(By Paige Nienaber) We’re on the cusp of the Season Of Begging when we’ll have our collective hands out, asking for food and toys. Since every business and brand will seemingly be hosting some kind of “drive,” even if it’s just a box for toys at the dentist’s office, you’d better have a helluva hook.
Sitting in a mall on a Saturday afternoon and asking people to come and give you stuff will get you a hundred toys.
You need a hook. Risk (or at least “severe discomfort”) is a hook. WIOG’s Roof Sit where a jock lives on the roof of McDonalds, in December, in Michigan, would qualify.
Chet Buchanan lives on a scaffold in Las Vegas for 12 days and doesn’t come down. He has a tent, portapotty and broadcast set up. Last year he collected 700,000 toys, 9,000 bikes, and $300,000 in gift cards. And long ago they figured out a way to monetize the bejesus out of it.
Another hook is Consequence, ie: you will do something until you hit your goal. A station in Albuquerque did Fill The Field and they lived in a tent in the middle of the university football stadium until every inch was covered in canned food. Last year Gello at Hot 97.5 locked himself in the studio and played the Mariah Christmas song until he hit 1000 toys.
Getting on the air and saying, “Give us stuff” ceased to be effective in the 90’s, so channel your inner hooker and create a hook.
And now on with the Dumpage.
The $5,000 Sleigh
Our friendly and valued clients want us to achieve one or more of the following things for them:
- Foot traffic
- App downloads
- Social media likes
WROR in Boston did the $5,000 Sleigh two Christmases ago and it was loaded with products and services from clients. Basically a s-ton of gift cards. And people love gift cards.
You could these from clients if you help them achieve one of their above goals. Enter in person at their locations. Get an entry when you download the app. Or enter by liking them.
Or, do what both KSON in San Diego and KS95 in the Twin Cities have done with bonus entries. Give us your email for ten entries. Follow us for 25 entries. Do the app for 50 entries. Get 100 entries for every one of our appearances you attend.
Kick Breast Cancer
Great stations embrace all of the opportunities that October presents to do “good stuff” with maybe the best charitable cause I know that crosses all formats: breast cancer. I’ve already sent out quite a bit of ideas on it.
Radiowave 96.7 in Windhoek sold 40,000 pairs of neon-colored shoelaces at $5 a piece. I’ll let you do the math. One day was “lace up” day and they were seen everywhere.
One of the very big (popularity vs. girth) talent in Australia gave up drinking for a month and donated all the money she saved to charity.
What if you had listeners give up whatever is their vice/guilty pleasure and donate the money? Kick cigarettes. Or fast food. Or Krispy Kreme. Whatever. Everyone has something they could quit and send in a few bucks.
Go Pink For The Cure
About 50 years ago it became popular for charities to have people pledge per mile for stuff like walks. What if listeners pledged per day that your morning show lives in pink body suits? Nah, TV would never cover that. Feels too stunty. Let’s focus on developing the characters of the morning show…
The other option would be to have listeners dye their hair pink for the month for donations. And obviously, there are ops for clients to get involved.
The Dreaded Morning Show-On-Vacation Week
If I had my way, the lazy, over-paid, good-for-nothings would get NOTHING. And LIKE IT. But, on a semi-regular basis, you need to let them free to rehabilitate and detoxify their systems. Here is some imaging that I wrote for The Morning Hot Tub at Hot 89.9 in Ottawa. File away for the next time the morning show scatters.
* The regularly scheduled program, The Morning Hot Tub featuring Mauler,
Laura, Rush, and Josie has been pre-empted to bring you a special Spanish
language rebroadcast of the exciting 1978 World Cricket semi-finals of Peru
vs. Indonesia. The Morning Hot Tub will return at its regular time, next
Monday. Thank you.
* Today’s Morning Hot Tub is a special guest-hosted episode, with the parts
of Mauler, Laura, Rush, and Josie being played by various food items we
bought on clearance at (budget grocery chain). Honestly? We do it all the
time and no one seems to notice.
* The Morning Hot Tub is on vacation and will return next Monday at their
regularly scheduled time. Vacation? Those people? There’s some irony for
you. Sorry. I digress. Please enjoy whatever budget programming has been
chosen as a substitute.
* The Morning Hot Tub featuring Mauler, Josie, Rush, and Laura are on
vacation and in other parts of Canada, stealing bits from other morning
shows to bring back and, oh, uh, they’re using this time off to refresh
their creative juices and prepare some of the best and most original morning
programming found anywhere. That’s our story and we’re sticking to it.
* The Morning Hot Tub is off this week. They wanted to take a vacation and
the boss said, “Take as much time as you like. I could get four monkeys in
here and they could probably do your job better than you do and for a
helluva lot less money.” And so far, he’s right.
* The Morning Hot Tub will not be in this week. Their dog ate their show.
* The Morning Hot Tub featuring Mauler, Josie, Rush, and Laura is on Summer
hiatus as they prepare for another season of drama, car chases,
cliffhangers, taboo love, illicit romance, unfulfilled dreams and a special
appearance by Mayim Byalik as the Boss’s Niece! The fun starts this coming
Monday at 6a.
* The Morning Hot Tub has taken this week off as they wrestle with the
decades-old question: what’s bothering the Beaver? The answer to that and
more zany hilarity this coming Monday as they return with a new season on
Hot 89.9.
The Short Attention Span Countdown
It’s kinda like the ADD Countdown. No lead-up. Just play whatever is #1.
Music For A Year
This is one of Cities 97/Minneapolis’ four benchmark promotions. (Which is a good time to ask yourself: what are our benchmarks? If you draw a blank, that’s not good.) Their first is Oake On The Water. Every Thursday during the Summer, Brian Oake does his show at a river/lakeside bar. In December, it’s the City Sampler, which is a CD of in-studio performances that they sell at Target and raise HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars for some very very vibing charities. In the Spring they do the Wine & Dine World Tour: weekly trips to vineyards in places like Chile and South Africa. Music For A Year rounds it out. Everyone who wins in January qualifies for tickets to every concert in the coming year and a copy of every new CD they play. Do this.
McDonald’s
They’re trolling for added value at one of the stations. Everyone seemingly does “Team Of The Week” and has a bunch of high schoolers in the studio on Thursday night. Only a few stations have done anything with “Team Parent Of The Week.” Or “Choir Parent” or “Theater Parent.” The people who drive and host and help with school activities.
You could call it PTA or “Parents Teachers Applaud.” Honor one every week and they and “their kids” all get McDonalds one night after practice.
Open House
The little plaza in Scandia has a bank, pizza place, liquor store, and post office and last week they hosted an open house. You could get a tour, play games for prizes, have some free pizza, wine tasting, etc. I’ve always thought it would be great if a station did a once-a-year open house. Have some food, allow people to record themselves reading the weather and introing a song, play Name That Tune, and basically open the doors so people can meet the airstaff and see behind the scenes. Which, for the average listener, is still pretty damn cool.
One Note Wonders
iHeart in the Twin Cities has KOOL 108 which is a pretty great station. They’ve freshened up the imaging and one of the new promos talks about how instantly identifiable their artists are. What if you did “One Note Wonders” on the morning show? Play ONE note or beat from a song. First to ID the artist and title wins whatever tickets you have.
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.
