(By Paige Nienaber) In the wake of Hurricane Helene, let me introduce you to “tangible.” Great word. I learned it from David Dubose, an amazing market manager for Townsquare Media in Tuscaloosa. He wanted his hurricane relief drive to be tangible.
His definition of tangible was that you could make the donation and visualize it being delivered and used.
Great example? The day after the LA Earthquake, Wild 107.7 in San Francisco flew two 737s of water with United Airlines to Burbank and then with the assistance of Power 106, delivered it to people sweltering in parks where they were living because their homes were unstable. You could drop off the water and hear Renee Taylor handing it to people in distress the next day.
It’s possible to overthink things. You need a truck. Who has trucks? Beer companies, soft drink distributors, and a thousand other clients. In the Twin Cities, it’s the Sales Manager’s husband’s company, and the Hubbard cluster has used it repeatedly to deliver over a million diapers to disaster zones in the South and Southeast. That’s tangible.
In the case of Hurricane Charlie, Mix in Kansas City just got on the air and solicited truckers. They got seven. The pallets of water were wrapped in banners and a local TV crew followed them on their drive to bring the water to the victims.
Posting a banner ad for a large Black Hole Charity tells me that you’re feeling obligated to do something but really could care less, because if you did, you’d do something that would actually engage people and get donations.
I look back at Katrina as an event where a lot of young programmers discovered that they could be relevant and compelling and be more than background music in people’s lives. Here is a chart of what my clients did with that storm. The trucks were all filled with water with a few exceptions, and the cash was raised by doing things like selling requests.
| Station/Cluster | # of Trucks Filled | Amount of Cash | Other Donations/Assistance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wired 96.5 Philly | One | ||
| The Giant/Thunder Bay | $20,000 | ||
| K-Rock/Edmonton | $79,626 | ||
| 96X/Edmonton | Close to half a million teddy bears | ||
| KRST/Albuquerque | Fourteen | $17,000 | |
| Power 96/Miami | $10,000 | Teddy Bear drive/broadcast with Trick Daddy from Houston | |
| 97 Rock/Buffalo | Ten | $100,000 | |
| Beasley/Fayetteville | $35,000 | ||
| Citadel/Binghamton | Six | ||
| KDWB/Minneapolis | $12,874.45 | ||
| The Edge/Buffalo | One | $5,000 | |
| WCKY/Findlay, Ohio | Five | $22,000 | |
| WNKS/Charlotte | Eighteen | $350,000 | |
| Citadel/Syracuse | $66,058 | ||
| Jamz and Kiss/Birmingham | Four | $50,000 | Adopted and housed a family for a year |
| WEUP/Huntsville | Two | Coordinated local shelters | |
| WCHZ/Wichita | $1,500 | ||
| Wild 94.9/SFO | $25,000 | Another $20k committed from ticket sales from the station Comedy Jam | |
| KKMG/Colorado Springs | Five | $100,000 | |
| Wild 96.3/Ft. Wayne | $10,000 | ||
| B-103.9/Ft. Myers | $50,000 | ||
| 98PXY/Rochester | $30,000 | ||
| V-103/Atlanta | Sixteen | $260,000 | |
| KKDA/Dallas | First to help evacuees in that market get hotel rooms | ||
| KMXV/KC | Nine | $16,000 | Also did care packages to kids |
| 102 Jamz/Orlando | $20,000 | 600 units of blood donated | |
| Wild 98.7/Tampa | Two | $9,000 | |
| KBKS/Seattle | Did a huge school supply drive for kids in Louisiana | ||
| KOOL/Denver | $9,153 | ||
| KZIA/Cedar Rapids | Ten | Including many generators | |
| KLUC/Las Vegas | Thirteen |
That’s tangible. And now on with the Dumpage.
More Universals
There are some things that we just know as a fact will get hits and press. So here are some reminders.
- Wacky Weddings™ get press coverage.
- People love kids and they love pets. If you do anything “visual” with them, you’re going to get some mileage, like the dog dressed up as a murderer video that got shared over and over 10 million times last week.
- If you stick a DJ on a scaffold, crane, roller coaster or rooftop, you will be a message that cuts through when asking for things.
- Kissing Cars works. Always has. Always will.
- Diaper crawls get TV coverage. Not sure why but they do.
And to add to the list, Wacky Footraces™, as evidenced by a race track with running dinosaurs that got 30 million visits to their social media. And thank you to Kerri Stein with LM Communications for the find.
As far as I can tell, no one has done Santa Races. There have been Santa Runs but no races. Maybe there should be. Ditto with turkey races. Granted, finding turkey suits is NOT as easy as Santa costumes so you might need to go with actual birds.
You And Your Boo
Damn Joey Tack and his cool contest names. This would be any weekend in October. Call, boo and win tickets to whatever Halloween attraction you have tickets to.
Oddio For The Axing
A lot of people have asked to hear a play from “Split Or Steal” at Island 106 in Panama City. Here ya go.
Free Groceries For Local Heroes
Results Radio in Redding tapped into a pretty primal need: free food. If you’ve given away groceries or even just turkeys at Thanksgiving, you will see a noticeably larger response than you will see even with “Win $1000” group contests.
The Redding cluster awarded a local hero from each of three categories: First Responder (law or fire), Medical (doctors and nurses) and Teachers with $500 in groceries.
TSO
I’ve seen their ticket sales and contesting begin to pop up on station sites and social media. These are GREAT tickets. The kinds of tickets you could actually have fun with. So…
Elementary Christmas Pageant Idol Have parents upload videos of their kids past pageants for a shot at tickets. And what parent wouldn’t do that? (5) Hilarious children’s Christmas Pageant – YouTube
What The Flock? Think of it as a video version of Secret Sound. Take a normal household item and flock it. And then people have to guess what it is based on clues and the visual. 99.7 NOW-FM has their Secret Sound with 8 clues and guesses a day right now in San Francisco.
TSO Or TSA? Name something and the caller has to ID it’s connection: “Inner calf pat down”? TSA? “Cello”? TSO.
Trans Nebraska Orchestra Done by Q-107.5 in Memphis where they found a Kwik Trip somewhere on I-80 in Nebraska and would call and play Name That Tune with the employee. If they knew the song, the caller got TSO tickets.
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.
