Paige Nienaber’s Midweek Idea Dump: Love Week, Baby!

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Promotions is basically the Art of Content. My self-imposed job description as a Promotion Director was to “give the DJs stuff to talk about.” God bless the Hallmark Holidays for helping fill that void.

Early January is always a Black Hole Of Nothingness so we have to be creative and hope that maybe some concert tickets drop in your lap.

This year, like the last couple, we have very little separation between the Super Bowl and Valentine’s, and you really need to acknowledge both. The game is on Sunday the 9th, followed five days later by Valentine’s on Friday.

If you have something like a halftime artist bracket or soliciting for places to crash with free food during the Game, you could start that on the 3rd and dump it into Valentines on the 10th. Based on the last couple of years, VD > SB, so your Valentine’s stuff might start on the 3rd and then your acknowledgment of the football event could be some kind of drive-time contest or topic on the 7th.

But let me lob something else at you: Love Week. 

Davey and Chris at KSFM were stuck on what to do for the 14th. I’d sent everyone something like 11 pages of possible bits or contests or features, and their thing was that they didn’t want to just wait until the day of and do something. So they decided on Love Week: a different topic or bit every morning that week, and they mixed it up.

They did something romantic, then an anti-romance feature, then into something warm and fuzzy, then into something over-the-top funny, and then into their Valentine’s Day promotion, which was a blind date with two listeners literally blindfolded and going on a date.

Love Week.

KSFM was bundling Valentine’s before people knew what bundling was.

And now on with the Dumpage.

New Meaning To “Hitting The Post”

Possibly the best secret sound yet.

A Great Remote Draw

Remotes, generally, are wallpaper that stopped being compelling in about 1996. Prize wheels and free pizza might NOT be the draw they once weren’t.

Jim Fishback when he was in Cleveland, once asked for “The Coolest Pet.” If you have a cool pet, bring it by. “It was a freakshow. Traffic was snarled. Huge turnout. Just don’t do it at a client IN a mall or that serves food.”

Eggs

Just as toilet paper was a thing, eggs are now officially a thing because of avian flu.

You can overthink prizes. Giving away stuff during a shortage is a win. But they would need to be added to some tickets, or, it would need to be a bulk prize, like 106 eggs.

You could do Eggzactly and do a spin on the “Go Nuts” visual that Mix in Cincy did for casino cash: guess how many eggs are in an image. Closest without going over, wins.

Or you could do a Sir Pecks A Lot. Find a feed store or place where they incubate chicken eggs. Get twenty, number them, and turn on the heat. And cam it. The first to peck its way out wins for its designated listener.

In a lot of markets, there are people who raise their own eggs and sell them. One of the things I’ve noticed on Facebook is people trying to find suppliers. So… you could do Egg Finder. If you raise eggs and have them for sale, let us know and we’ll pin your location on a map.

Ball Girl For A Day

A couple of times over the years I’ve talked a talent into doing something under the premise of “I always wanted to do this but…” Like when Jo Jo Wright became a high school cheerleader for one game. Why? “My high school in Texas was just not progressive enough to let guys be on the squad. It’s hard. It’s physical. It requires practice. Man, I wish SOME school would let me just cheer one game…”

I think I talked to a hundred schools who wanted him to do it.

Need something outside of your appointment time features to throw as a curveball? Having one of the talent beg for a shot, just for one game, to realize her childhood dream of snagging foul balls.

Alphabeti-Call

If you are a drive-time talent, you should troll some of the British channels because they do some fun stuff that with a few exceptions, never migrates westward. “Innuendo Bingo” is a great example.

Alphabeti-Call” is another example of features that they do with celebrity in-studio guests. They make a phone call and every sentence needs to start with the next letter in the alphabet. A, B, you get the idea.

A Valentines Do-Over

So, I was on a Zoom thing on Friday with a station that was putting the finishing touches on their Valentine’s plans when a Promo Asst named Taya, who was doing paperwork in the background, chimed in, “Or you could help a couple recreate their first date.”

Boom boom, acka lacka boom boom.

That’s it. It will be like Christmas Wish where the station will find the date that is reasonably unique but also within their ability to recreate and also will look good on video. Me? An on-the-ceiling movie at the Science Museum followed by dinner at Leeann Chin. It was nice but I bet there are some better ones that they’ll be able to choose from.

Free Stuff

When a station reaches out and says they are looking for something to do and that will make some noise, I always ask, “So, what is everyone in town talking about?”

Once upon a time, the answer to that in San Diego was the garbage strike. So, Rob & Joss at KxKy left random items at the end of their driveway with a sign that said “Free!” to see if anyone took the pickle jar full of clothespins or the used paintbrush.

Who’s Down With BFB? Yeah, You Know Me!

Several stations have used Orajel to numb a co-host’s mouth before having them warble songs for the audience to identify to win. This is why we are in Radio and not any of the good mediums.

The other option would be Brain Freeze Friday with a mouthful of ice cream, followed by attempted singing. And there is no reason it couldn’t be sold to an ice cream client.

That Is A Ton Of Entries

Y-94 in Fargo reminds us that if you ask listeners to show off their new babies, they most assuredly will. This should be done for Tax Day.

I’m not kidding. 

Nine Day Fiancee

An extra large smile face goes on the report card of a Cumulus Promotion Director who came up with the name for their Valentine’s version of Married In A Week. A couple will be picked and nine days later, well, the name says it all. All of the elements like dress, tux, rings, first song will be picked by the listening audience using fax or social media.

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