How To Get Creative During A Pandemic

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Ideas, ideas, ideas. In the radio business ideas sell, and now more than ever, salespeople and their managers needs to be creative. With COVID-19 still very much a part of our lives, and social distancing still being touted by the experts, stations all over the country are finding new ways to engage with listeners and generate revenue from, and results for, their clients.

Connoisseur Media in Connecticut recently held a Food Truck rally in the parking lot of the radio station. It was a smashing success. The listeners loved it and Local Sales Manager Shannon Begley tells Radio Ink the event made money for the station and helped Morning Show hosts Chaz & AJ’s charity for kids

Radio Ink: Tell us how and why you created this event?
Shannon Begley: Chaz & AJ In The Morning, heard on WPLR & WFOX, host a toy drive every December that raises toys and money for local charities in need. Each year we host events to raise money leading up to the toy drive. Last year we held a food tasting event that went over really well with our listeners and our plan was to bring it back in 2020. Obviously with COVID happening and a lot of limitations on events we had to pivot and decided to do it completely outside. We went with food trucks only as food trucks are self sufficient with power, hand washing stations, and cooking/prepping food.

Radio Ink: How did you pull it off with all of the social distance rules?
Shannon Begley: Attendees pre-purchased tickets for a designated time (to limit crowding) to arrive to the festival and drive through. As they drove through, attendees received samples from each participating food truck by pulling their vehicle up and a staff member from that truck delivered the samples to the car. The food trucks knew how many people were in the car, because at check in, the car received a number for their dashboard to indicate the amount of samples to received. We held the event in our parking lot because it had a good size parking lot to pull off this drive thru event. We also worked closely with our cities Health Department and followed all of their protocols as well as the CDC’s. Everyone was required to wear masks; the staff, the food truck vendors and the attendees. We had hand sanitizers and the food trucks were inspected by the health department before they were allowed to serve food. The key to making sure we maintained control over the crowd was to ensure all of the attendees remained in their cars.
Radio Ink: How was the idea received by the truck vendors?
Shannon Begley: The food trucks were really into it. We made it worth their while to participate by having each of them interviewed on Chaz & AJ leading up to the event. They were included in all on air and online promotion for the food truck festival. They also really liked that the event was tied into our charity. Also Chaz & AJ are one of the most well known morning shows so a lot of these food truck vendors were fans of the show already!

Radio Ink: What was the turnout like and how did you promote it?
Shannon Begley: We sold out…twice! We went on sale and sold out within a week and then the week of we added some additional car slots and sold out within the day. We had over 100 cars come through within the 2 hours serving over 325 people!

Radio Ink: Did you find that people were going crazy and needed an outdoor event like this?
Shannon Begley:  Yes! Almost every car coming in or leaving said how much they needed a night out like this! With most events being cancelled in our area they were just excited for a night out and something different. Plus they got to try food from over 15 food truck vendors! One young couple said usually they go to Target for date nights and walk around and this was the most exciting date night they have had since the beginning of Covid. Another couple was celebrating their 40th Wedding Anniversary! We also had a van filled of women having a girls night out! People seemed to feel comfortable because they were able to stay in their own cars.

Radio Ink: Was it a money maker?
Shannon Begley:  Yes, not only did the stations make money from sponsors who wanted to be involved in the event, but we raised money for The Chaz & AJ Toy Drive happening in December through ticket sales. Another fun add on was that people could buy branded Chaz & AJ masks that benefited the show’s charity toy drive.

Check out the cool video recap of the event HERE.
More pictures from the event can been seen HERE.

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