Wolfgang Amadeus" but these are names he took on, and his given names are actually "Joannes Chrisostomos Wolfgang Gotlieb". Which one is the correct answer and do you allow other answers? Equally, asking for capital cities can be a nightmare, when several countries have their parliament, judiciary and administrative headquarters all in different cities.
If you get callers with wrong answers, then put them on air and tell them that way to get the emotion from the reaction. However too many wrong answers can be very negative and listeners who want to know the correct answer will be put off by constantly wrong answers.
You can give away absolutely anything as a prize - people are entering the competition for the chance to be on air and not to gain a prize (unless of course it's very big). Again, make sure the prize fits in with your station brand values. And, a word of warning - make sure you clearly state what the prize is - "a stack of CDs" could mean two or twenty. RSL group Radio Buxton ended up having to fork out £8,000 for a new car after a competition winner who thought she has won a Renualt Clio turned up to collect it and was presented with a toy vehicle. She sued, and won.
Be aware of falling into the "we feel sorry for you" scenario - that of the contestant losing the competition but receiving the prize anyway. If you set a precedent, you loose the emotional element of the competition when the contestant believes they are going to get a prize regardless. You have to be harsh - it makes good radio.
Keep tabs on who has played competitions previously, and make sure they don't start appearing regularly. It can be very disheartening for callers who don't get through and then listen to the competition to hear that the person playing is the same one who won two weeks ago.