Dining with Steve is getting out of the "selling discounted certificates" business. Most people don't know this, but our host, Steve Thompson, was a pioneer in that business. He had the idea for an affordable way for restaurants to advertise on TV with the original Dining with Steve in 1995. A company in the Cleveland area tried to compete with a similar TV show, couldn't, and started the radio 1/2 off business. The rest, of course, is history - the market is literally flooded!
So we are are going to offer viewers a Trivia show - It will soon be Dining with Steve - Win & Dine! People register online to be called by Steve to answer trivia about the featured restaurant (only 8 per show) to win a (regular) gift certificate. Then Steve will anounce that the first 10 (to15) people to click on the restaurant (on our site) can get free (tailored to the restaurants requests) certs, i.e. buy one entree, get one free; $25 cert. with the purchase of 2 entrees; a free dessert; a free appetizer, etc. This is how the restaurants will recoup their cost (plus extra!) for the show.
Each restaurant gets 3 minutes and 30 seconds on the show, during which we play their video (that we produce) and ask the lucky person on the phone the trivia questions. We are already testing in this market, and it's been very entertaining! You would think we were giving away $10K, but people like to win stuff and see other people win, as well as try to answer the trivia questions. The reactions have been great, and so has the feedback from some area restaurants. Our time slot will remain the same for now - every Sunday @5 pm on the CW - WBKI.
So that's our new format - tell me what you guys think! I'm all ears...
...and thanks again Robin, for letting me post it here first!
