For this week’s Programming To Win column, our imaging expert Rich Van Slyke gives you six tips to crafting a “six million dollar promo.” Van Slyke says that a great promo needs just six sentences to have an impact and lays out what those sentences should contain.
Rich Van Slyke
By Rich Van Slyke
It’s concert season! It’s national contest time! It’s spring giveaway time!
And that means…. you need to write some promos. Fast.
But writing promos in a hurry kills creativity. It leads to promos that are flat and lifeless, and don’t sound any different than spots. Well, don’t worry if your promos are barely alive. We can rebuild them. When astronaut Steve Austin was injured in a plane crash, doctors rebuilt him with six million dollars of bionic implants to enhance his strength. Steve Austin became the Bionic Man. Adjusted for inflation, today he would be a 31 million dollar man. Follow these steps, and your new Bionic Promos will be more powerful than ordinary human promos. With mind blowing bionic impact and super human communication. But remember, promos must be used for good, not evil.
To make it easy for you to write great promos quickly, here are 6 Steps to Writing A Six Million Dollar Promo.
A bionic promo only needs 6 sentences. Only 6.
1. Get LOUD – Your first sentence must focus on the thrill of victory. What it feels like to win the prize. Simply describe a scene that we can imagine. It’s emotion that grabs our attention. And we can visualize and feel something in less than one second. To help you focus on this emotion, answer the question “You know that feeling you get when you (prize)?” Example: “What a feeling, as your plane begins to land, you look down and see…. The Las Vegas Strip!”
2. Get SOFT – Now make a promise, but in a more relaxed way. Explain how your station is going to make me a winner. You have my attention, but I want to know what you are going to do for me. The idea is to have a balance of emotions. All the lines can’t be full blown hype. So you shift gears and make a promise. We can follow you and shift our focus in less than a quarter of a second. Example: “Rock 102 wants to fly you to a Las Vegas vacation, for free!”
3. Get INTENSE – This next line shifts the energy up. Describe the prize and focus on what the listener gets. Answer this question: What’s in it for me? Example: “We’ll give you 2 free round trip tickets, free hotel, and 2 free tickets to 4 fabulous Vegas shows, plus $500 for the casinos!”
4. Get EMOTIONAL – Return to the excitement of the first line emotion and talk about winning. We have the facts, now we want to see ourselves winning. Resist the temptation to continue plain announcer copy. Instead shift back to something emotional that helps us visualize and feel excitement. Example: “You’ll be laughing all the way to the airport, when you win your Rock 102 Vegas getaway.”
5. Get QUIET – Now ask you listener to do something to enter, go website, Facebook, text in to win. It’s important to ask us to enter. But don’t shout instructions, say it like you are giving a friend some secret inside information. “Want to win? ….just give us your info on the Rock 102 Facebook page and listen for us to call your name on the air.”
6. Get CONFIDENT – Close with a powerful line that talks about how great your station is. Make it confident. Take credit for being awesome. And what your station does for listeners. “From your modern rock free Vegas vacation station. Rock 102”
Here’s another bionic example.
1. (sfx concert crowd cheering really loud)
It’s an incredibly electric feeling…you’re at a sold out show, the lights go down, and the band comes onstage…..now imagine that feeling…..from the front row!
2. 102-1 The Point wants to put you front and center for U2.
3. You’ll win front row tickets for U2 in Chicago, hotel stay and airfare for 2, and $500 spending cash.
4. What will it feel like when you fly to Chicago to see U2 from the front row?
5. To find out, just hit 1021 The Point.com and fill out the form, visit one of our sponsors to get an entry form or text your name to 63455.
6. U2 takes the stage, and you’re in the front row. From the only station big enough to make it really happen. 102-1 The Point.
And here are the six steps to look at while you write:
1. Get LOUD – imagine winning
2. Get SOFT – explain prize
3. Get INTENSE – add details
4. Get EMOTIONAL – what does it feel like to win
5. Get QUIET – instructions to enter
6. Get CONFIDENT – we are the best
Steve Austin was the Six Million Dollar man. One arm was bionic, one wasn’t. One eye was. One eye wasn’t. The balance of ordinary and bionic creates interesting drama. Don’t have all the lines be the same.
Make sure the music matches the emotion of each of the six sections. Which means you need six pieces of music or background sfx.
And try to have your voice guy read the promo with 6 different emotions. Most ordinary human promos are read with one emotion, announcer hype, through the whole promo. But bionic promos have six different emotions.
Complete these steps and you will be a bionic Six Million Dollar PD.
Rich Van Slyke does VO for KUFX San Francisco, WBIG Washington, WWSK Long Island, KXTG Portland, WRIT Milwaukee, KISS San Antonio, WGRD Grand Rapids, KCFX Kansas City, KKFM Colorado Springs, KDFO Bakersfield, WZEW Mobile, KTHK Idaho Falls, WKQZ Saginaw, KIGL Fayetteville, WKZQ MyrtleBeach, WTMM Albany, KZOZ San Luis Obispo, KQWB Fargo, KTUX Shreveport, WIXOPeoria, WRMR Wilmington, KKPL Fort Collins, WRZK Tri-Cities, XFM Nairobi, and more. www.richvanslyke.com 770.962.4788 richvs@bellsouth.net
