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Medical Equipment and Morning Shows - Part I
May 22, 2012
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. The live show was spiced up with the baby crying from time to time, with the guys having to change her in the middle of the show - everything caught on camera and posted online too. Online activity was up 175%. In order to involve more the listeners, we threw out several contests in relation to the child - "Be our baby's godmother and we invite you to the celebration", "Make our baby laugh and win .....".
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This week we are talking computerised babies for breakfast shows.
Let me introduce you to Radio 21 in Bucharest, Romania.
Radio 21 is famous for many ground breaking promotions in Europe such as The Fugitive, 2 Strangers and a Wedding, The Love Triangle and 15 Days of Fame.
This time the station got its hands on a computerised baby (the type that parents practice with leading up to the arrival of their first child)........the goal was to see how their breakfast team coped with becoming 'parents' overnight.....remembering that most single people don't have a clue what it really takes!!
"Such a brilliant stunt this was! Totally inexpensive and with such an important outcome for a new morning show in a competitive marketplace."
- Corina Ghiorghita, Head of Marketing & PromotionsHere's the back story from Corina......
"Given the context, with a Morning Show consisting of 3 guys, all single and inexperienced in "family issues", we considered it would be interesting and compelling to test their parental skills and ask them to take care of a new-born baby. Well, actually not a real baby (we are not child molesters, for God's sake! :) ), but an electronic one, which imitates perfectly a natural child.
She (we had a girl ) had to be fed, changed and taken care of as if she were alive. She cried when not cared for, she expressed happiness when she was pampered. She had permanent wireless connection to a computer, therefore no one could cheat on this, the daily reports showed the near-death experiences the poor "e-baby" had with our morning guys.
The goal we had in mind, beside feeling good in the studio and beside feeding our own curiosity about our "morning heroes", was to draw in more women, get them to listen to our breakfast show, generate relatability towards the hosts and get as much word of mouth as possible. All of these - vital ingredients for the positioning & fame of a newly-born morning show.
The little baby was effective. We had her one week in the studio, every morning. Radio 21 morning hosts, by rotation, had also to take her home, take care of her and then talk about it on the radio.
Stories like "I had a hot date and the child was crying on the back seat of my car right in the middle of the action, ruining my evening" made all of us laugh, men become supportive for the team, and women's ego high in the sky ("see?? it's not so easy to take care of a baby"). They all of a sudden felt really useful for our guys, and started sending us text messages offering to help. Listener activity was high.
The live show was spiced up with the baby crying from time to time, with the guys having to change her in the middle of the show - everything caught on camera and posted online too.
Online activity was up 175%.
In order to involve of more the listeners, we threw out several contests in relation to the child - "Be our baby's godmother and we invite you to the celebration", "Make our baby laugh and win .....".
The list of the funniest names came up online, and we also had a lot of content from people sending photos with them in funny situations.
Radio 21's morning show's electronic baby was a successful stunt and reached its goals.
The viral online content, the media coverage in newspapers, the spicy stories on-air, the involvement of the listeners in breeding the baby - all of these helped the guys and Radio 21's morning build their characters and generate favorability for them.
Great stunt, highly recommended for young - and most importantly - single morning hosts."
For interest it was these kinds of promotions that took the station and the breakfast show to the number one position in the market.
Think about what makes a great morning show. It is relatable content that generates talk and recall.
A campaign like this delivers ''a soap opera'' on the air for at least a week. It is multi layered and can be adapted to your local situation.
Ideally a morning show team with at least one single person will give you the perfect dynamic.
It really locks in parents who can relate. For single listeners, it's a complete eye opener.
I have executed the "computerise baby" tactic in many markets...it works, and as Corina mentioned, the campaign is inexpensive and can impact right across the day...remembering the baby needs looking after post 9am!!
If you'd like more info, email me, and I will be happy to help.
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