Getting your house raffle featured on TV

18 October 2008
Posted in Organizing House Raffles

Organizing a successful win a house raffle requires a strong marketing campaign to reach out to as many potential players as possible. It goes without saying that getting your property raffle featured on television can be a great way of speading the word to a wider audience. Of course, this isn't always easy, especially since journalists receive lots of requests, and have to pick the most interesting, relevant and popular topics to cover at any given time.

It is no surprise, given the amount of interest house raffles have received recently, that TV channels have been inundated with requests to report on them. While property raffles are still a novelty in some areas, you should assume that the biggest TV channels and newspapers will inevitably already have come across house raffles not long ago.

Depending on what else is happening at that time, a new house raffle may not be considered newsworthy by some journalists - unless they can easily find a 'hook' into the story. As such, when putting together your marketing strategy for your property raffle, it is worth considering it from this perspective. Providing journalists with an angle to report on your competition could make it more likely it will be covered more extensively by the press - including on TV.

It is still possible to get your house raffle featured on TV based on the fact that it is a novel alternative to selling your home in the conventional manner. However, this angle has already been covered many times on TV. Likewise, the idea of giving away a property for only a handful of change is no longer considered original per se.

The same goes for any form of social media one is trying to engage with online. Although it seems obvious, it pays to consider what others have done in the past, and which raffles were successful. However, it isn't necessarily enough to imitate the marketing strategy adopted by a successful raffle. For example, it may be possible that a highly successful and visible house raffle may have fully exploited a specific angle, making it much less effective (or less welcomed by journalists) the second time round.

In general, house raffles raffles organized in support of charity tend to be well received by the media. As this recent CNN report on a Maryland couple raffling their house for charity in the Fifty Dollar house raffle shows, journalists are always interested to report about interesting fundraising initiatives, particularly given the poor conditions in the housing market:

What do you think? Have you noticed any house raffles or competitions recently that stood out in your mind? If you have any advice to provide potential house raffle organizers to increase their chances of featuring their raffle on TV, please leave a comment.

Add Your Own Comment