In my quick approximation, Urban Radio blew, close to Ksh 800,000 two weeks ago to give two lucky listeners the most epic two days of their life.

From a lavish eviction party for the finalists with free-flowing Johnnie Walker Black to talent fees to the hiring of the top of the range cars to flights from Kisumu to Diani to accommodation and accompanying logistics.

This has so far been billed as the most extravagant radio campaign.

The two winning contestants travelled between three cities, met their idols, sleep in luxury hotels and simply had the most memorable 48 hours of their lives.

The campaign was aptly tagged “experiences money can’t buy.”

Epic 48 is for our listeners. It’s about how much we value our listeners.

Ben Ogombe, CEO Urban Radio 90.7 FM

The campaign usually involves a short nomination period where listeners nominate themselves to have this once-in-a-lifetime experience with their plus one.

During the last season, the station received over two thousand entries.

It then progresses to an elimination stage where the list is thinned on radio through technicalities like following simple instructions.

For instance, presenters called names of the contestants on-air and the contestants were expected to respond by using the campaign hashtag and tagging the station on their social media within five minutes.

If one was not tuned in and missed their name being called on the radio, they will not respond appropriately and thus will be eliminated.

To throw a twist to this, the names are called across three shows during the day and in no particular order – there is no telling where your name will fall as a contestant.

The 10 contestants who follow all the rules to the end make it to the final Epic 48 draw where listeners will then take over by voting for their preferred winner.

The voting happens on social media to enhance transparency. Social media analytics tools are then deployed to not only tally the votes but also weed out those attempting to rig the system through double voting.

In the end, the person with the highest votes and the first runner up gets to experience the most awesome 48 hours of their lives. They are each allowed to bring one person on the trip with them.

                  Season 1 Epic 48 / Video Courtersy of Urban Radio 90.7 FM

The 48 hours countdown begins in Kisumu at the end of an eviction party usually hosted at a club in town or a high-end resort. The last eviction party was hosted by Johnie Walker at Kisumu’s Alleyways Beer Garden.

Participants in the competition must always be ready to pack and leave at a moment’s notice – usually very few hours. The winners are picked up by state of the art luxury cars from their houses and chauffeured to the eviction party where they receive an all-VIP red carpet welcome.

The clock starts counting down to 48 hours when they arrive at the luxury hotel they are staying in for the night. For season one the winners stayed at Ciala Resort in Kisumu, while for Season two they spent the night at the Grand Royal Swiss Hotel.

The idea

Epic 48 is not an Urban Radio original idea per se, and they don’t attempt to claim so. The idea was adapted from syndicated radio show producer, R Dub, of the Sunday Night Slow Jams, which also aired on Urban Radio and other 200 radio stations across the world.

“We were having a chat with Randy Williams (R Dub) on what kind of promotions we can do to make the station stand out, he told us about this campaign they have been running called Epic 48 which was in its third edition then and we thought that would be a great idea to localise,” said Ben Ogombe, CEO Urban Radio during a recent interview with Ominde’s Words.

“Epic 48 is the flagship audience promotion by Urban Radio 90.7 FM. We think of ourselves as an epic station and this is one of the ways we reward our listeners,” adds Ogombe.

The station has three key pillars with the first being “music.” It’s known to play only number one hits – all the songs on the station’s music rotation were at one point number one in the charts.

The second pillar is “the vibe,” the content, the conversation with presenters and the audience engagement.

The third pillar is lifestyle. They think of the station as a way of life. How do you define an urban person, what do urban people do?

“A big part of urban people is travelling, it’s experiencing places, it is having fun. So. Epic 48 falls squarely under that lifestyle pillar for Urban Radio” says Ogombe.

What the station is trying to do with the campaign is make the dreams of their listeners come true. They also want to show their listeners what they can do in 48 hours.

They try to answer the question, how far can you go and what amazing things can you do in 48 hours?

It’s however not only about the places you go to but also the people you meet – look at it, if you had the money and at times we do, you can go to these places. But the campaign gets you to meet your idols as well.

The thinking about the promotion revolves around Magic – blowing you away! Motion, the promotion is about time, everything has to be done within 48 hours – going to all these amazing places and still having enough time to have fun.

Mystery – the surprise element. The contestant doesn’t know where they will be going, what they will be doing, who they will be meeting. Lastly, moments – unforgettable moments. Things you only see on TV.

“The fun part about the campaign is that we put a lot of decoys. The contestants try to guess what happens next and we throw them off their game. In the last edition, we told them to pack swimsuits.

“They guessed we were going to the coast but we got to Nairobi and checked in at the Emara Olesereni. At some point we told them that we were going to pick someone from the airport, unknown to them their luggage had already been secretly checked out of the hotel and they were not going to spend the night at Ole Sereni, ” says Ogombe.

Destination Marketing

The promotion is also about showcasing destinations. If you are in Kisumu and your idea of a weekend is just hanging out at the regular joint, Epic 48 opens your mind to a whole lot of destinations.

Even if you don’t have 600K to blow away in two days but you sure can have a good weekend and be back in time for work on Monday. This includes travelling out of the country.

The station is promising that season 3 of the promotion will be a passport edition. They are also looking forward to partnerships with hotels.

Sponsorship Plugin

The station has partnered with various brands to deliver the Epic 48 promotion to their audiences every three months. The whole process of determining the winner is data-driven from registration on their microsite to shortlisting tasks to voting, to the live broadcast of the EPIC48 journey on its social media platforms to the release of the season’s documentary on our youtube page. This makes them naturally look at Safaricom as a flagship partner.

Johnie Walker is the preferred epic drink, fun times are made better with a bottle of JW Black and their goal here is to have our listeners think of JW Black as the drink for epic excursions and for the flight partner, Safarilink is their preferred wing to the bush and the beach and their invaluable partnership has really helped in making every minute in the 48 hours count.

“The distinct feature with this promotion is that we will have to stick with our partners for all editions. It’s totally disjointed to say today that JW Black is the EPIC48 drink then switch to something else on the next edition.

“Our listeners are following each season and we have to ensure our offering is consistent. We want Safarilink to be able to christen a round trip of say, Kisumu to Diani through Wilson as the EPIC48 trip and our listeners will understand that this is the flight that gets you out of Kisumu at 12.10 on Friday and through Wilson to Diana by 15.30 and returns you to Kisumu on Sunday evening.

“We are also in talks to bring on board a skincare and beauty partner, a phone brand – so the whole experience can be shot using their phone, and a payment platform partner. This is a property that moving forward we will be selling at the beginning of the year and sharing our calendar of events with our partners early enough and they buy it for the whole year,” explained Ogombe.

For the sponsors, this promotion brings to life various aspects of their products through the on-air campaigns. The value they get on air, through the journey and the entire contact points.

For the audience, the second season of Epic 48 will be released in episodes. This will allow the station’s audiences to relive detailed experiences the winning contestants had and whet their appetite for the next edition. This also helps the photographers who had a challenge cutting down gigabytes of footage into just six minutes of film.

The promotion has now also integrated a CSR project where the contestants have an opportunity to give back to a cause of their choice.

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