If there is anybody in your building who can sell Gen Z (10–24-year-olds) advertisers, it’s you and the CHR station. Can we get it together? Have you given up on selling 18-24-year-olds? Don’t do that just yet.
The 2022 BSM Summit didn’t give up on it. They laid out plenty of ways to do it. Leigh Jacobs and Carolyn Gilbert of NuVoodoo helped us understand Gen Z sports radio listening habits during their 35-minute presentation. And, I understood it well enough to start selling right at them. It may take a little more effort, but if you have an 18-34-year-old targeted station in your cluster, grab a dance partner and start executing some of these ideas:
Basketball Jones
Gen Z loves the NBA and basketball. They like to play basketball and video games and find content related to just that. If you have an NBA team, strong college team, or even former players who resonated with fans, get them together and put on a Basketball Jones promotion.
Contact your local three-on-three tourney and tie in with it by adding 9 and 10-foot rim slam dunk fests. Mimic the NBA all-star skills challenge and 3-point contests. You bring the event, get the sponsor, and start using social media, your digital channels, and on-air to promote it. Work in tandem with your CHR station—target trade schools, colleges, companies recruiting, fast food, cell phones, and automotive.
We be here!
Use your weekend or 7p-12m talent to do remote broadcasts from local youth championship games. Think basketball city championships, little league playoffs, or whatever is an important game with kids under 18. Do the entire show from there or just 90-second to two-minute breaks. Their parents are your P-1 audience, and they will also appreciate the exposure. Target any community-minded sponsor like banks, credit unions, or corporations.
DRAFT Games
Hold your regular NFL (4/28-30) or NBA (6/23) draft parties with a gaming tourney on the side. Think Dave and Busters with a side room for Madden and NBA2k tourneys for prizes.
I have done this promo, and it works well, especially when you have Gen Z or Millennial air talent who can run the tourney.
KXYZ Car Sale
Work with a car dealer on a weekend sale. Have your promotions department download your station app on every Honda Accord/Civic – their #1 choices-or their competitors from the Toyota Corolla, Nissan Altima, and Hyundai Elantra.
Do a test-drive promotion with local gaming company discounts. Have your most popular Gen Z talent take test drives with listeners. Put the Kxyz cars on your website for sale. Include station swag with each sale.
POD Star
Run a talent search on the air. Have them audition on social media. The winner gets a podcast with station coaching, production help, studio taping, promotional time, and the pod sits on the station website. Sell it to any advertisers above, including apartments, energy drinks, and nightclubs. After the pod is established, sell it.
Gen Z wants you to be active on social media, offer unique pods, be into gaming and be at important sporting events. You can ‘glow up’ your sales for Gen-Z to ‘CEO’ status.
Jeff Caves is a sales columnist for BSM working in radio and digital sales for Cumulus Media in Dallas, Texas and Boise, Idaho. He is credited with helping launch, build, and develop Sports Radio The Ticket in Boise, into the market’s top sports radio station. During his 26 year stay at KTIK, Caves hosted drive time, programmed the station, and excelled as a top seller. You can reach him by email at jeffcaves54@gmail.com or find him on LinkedIn.
