OVERVIEW:

Sydney radio station 2UW, now known as MIX 106.5FM, had a music format of “Classic Hits”. Of ten Sydney radio stations, 2UW rated in 6th position in terms of overall audience, with an “all peoples” figure of 7.1. The brief was to quickly stimulate the stations audience numbers, particularly in the 35-54 year demographic.

EXECUTION:

John devised a Direct Mail scratch bingo style concept called Cash Card, where 1.5million game pieces (a four page leaflet) were letterbox distributed to the entire city of Sydney.

Householders were invited to listen to the breakfast programme at specific times. The breakfast team announced “Top 40 numbers” each morning and if the listener had that number on his gamecard, he scratched the panel to reveal a famous singing artist. (e.g. Beatles, Elvis, The Bee Gees, etc.).

If throughout the week, a listener scratched panels to reveal three identical singing artists, he won an instant cash prize of up to $10,000! The “Breakfast Show call routine” happened every day Monday to Friday, with listeners being “teased” because most would have two of the three identical symbols required to win a cash prize, by mid-week.

There were 4 separate games on each card, a game per week for 4 consecutive weeks. The breakfast team of Bazz and Pilko, compered the Call Routine each weekday.

RESULT:

The result of this mass-participation promotional concept was staggering. In the subsequent ratings report, 2UW increased its listening audience by a massive 3 points, jumping from 7.1 to 10.2!

Given that at the time,1 point in Sydney radio represented over $1 million in annual advertising revenue, such a dramatic lift in audience figures ultimately equated to a significant increase in revenue.

Unlike other stations which seemed to “preach to the converted” by simply inviting current listeners to enter contests, 2UW used direct mail tactics to invite every Sydney household to sample its station (via a 1.5 million household letterbox distribution). In other words, it preached to both the converted and unconverted.

The letterbox delivery of gamecards was preceded by press advertising which alerted householders to the impending gamecard delivery, stimulating consumer anticipation so that people would look in their letterbox.

Aside from the obvious station “on-air” promotion, the great part about a DM piece such as the Cash Card, is that it is self-stimulating. Once the householder had the card in his hands, he was incentivised to keep listening to the station because “his numbers might come up at any time!”

The station made absolutely no changes to its On-Air line up, nor any changes to its music format, nor any changes to its programming. It was the horsepower of the creative direct mail concept that wholly and solely drove a massive number of new listeners to the station. The promotion was so successful that news travelled fast – and it wasn’t long before John was producing the same concept for radio stations around the world!