If Clear Channel Radio had had its druthers, Detroit's 104.7 The Oasis smooth jazz channel would've been static buzz. This week radio broadcaster and station owner Tim Martz talks guerrilla radio strategy and on how Detroiters effected 104.7's reversal of misfortune.
Post 2: The Guerrilla Show
Posted By: Tim Martz
Posted: 9/1/2011
Originally credited to author Jay Conrad Levinson, Wikipedia describes guerrilla marketing as "unconventional marketing intended to get maximum results from minimal resources". The objective of guerrilla marketing is to create buzz by using unconventional eye and ear-catching and oft-time outrageous concepts.
With our roots in small market radio, we've never had huge marketing budgets, and relied on more unconventional techniques.
Guerrilla marketing is most effective with a younger audience, which tends to be more receptive to outrageous stunts and slogans, and in general and within limitation, the more outrageous the better.
In radio, if you are targeting an established radio station, you want to target the station's listeners. One of the most successful strategies is to send logo station vehicles or mobile billboards to competing radio station events.
In Montreal, the target of our 94.7 HITS-FM was heritage station Mix 96. For the first three months of our existence, our entire on air and billboard campaign revolved around "Nix The Mix". Our website was nixthemix.com, our telephone number was 888-NIX-THE-MIX. And we appeared at every Mix 96 listener event. Not surprisingly, Mix 96 was not thrilled about our approach. The campaign was so successful that the parent company of Mix 96 invested in our company.
In Detroit, our 94.3 The Bone has targeted younger skewing Alternative Rock 89X, a Canadian station that we felt was vulnerable.
More recently, the emergence of social networking has opened up additional avenues, and made it easier to target a competitor's audience. We've created an interesting conversation between the listeners and the station and whether you receive criticism or encouragement, you've got people talking about your station and tuning in to see what the chatter is all about.