In 2000, reality television took off in a big way with the launch of Big Brother.
How to make the concept work on Radio City? The first step in planning a promotion is to look for inspiration from elsewhere in the world. In the case of Live In The Car, something similar had run on an Australian radio station, where the big prize was a Porsche. If you are looking for great ideas, it may be worth joining the American NAB ( National Association of Broadcasters), and the RAB (Radio Advertising Bureau). They both have extensive promotion libraries with plenty of great ideas, meaning they also have commercial copy for every occasion.
Live In The Car was both a physical event and exciting radio. First step was to get a local car dealer to provide a car, in return for extensive on air coverage and the ability to showcase their car to large numbers of the public. This wasn’t a problem, and we soon got a car dealer to offer us a brand new Peugeot. Next, we had to get Liverpool Council to give us permission to run the event in a public space in the middle of the city. They thought the idea was fun, and agreed to let us use Williamson Square, right underneath the Radio City Tower.
We than ran a campaign to recruit 4 members of the public to take part. They needed to be able to stay in the car for as long as the promotion lasted ,and to have the right personality, (shy people need not apply). The recruitment process went live on the breakfast show as part of the build up, and helped build excitement for the project. The basic proposition was understood by everyone – the person who stayed longest in the car won the car!
We built a large set in the middle of the square and put the car on top of it. Once the contestants entered the car they had to stay in it to win it. We did allow a 10 minute comfort break every two hours and of course they were fed and watered again by sponsors. What they didn’t know was that the car was miked up, and we could hear everything they said and could broadcast the best bits.
The promotion went on for three weeks and became the talk of the town, with thousands of people coming along for a look. The final two eventually agreed to split the prize, with one of them wanting to make some money out of it for a boob job!
Live In The Car won that years Sony award for best radio promotion, and I’ve still got the trophy.