Love is not only in the air but also on the air as stations from coast to coast found success with wedding ad sales promotions in the weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day.
LIN Television Corp.’s NBC affiliate WWLP-TV in Springfield, Mass., lined up several sponsors for its wedding show and supplemented the sponsorships with an online wedding guide chock full of advertisers.
Joe Duest, owner of Elite Wedding and Portrait Studios in Palmer, Mass., signed on for a second time this year; last year he provided the $1,600 wedding package grand prize.
He is one of three wedding photographers who linked to their Web sites from wwlp.com’s Wedding Guide Vendor Listing. “The hits I get are phenomenal,” Mr. Duest said. “It is worth every dime.”
KREX-TV in Grand Junction, Colo., has seen such great success with its “The Wedding Planner” promotion that the CBS affiliate was honored for it last year at the National Association of Broadcasters Hundred Plus convention.
The Hoak Media-owned station lined up sponsors who donated everything from the bridal party gowns to the rings and flowers for a local couple, who happened to be the station’s news director and her fiance. The viewing audience voted on which items the couple should get.
“Weekly spots ran on open rotators and inside the news. The package cost $1,500 for two minutes [plus the sponsor’s] name on promos,” said local sales manager Shawna Grieger. “We yielded $13,000 in revenue.”
For the 2005 promotion, KREX hopes to lure sponsors ranging from limousine services to vacation destinations.
Ms. Grieger’s suggestion to other stations looking to do a wedding promotion: “Start six months early to get it organized and to have time to find a couple that is willing to let you pick out all of their stuff for them.”