The duck with the bucks

It’s easy to overthink competition mechanics but in this time-poor 21st Century a simple call to action is far better for listeners than a challenging series of hoops, especially in daytime, and it can be just as rewarding.

Here’s a simple, fun idea that listeners will get immediately and which bonds the station to its local area in a relevant way for the client. It comes from Radio Clyde in Glasgow and the Wholesale Domestic Bathroom Superstore.

Find the duck, win the cash.

1. A monster size plastic bath duck is secretly deployed overnight to a place in the station area.

2. George Bowie, the breakfast personality on Clyde 1 gives out clues to its location each morning.

3. The first listener to correctly identify its mystery location and find the duck wins £300.

There’s a load of visual material on social media, again with an emphasis on local places, with maps and Facebook Live video but this competition starts and finishes on air.

It works because of the simplest of mechanics, the natural opportunities to reference local place names and because the duck is relevant to the client’s bathroom products.

And, deep in the nation’s psyche we know that, ever since Twinkle the kitten toppled the Post Office Tower in 1971, oversized cute things equal comedy gold.

Twinkle, from Goodies episode Kitten Kong