On-air radio competitions

How on-air competitions work

A radio competition is editorial airtime built around a giveaway. The station runs it as part of a programme, and your prizes are what listeners win.

Radio competition PR follows a simple sequence. We handle each stage with you and the station.

1. We agree the prize, the brand messages and the target regions with you.
2. We offer the competition to producers at stations that fit your audience.
3. The station trails the competition, then runs it on air with a question for listeners to answer.
4. The station picks the winners, and the prizes are sent out to them.
5. We report on every mention that airs.

Prizes that suit radio

Producers want prizes their listeners would genuinely enter for. The best are easy to picture when a presenter describes them.

• Short breaks, holidays and days out.
• Food and drink hampers.
• Gadgets, homeware and gifts.
• Experiences that tie to a season or an awareness day.

Relevance beats value

The prize should connect to your brand. A travel company giving away a weekend break makes instant sense to listeners, while the same company giving away a games console does not.

A prize that suits the station's audience is easier to place than an expensive one that does not. We will tell you honestly if your prize needs rethinking before we take it to producers.

What brand mentions you get

Your brand is named when the competition is introduced, when it runs and when the winner is announced. Presenters usually describe the prize and say who has supplied it.

Stations often trail a competition in the hours or days before it runs, which adds further mentions. The exact wording is agreed with the station in advance.

Presenters will not read a sales script. The mentions sound natural because they are part of the programme, and that is what makes them believable.

Which stations run them

Competitions suit commercial radio, where giveaways are a familiar part of the schedule. BBC stations work under strict editorial rules on brand mentions, so we plan competitions mainly for commercial stations.

You can target one region or run competitions on several stations at once. We match the stations to where your customers actually live.

How competitions fit with interviews

Competitions and interviews do different jobs. An interview builds credibility through conversation, while a competition builds familiarity through repeated mentions.

Run together, they support each other. Your spokesperson can talk about the issue on BBC local radio while a commercial station gives away related prizes in the same week.

Timing both around an awareness day or a seasonal moment gives producers a clear reason to say yes to each.