Have you attended a BSM Summit? Be it in Chicago, LA, or New York, if the answer is yes, you have heard JB go on and on about merchandising. There’s a reason he talks about it so often. It is a revenue source that too few radio groups take advantage of.
In recent years, we have seen iconic brands like 98.5 the Sports Hub do limited runs of t-shirts inspired by their talent and their shows. Recently, WFAN launched a full online store. More stations are getting the message and taking the plunge. But not enough are.
Maybe you need dominant names in the ratings in order to convince management to take the plunge with show and station themed products. This entire format though is built on the love people have for their favorite teams. Any brand can make money with merch inspired by iconic players and moments every fan can recognize.
Take SKOR North in Minneapolis. Phil Mackey, the director of content for the station, values creativity. His station may not have play-by-play rights to the Twins, but that didn’t stop him from rolling out a series of shirts in 2019 inspired by Eddie Rosario, who played in the outfield for the team at the time.
Rosario would say that he “hit bomba” whenever he hit a home run. So, Mackey and the SKOR North crew plastered the word “bomba” on a number of different shirts and hit the 2019 Minnesota State Fair. The Twins didn’t own a trademark on the phrase. That meant SKOR North could act quickly.
“The State Fair is a huge merchandise-moving event for all of our Hubbard MSP brands, including SKOR North, and it can be a great way to draw people to our broadcast booths,” Mackey told me.
He wouldn’t give me any hard numbers, but he said that embracing bombas and tying it so heavily to the way the station talked about the Twins did have a payoff.
“The Bombasota buzz is hard to quantify, but the entirety of it all — the shirts, the hashtags and social messaging, the special videos, all led to record podcast numbers for our daily SKOR North Twins Show. You can only do so much to lure people to AM radio, so anytime we are able to create fun concepts like Bombasota and generate digital buzz, it acts as a gateway into the SKOR North brand.”
Mackey says the Bombas campaign isn’t the first time SKOR North has used fandom to generate revenue and it won’t be the last. Right now, selling hats and shirts is something the station only does at the Minnesota State Fair, but he hopes it won’t be that way forever.
“We do have some systems set up for online merch stores, but we’ve yet to truly go all-in on that front,” he told me in an email. “I’d love to in the future.”
What are the rules though when you are the flagship partner of the local team? Steve Griffin is the GM and President of 1010XL 92.5 FM in Jacksonville. The station is the flagship of the Jaguars. That team’s fans are primed to spend money right now. Between Urban Meyer and Trevor Lawrence, Jacksonville football fans have never been more optimistic. Hell, plenty of people are convinced this is the beginning of Tim Tebow’s hall of fame tight end career too.
Can Steve and his team dive into the merchandising game without getting a thumbs up from the team?Even if they want to put out a t-shirt that uses no official logos or other trademarks, does the flagship relationship mean that there are tightropes that need to be walked?
“As long as there’s no perceived association between what we’re merchandising, our sponsor of that merchandising and an official Jaguars partnership, they have been great to us,” he told me. “If there is ever a question, we will pass it by their sales and marketing folks to be certain before moving forward.”
The station has taken advantage of the excitement to generate revenue. It hasn’t all been about selling tangible things fans can take home. Griffin and his staff have instead focused on longer advertising and marketing campaigns that include merchandising as just one element of the entire strategy.
“We’re wrapping up a 3-month station promotion/merchandising event centered around Welcome to Trevor Town! It included a sponsored 13-episode TrevorCast podcast and a series of six live remote broadcasts of our show XL Prime Time at a sponsor location giving away 1000 Trevor Town headbands.”
Griffin’s station is live and local every weekday from 6 am until 10 pm. That means there are plenty of shows and personalities for listeners to connect with. Still, I wondered if it was smarter to forgo a merchandising campaign centered on the station and its staff for one focused on the Jags. After all, there are people that may have never turned the station on that would still buy a Trevor Town shirt.
1010 XL 92.5 FM tends to focus most of its merchandising on events. Griffin says he doesn’t really know how to project what a merchandising campaign centered on the station’s personalities could do.
“We’ve merchandised our hosts/shows on a limited basis, mostly Jaguars Today and Helmets & Heels, so it’s difficult to determine the bigger value until we do more host/show merchandising,” he says.
There are multiple approaches for generating a little revenue using fan passion. As every station and company around the country looks to increase its bottom line, no idea should be considered off limits. Just ask the right questions and make a plan. Don’t leave money on the table just because it isn’t something you have pursued before.
Demetri Ravanos is a columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. He is also the creator of The Sports Podcast Festival, and a previous host on the Chewing Clock and Media Noise podcasts. He occasionally fills in on stations across the Carolinas in addition to hosting Panthers and College Football podcasts. His radio resume includes stops at WAVH and WZEW in Mobile, AL, WBPT in Birmingham, AL and WBBB, WPTK and WDNC in Raleigh, NC.
You can find him on Twitter @DemetriRavanos or reach him by email at DemetriTheGreek@gmail.com.
