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🎶O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree.🎶 Sing along with me! Enjoy that earworm for the rest of the day. What if you’re not the Christmas station or the Christmas streamer? What do you do during this season?
A Festivus For The Rest Of Us!
Festivus, a holiday featured in a 1997 Seinfeld episode, was an alternative celebration to the commercialization of Christmas. The legacy of this bit lives on 27 years later through streaming providers and Reels content.
What event, podcast, video series, or blog can be created by the non-Christmas station to show you’re in the holiday spirit without changing the playlist to celebrate?
Humorous content is the obvious opportunity. Challenge your oddest and weirdest staffers to let those beautiful minds absorb life during this holiday season and start creating ideas and content for Christmas 2025.
How can modern technology bring back classic bits and content? Bowling for Turkeys or Thanksgiving On The Mayflower are classic radio promotions deserving of a new life through video and social media.
If We Make It Through December
Merle Haggard sang about an unemployed dad unable to provide Christmas for his family. Timeless. For many, this is not the Most Wonderful Time of The Year.
Take advantage of the community service opportunities available during the holiday season to expand your connection with charities. The extended benefit is a connection with organizations and community leaders to partner with in the other seasons of need. As John Lennon sings in Happy Xmas (War Is Over), “And so this is Christmas, and what have you done?” This is the season for radio to give.
Christmas-themed promotions on the non-Christmas formats have just as much impact. Listeners who don’t want to hear about the Hap-Hap-Happiest time of year will give your brand a virtual thumbs-up for helping the broken and the needy if your station is doing a Christmas Wish-themed promotion. Oh, and every listener wants money this time of the year.
Christmas Ain’t Christmas
The O’Jays sang about Christmas and New Year’s not being the same without the one you love. What if you don’t acknowledge the season and focus on the benefits of your brand right now? I’m not suggesting you Bah Humbug and dismiss the idea of Christmas. However, do we junk up our brands when we try to be in the moment without being equipped to provide the necessary content?
Holiday audio imaging is a great way to show you’re paying attention to the seasons of life and change. However, if those moments minimize your brand’s messaging goal, you might consider using the season to hyper-focus on your strengths in the other months of the year.
Nielsen shows us what happens to audience cume in a market with All-Christmas formats. If the audience is more fragmented during the holidays, this is an opportunity to repackage your station as if it were debuting. Don’t let those Christmas stations deter you during the six weeks of Christmas music. Be your best during this time. Someone is looking for relief from the holidays.
Finally, if you’re playing Christmas music, play the hits. Radio is a one-to-many medium. What do the masses want during this season? They want hits determined by the will of the many, not the few.
Your brand may be in a rare position to experiment with new Christmas music, but the core needs to focus on the tried-and-true songs. If you need a reminder, check out Ken Benson’s latest research from P1 Media Group: Top Testing Christmas Songs 2024. The top five songs were recorded before 1970.
Analyze and retool your strategy during this season of opportunity. Don’t do the Same Old Lang Syne.
Ron Harrell is a columnist for Barrett Media. He founded Harrell Media Group, specializing in radio and audio brand consultation, fractional management, and talent coaching. He has worked in every role on the Programming and Branding side during his career, becoming management and executive-focused in the post-Telecom Act era. Ron has held leadership roles for media groups such as ABC/Citadel, CBS Radio, Chancellor Media, Cumulus Media, Hope Media Group, Hubbard Broadcasting, and WAY Media.
Interested parties are invited to learn more about his company Harrell Media Group and reach out by email at Ron@HarrellMediaGroup.com.
