The Buzz Sports Radio wanted to reward its loyal listeners during basketball season with “The Buzz Big Bracket Contest.” By offering three cash prizes, covered by SCA, listeners entered their college basketball picks online while The Buzz gained more sponsors.

OBJECTIVES:

• Attract more advertisers.
• Collect listener demographic information for weekly communication.
• Create excitement in March with a college basketball theme.

STRATEGIES:

• Promote the contest on-air, on the station’s Web site, and through their email database.
• Partner with SCA to host a customized Web site for listeners to register and play.
• Secure prize coverage through SCA for the three cash prizes.
• Reward $25,000 for making 63 correct team predictions, $15,000 for predicting the final 15 and the score of the championship game, and $10,000 for correctly choosing the winners of the first 48 games.
• Each week, give away a secondary prize from one of the participating sponsors to the listener with the most correct picks.

RESULTS:

• Advertisers received excellent visibility from the half-million hits to the contest Web site, and the contest had over 4,000 registered players.
• The Buzz secured six sponsors within just two weeks.
• “The software program was outstanding – it included many extras that were valuable for both the listeners and our clients such as weekly email updates, automatic scoring, and data collection,” said Brian Maloney, the General Manager of WRBZ.
• Maloney also commented that he was “very pleased with SCA – both our listeners and our paying sponsors were very happy.”