Rev up Your Audience Before Show Time
Politics aside, take a pro-tip from Bill Maher on a captivating way to start your show or podcast.
My wife, JoAnn, and I were recently sitting in the audience at CBS studios in Los Angeles waiting for Real Time with Bill Maher to start. Suddenly, clips of the show’s highlight moments popped up on the video monitors. Each clip was short and funny or impactful. The instant the clip montage ended, the show music began, and Bill walked on stage. The audience was already laughing and revved up to watch the show.
You can get your audience pumped up to hear your show by running a highlight clip promo that showcases priceless moments to start your show or podcast. A well-produced show open promo with three or four A+ clips can be as short as 30 seconds. Lose the traditional show open filled with pop culture drops that fail to highlight show content and characters.
Benefits
Highlight montage opens have benefits for both the audience and the show.
- Running these promos in other dayparts can entice people to try a morning show for the first time or to give the show another try.
- Airing highlight clip promos during your show as rejoiners back into content segments or into music can fire up a show or energize a player having an off day.
- A priceless moment aired once will only be heard by less than 10% of the total audience. Highlight Montage promos expose your best content to a greater percentage of the audience.
Show Open Execution Guidelines
- Say hello and get to A-level content immediately. It can be an excellent segment from yesterday or original content that can be replayed later in the show.
- Refresh show highlight promos weekly to prevent burnout.
- Consider running them hourly during a morning show since listeners tune-in briefly throughout the show.
Photo Credit:Photo by Nicholas Green on Unsplash
