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Elton Joel RW2 2'25
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Many, many parts to weave and balance - needs ensemble skills, even though it's for solo piano.
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Running a competition back to magazine homepage
Introduction | Hyping the lead-up | Limiting the time | Creating prize categories
Choosing great rewards | Certificates | The "Doubler" factor | Creating leaderboards | Team based competitions | Strategic timing | Interstudio competitions
Creating a Hall of Fame | Turning it into a fundraiser
Major sporting events or rock concerts don't just happen—they are announced well in advance so that anticipation becomes a promotion ally in it's own right. It's the reason that Pixar show trailers for their new films a year before the film itself will be released.
So how far in advance should you be heralding your Practice Championship? Compare the following two statements, and then ask yourself—as a student, which would you be more excited about?
1: "Sally, there's a practice competition starting today. Here's your sheet to fill in your times."
2: "Sally, in September of this year, there's going to be a Studio Practice Championship. I'll be letting you know more about it as we get closer, but it's going to be huge."
September, thinks Sally. But that's six months away...it MUST be huge if we're being warned about it already.
And so the Championship is already larger than life, simply because it's something you have to wait for.
But there's another benefit to the six month delay...it gives you six months to continue to talk it up.
Follow-up teasers
Having planted the seed, it's now time to water it regularly. Every few weeks, release a little more information about the competition itself—never the full picture, just a new piece of the puzzle.
So you might dedicate one page of your next studio newsletter to outlining the prizes on offer. You could even include photos, if you really want the students circling September on their calendars already.
Then a month after that, you might take some time in the lesson to explain some of the many different ways to win.
A letter home a month after that might give the dates for the competition, asking students not to schedule trips away during that time if at all possible.
Then there might be a newsletter featuring a profile on some of last year's winners.
By the time the competition arrives, the students will have had everything short of a major press conference. Which means that when you finally do say "Sally, the practice competition starts today. Here's your sheet to fill in your times.", it's all she'll be talking about in the car on the way home...most of your students will practice as soon as they get home.