The Great Jock Strap Giveaway

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” – Oscar Wilde

It was an interesting session at the Gospel Music Association last week, where Christian broadcasters from around the world had gathered for their annual convention. Author Jon Spoelstra, in leading a session on marketing outrageously, was talking about the need to examine ideas before we shoot them down. Not that it would ever happen in radio, right?

While he was GM of the New Jersey Nets, someone through out the idea of giving away jock straps with a player name on the back. Even I have to admit it sounded like the kind of idea that I’d pretty much reject. But as Jon says, it’s important to look at everything, especially the ones that we’re ready to reject out of hand. The world is full of naysayers, people ready to tell you why an idea won’t work.

We are pretty skilled at that in radio. Maybe we don’t say it’s a terrible idea, but we have lots of other ways of making it known. Like, “Where’s that being one right now?” for example. We’re much better a copying someone else’s idea than we are looking at our own. Which is a shame, because, as Jon pointed out, everyone has good ideas some of the time.

The challenge with accepting or at least looking at new ideas is that it goes against two facts we all seem to share, the dislike of change and the fear of failure. You come up with a new idea somewhere and it’s going to cause change somewhere down the line, and there is that chance it just won’t work. Who wants to take that kind of chance in this consolidated world of downsizing?

The jock strap giveaway never came about, but mainly because of cost, not “sanity.” Our business depends on ideas at every level. We can’t keep doing the same thing over and over, and we can’t simply copy others all the time. Sometimes we have to come up our own ideas, or at least be able to recognize good ideas from the people around us, but we can’t reject everything out of hand unless we want to accelerate failure.