Got an email from one of the top radio stations in town yesterday. They are doing a \\"total wedding giveaway\\" It will be promoted for 2 months as a complete wedding, and each vendor will get constant recognition. At least 100 mentions on the air, plus their website would link to mine (if I donated the cake, of course)... So I\\'m reading through it, and typically I won\\'t donate a cake because it never benefits me, but I\\'m thinking this one may actually promote my business pretty well.

And then I get to the bottom of the email, they want me to PAY them $750 to give away a cake (probably valued over $1,000). Don\\'t you think they will get enough promotion for their station just by giving away an entirely free wedding? With thousands of engaged folk, them being kind of THE 20\\'s-30\\'s radio station... No, sorry, I don\\'t pay people to take my cakes.

They want your cake for FREE and you have to PAY them, despite the fact that they contacted you??? Don\\'t think so! I know it is expensive for radio advertising (my DH and I own a buisness), but its not like they have to put anything into print and again - THEY CONTACTED YOU. I agree with you - I wouldn\\'t pay anyone to take my cake either. Maybe if you do the \\"thanks but no thanks\\" they will reconsider the offer.

Thats nuts to pay them. Donating the cake should be more than enough. Bummer it turned out that way it could have been good exposure.

Actually, I\\'d inquire as to how much a radio spot would cost you instead of advertising the way they\\'re wanting you to. If it\\'s less than $1k, you can always save up and figure out a way to get an ad created.

Grr I hate that when they are trying to make money off of you! It would be a great opportunity to just donate the cake, but horrible if you have to pay. Bleh.

so, basically, they contact you with an opportunity for exposure. they are basically asking YOU to pay for the advertising this opportunity will give your business, AND they expect you to donate the cake, too? WTH?

Now, if they paid for the cake, or the advertising, or both, that\\'s one thing, but for you to be asked to pay for this both in monetary and material ways...that\\'s ridiculous! Who the heck does their marketing? EPIC fail!

just my two cents...

I agree with the others...it would be one thing to donate the cake in return for the free advertising, but to donate a cake worth that much AND to pay for the advertising??? I\\'m sure you\\'d get a lot of leads from that much exposure, but I don\\'t see how you are getting a deal out of this if you are donating the cake AND paying the advertising cost.

Unbelievable. They want YOU to pay advertising in the amount of $7.50 for each of the 100 times they mention your name... AND they want a free wedding cake to give away?... I\\'m sorry, but this doesn\\'t sit well with me. I wouldn\\'t do it.

Also, regarding the advertising, did they happen to mention the time of day your name would be mentioned? If it\\'s, just for one example, 9:00 am - 11:00 am, well, most people are working, so that would not necessarily reach YOUR target audience. Again, that\\'s just an example, I don\\'t mean that literally because I don\\'t know your customer base.

It frustrates me because in my opinion this is not a mutually beneficial agreement. You\\'re paying for advertising and absorbing the cost of a free wedding cake.

[P.S. If my message doesn\\'t appear correctly, there\\'s something going on with the CakeCentral program. My preview option has extra characters showing for some reason. ]