NUM3ERS – by Guy Jogoo

29Jul

What a week it’s been. The F1 boss was awarded £60,000 damages after a judge rejected claims he took part in Nazi-themed orgy. Facebook paid out £22,000 after false details about a businessman appeared on it’s site. The Canoe Man and his wife were jailed for 13 years. It’s claimed email scams are up 180%. All these have one thing in common. Numbers.

Its only when you stop and think, you realise how numbers play a massive part of your life. From channel – hopping and using your credit card to catching a train and sending a text. And on the subject of texts – seamless link here – let me talk about ‘The Bid ‘ .

It didn’t come as a surprise to get a couple of negative feelings about us running this competition. “We’re just ripping our listeners off” or ”no-one will enter. They know its just a money grabbing competition” were typical feedback comments.

But looking at the bigger picture, texts nowadays are part of life – and people really seem to enjoy being able to take part in competitions by text cos it’s so easy. Whether it’s for a free cinema ticket on Wednesdays or getting our Sky+ box to record a programme while we’re out (that’s amazing by the way), just have a think at how much we text. And, be honest, do you stop and think of the cost every time you send a text if it’s reasonable and there is some purpose?

Which is why, I am pleased to say, in the first week of The Bid, it proved its popularity – we received. 27,000 texts. We gave away an Apple Mac, a 42″ plasma TV, an an iPod Touch, a Wii package and a home cinema system which is the kind of stuff our listeners love. Not bad for just a few live reads. Next week we’re giving away more Apple Macs and 42″ plasma TVs. What will the response to this be ?

I’ll be back on the blog next week. Or I could send you a text…

Guy

Comments (4)

Ashley Brown @ July 29, 2008 at 8:58 am | Permalink

To be perfectly honest, I’m not sure this blog post has done anything to counter the comments We’re just ripping our listeners off”, “no-one will enter. They know its just a money grabbing competition”.

Your chief argument is that most people (the same people who have huge credit card bills and buy now, pay later deals) don’t think about the cost so its OK. In other words, it’s OK to money grab from your listeners as long as they don’t realise that’s what you’re doing.

I thought the competition was a nice idea, until I realised that there was no way to enter but by texting. Sounds a bit like a raffle to me, but I think I’ll save my money for a charity.

This is the first post on this blog that has made me concerned about the future of the station, rather than optimistic about it. The “it’s OK as long as they don’t notice the cost” attitude is what got ITV into so much trouble about their phone-ins – it showed that people were happy to run up huge bills to enter competitions, which in some cases they had no chance of winning. I presume everyone who texts in has a chance of winning with The Bid…
Marty from new yawk @ July 31, 2008 at 11:48 pm | Permalink

I’m an accountant, so maybe I approach things differently.

When I listen to the station, I pay nothing.
When I send an email to the station, I pay nothing
When I became a VR VIP, I paid nothing.

It cost money to provide what I listen to
It cost money for someone’s time to respond to my email.
It cost money to administer the website.

Hence, if the station does not derive revenue to cover the cost of me being a listener, the station will go out of a business.

I will have nothing to listen to
I will have no one to email
I will have no website to peruse.

Unlike the BBC, Virgin Radio needs to turn a profit to exist. Leave them be!
llia @ August 1, 2008 at 9:51 am | Permalink

After the debacle with ITV/BBC being fined for bad competition regulation, everyone in the industry is now being extra careful (not that we weren’t before!) to make sure that competitions are run completely fairly. It’s been proved by these high-profile cases that it is not worth the consequences of ignoring the rules of running a competition.

“The “it’s OK as long as they don’t notice the cost” attitude is what got ITV into so much trouble about their phone-ins – it showed that people were happy to run up huge bills to enter competitions, which in some cases they had no chance of winning. I presume everyone who texts in has a chance of winning with The Bid…”

- Of course people have a legitimate chance of winning The Bid, or we wouldn’t be running it. No-one is forced to enter and the costs are made clear by the DJs, as they should be.
Thomas Horne @ August 3, 2008 at 4:06 pm | Permalink

I’m sorry but I do seriously agree with Ashley! There should be other ways to enter & I also agree with Ashley when they said the post makes the “concerned about the future of the station”