How to make the most of your show promos
How are you promoting your morning show throughout the rest of the day? A senior iHeart exec at Boot Camp called out morning shows for their lack of attention to the promos (often, he mused, it’s the last thing they do before leaving for the day).
He has a point. Lots more people will hear your show’s promo (if it runs hourly) than tune into your actual show. So make the time work for you with these best practices.
There are two types of morning show promos, and your show needs to do both. Consider Ellen DeGeneres, for example, whose promos are graciously posted on YouTube for us to analyze. (I know she has had a rough year, but her promos are excellent examples.) There’s the teaser promo, here, promoting what’s coming up on the next show, and then there are her award-winning branding promos here that capture not only the celebrity guests, but also the humor and poignancy that has made her so successful.
The teaser promo looks forward to give the audience a specific reason to listen tomorrow.
Teaser promos tend to run over song intros
Length is between 10 and 15 seconds
Give a specific time and reason to listen tomorrow (consider your biggest contests, your biggest benchmarks, content they can only get from your show)
Add something quick that gives the promo a taste of your brand – a quick laugh, point of view or chemistry among players – that helps define the show’s essence.
Include multiple players’ voices rather than one person reading the copy alone, when possible.
The branding promo looks backward to give people a condensed idea of the essence of the show. Some call these “best of” promos, but that name sells this idea short.
Imaging promos run longer, 30 seconds-ish, and run in the station promo slot, typically into a stopset.
Resist the urge to slap one long clip in between an intro and extro. Tighten up the segment, rework it, even add additional production if it’s fitting, to make it even punchier, funnier, and more memorable than the show is in real time.
Depending on the station’s other priorities, these can run every other hour or once per daypart.
Keep the clips as timely as possible. Have a few that run in rotation and update them often (monthly), rather than a whole catalog of them that rotate but aren’t updated.
You may want to run only these on weekends. Match the fun mood of the weekend rather than reminding people that they have to go back to work Monday morning.
These promos can spotlight just one character or focus on one theme at a time.
Some new ideas:
Talent coach David Hall has had success with having his morning shows provide the p.m. drive show with a clip from that morning. The afternoon show then does a live, “organic” promo, like “OMG did you hear this this morning? This guy called Bill and Marty In The Morning to talk about how his wife TOTALLY punked him!! You gotta hear this… (30 second clip). Man Bill and Marty are on fire. You gotta check them out tomorrow morning as soon as you get in the car…”
And in Chicago, Eric in the Morning on WTMX, on 5:30-10 a.m., can also be heard at 5:30 p.m. The station replays one full break from that day.
One final tip: Ironically, the funnier the promo, the shorter the shelf life. If you’re going for humor, update the promo even more often. Movie trailers for comedies are always changing up the jokes because they burn so fast.