FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 20, 2011
CONTACT: Lou Morin, Director of Marketing and Public Relations
(207) 330-4606 or lmorin@mpbn.net
MPBN Shatters One-Day Station Records
for Call Volume, Revenue
"Super Thursday"goal of 2,600 calls in 24 hours met by 4:00 pm
(Bangor, Maine) – The Maine Public Broadcasting Network’s “Super Thursday” one-day pledge drive raised over $273,000 on donations from 3,152 individuals today.
The result left station officials at a loss for adjectives to describe their response to the outpouring of support from listeners all over Maine and beyond. While they had hoped that the one-day pledge drive would be successful, the fact that the goal was met after less than 12 hours of on-air appeals for donations was something totally unexpected, says Jennifer Foley, MPBN’s Director of Development and Philanthropic Giving.
“We went back through our records and found that prior to today, the best day of pledging in our history generated 858 calls resulting in $107,558,” Foley said, referring to a pledge drive conducted in April of this year.
The network had blown away both numbers by 9 a.m. after going on the air at 5 a.m. One man, after hearing the on-air appeals in his radio at home, walked into MPBN’s studio in Lewiston and donated a jar of loose change, which totaled $45.59.
Foley attributed the success of the campaign to many factors, including the heavy messaging that MPBN had undertaken in the two weeks leading up to the pledge drive, with pre-recorded messages specifically written for MPBN’s audience by a dozen NPR national radio personalities, including Carl Kassel, Scott Simon, Peter Sagal, Terry Gross and others. She also cited a tremendous team effort by MPBN’s entire membership staff as a prime driver of the results.
“Our members have told us ‘we love MPBN but the pledge drives, not so much,’ and we heard them,” Foley said. “We trusted our listeners to respond positively to this new approach to pledge drives, and wow, did they ever come through!”
Foley said that while MPBN was expecting to succeed, the scale of the response was humbling.
“Our volunteers were lining up at the door to answer phones, staff were processing pledges at a furious pace, local businesses in Bangor and Portland donated food to keep the volunteers fed – it was a total team effort and an example of the sense of community that our listeners feel about MPBN, which is an absolutely vital component of our success,” she added.
While MPBN had promised listeners that once the goal of 2,600 contributions by phone or through the station’s web site was met, they had expected it would be close to midnight before the goal was met – if it was met at all.
Typically, MPBN radio pledge drives last for about a week. Foley says the biggest days are almost always the first day when momentum is high, and the last day when the end of the drive is in sight. This time MPBN combined the two days into one, driving awareness through heavy on-air promotion, emails to members and written messages on the station’s Facebook page with its 7,800 subscribers.
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