(By Paige Nienaber) We probably wouldn’t be in Radio if we’d mastered 5th-grade math, but today we’ll explore Promotions By Numbers.
Next week I’m going to talk about Promotional Positions, and one of the ways to own a position is by numbering it.
For instance, when I got to San Francisco and the future Wild 107, we didn’t have two pennies to rub together. In market #4, the department was me. That was pretty much it. There wasn’t a promotional budget and KMEL had effectively built a wall around us with the labels, so we weren’t initially getting any support from them.
But through the indy and creatively working Sales promotions, we were able to get a lot of trips.
“Trips” are like “Cash.” It’s a position that you can own. And we owned it. We had a lot of concert trips through the indy and occasional trips through movie studios and clients like Coke.
So, as opposed to just doing a lot of unconnected and seemingly random trip contests, I numbered them. Our music position was “Stopless Music” so all of our trips were “Stopless Jetaways”, ie: “Stopless Jetaway #12 is sending you to the Grammy’s.”
It also allowed us to post-promote previous contests, which is great because these are usually pretty amazing experiences that are over as soon as you announce the winner. But not if you number them: “Wild 107.7 is announcing Stopless Jetaway #15. In the past, we’ve sent you to see Prince in Miami, the Super Bowl, and Michael Jackson in Greece. Starting Monday, listen to win a trip to see Mariah Carey in Las Vegas…”
It’s hard to steal away or encroach on a position that is that entrenched. And these cost us nothing, which is good because that’s what we had.
And of course, it doesn’t have to be trips. It could be local concert ticket contesting or daily pool parties in the Summer. Whatever you have bunches of.
And now, on to the dumpage.
Bathroom Buddies
One of the CHRs is going to do a photo gallery promotion for Valentine’s but didn’t want to do just another “Cutest Couples”, so they’re going to do Bathroom Buddies: submit a pic of you and your significant other sharing the bathroom and getting ready for work/bed. Because nothing says “relationship” more than sharing a bathroom.
Kiss-A-Thons
There are a few universals in Promotions and they include that sticking a DJ on a billboard or platform will juice entries, adding a limo to a prize is great, and TV can not resist diaper crawls and kiss-a-thons.
The first kiss-a-thon in about five years is set to roll. First, and on advice of counsel, I can NOT stress this enough… make sure they’re of age.
And then:
- Give them a pee break of five minutes every hour. During the break, give one of the pair something like garlic, sardines, or tuna for a snack.
- Stick little logos on their cheeks: that’s the camera angle.
- Have a camera on each couple and it is absolutely clearly stated that the decision of the judges is final. If you unlocked lips, boom, you’re out.
Spot-Eating Dogs
One of the stations is about to launch a commercial-free music feature, which no one has done before. And so that it doesn’t get lost in all of the other commercial-free music features, the talent who will be the host is going to adopt a dog that rhymes with the brand and every day the dog will eat the commercials.
The Royal Family Needs Your Help
And 106.1 Kiss FM in Dallas is there for them
HEY – GUESS WHO JUST FOUND OUT THEY’RE SUDDENLY MEGA-RICH?!?!?! YUP!! WE ARE!! YOU HEARD RIGHT — 106.1 KISS FM IS IN THE MONEY — AND ACCORDING TO THIS EMAIL FROM PRINCE SALAAM OF NIGERIA — ALL WE HAVE TO DO IS GIVE AWAY 400,000 BUCKS IN THE NEXT FEW WEEKS — SEND PROOF TO HIS OFFICE IN NIGERIA —- ANNNND ALSO OUR BANK ROUTING NUMBER AND PASSWORD — YOU KNOW – SO HE CAN MAKE THE DEPOSIT — AND WE’RE IN!!! SOUNDS LEGIT — RIGHT? OUR POTENTIAL LOSS – IS NOW YOUR CERTAIN GAIN!! JUST KEEP IT ON 106.1 KISS FM TO WIN YOUR SHARE OF 16 K A DAY — WE’VE GOTTA GIVE IT AWAY – SO PRINCE SALAAM CAN MAKE OUR WILDEST FINANCIAL DREAMS COME TRUE! SEE – EVEN SAYS THAT PART RIGHT HERE — “ALL OF YOUR WILDEST FINANCIAL DREAMS ARE ABOUT TO COME TRUE” — BOOM BABY!!
Fun With Dogs™
KSFM in Sacramento did this promotion to award a trip to the Grammys several years back before CBS Legal took over. And under a really profane name that I won’t share because Jay Kruz reads this and is very sensitive.
And it came up yesterday as a methodology for a big summer festival ticket contest.
Very simple:
- You get a bunch of qualifiers
- You have them sit, equally spaced, in a big circle
- You take a dog and put it in the middle of the circle
- On cue everyone starts summoning the dog
- The person who the dog goes to wins the prize
The F Word Of The Day
This kind of trash is exactly what Radio doesn’t need. I’m ashamed for our industry. (Actual quote from a consultant when KOB-FM did their historic and trending-globally-in-under-8 seconds interview with Obama in 2012)
Roula and Ryan at KRBE gave out an F word and five times a day, be the right caller, use it in a sentence like “Clarissa Darling might have been the most FANTASTIC character in 1990’s television”, win $100 and qualify for a daily draw for $2000.
TixTok
2024 is going to be another one of the best years ever for BIG shows on the road. So take the tickets and thoughtfully decide what you want to do with them. Global1Media in Elko has discovered that if they hang out an incentive, their listeners will submit videos.
Cool. Then do it as TixTok and have listeners creatively show why they are so passionate about seeing the Company B reunion tour at Shooting Star Casino. Or PINK or Taylor or Madonna or Ed or Sam or Lewis.
Similar to when Hot 89.9 did Dancing With The Cars.
Paige Nienaber insults/consults more than 100 radio stations on Fun ‘N Games (Marketing & Promotions). Find him at CPR Promotions. Read Paige’s Radio Ink archives here.
