One of the stations that I consult is doing a hyper-focused mail campaign to target people with keywords in key ZIPs. This is good. You should always know where the audience is and find ways to market to them. Kind of like the at-work audience.
We know where they are for 8+ hours on weekdays, so why wouldn’t we be out courting and romancing them? That’s an s-ton of TSL.
Administrative Professionals Day, or Secretaries Day for those of you who kick it Old School, is April 23 and is annually the best opportunity that you’re going to have to throw these folks a bone and acknowledge their existence.
With that said, here is some Dumpage from past “days” that you might be able to take and mold something for your brand.
Administrative PAWfessionals Day – The Eagle in Norfolk and Mix in Cincinnati have honored it by having people share photos of their four-legged co-workers.
Food Deliveries – Obviously, the easiest of all of these.
Staff Deliveries – Since Marconi was filing records for Imus, bringing food to an office has been a great promotion. How about bringing an office to food in a party bus.
Spa Deliveries – As done by Alice in Denver where they brought the spa to her: she had her hair, makeup, nails, and a massage, all while sipping herbal tea at her desk.
Job Switch – Oprah used to switch gigs with a viewer every year. And it was Good. The oft-mentioned Rob & Joss at KyXy in San Diego have gone and done listeners’ jobs as a way to introduce themselves to the market. Go and fill in while your winning Admin Prof gets lunch and a spa.
Field Trips – No one looks back at 4th grade and says, “I hated field trips!” Anytime you can get offices/workplaces “out” and do stuff together, it’s a homerun. 94.9 in Cincinnati did that as Field Trips and sent entire workplaces to baseball games, theme parks, movies, and riverboat riding.
Rage Against The Machine – Office Space came to life in Ottawa when listeners with bats beat the living crap out of a computer printer.
The Human Post-It Note – A great visual as Levi from the morning show at KRST in Albuquerque was covered in layers and layers and rows and rows of post-it notes. He visited offices and employees could peel off a slip and they won whatever was written under it.
Bad Bosses/Day Off From Work – Open up the phones and Facebook and let employees call/write in why their boss is the ultimate ogre to work for. Award these poor, suffering individuals with a day off from work and cover for them by picking up the tab for a temp. Winners could have a day on the town in a limo. Send them out to lunch and then for a makeover and hair session.
Why My Boss Is A Butthead – Pretty much the same concept. B-95 in Fresno did this and the morning show went around in a limo and picked up the winners for a mega-lunch at Tony Roma’s. Later in the afternoon, the station hosted an After Work Party for all the secretaries in town at the Black Angus.
Copy Machine Drop – When my buddy Jennifer was in Tulsa, her station did this. And why not? Who hasn’t, at one time or another, wanted to kick the %$#@& out of their copy machine? They always break down at just the wrong time. Plus, some of these take a rocket scientist to operate. Secretaries called in their worst horror stories about their experiences with the company copier. The lady who sent in the most horrific sob story was hoisted 150 feet in the air with the morning show and the copying machine that caused her all the grief. She personally cut the cord that sent it plummeting to its death. In addition to some personal prizes, her company got a $10,000 new copy machine from a client. Everybody who submitted testimonials got roses. Huge. Typewriter tosses were good, but who uses typewriters anymore? And don’t forget the “boom” factor.
Drive Your Boss Crazy – They did this at Magic 96 in Birmingham. Secretaries sent in what they would do to drive their bosses crazy, and would be willing to do “live” in front of thousands of people at lunchtime at the River Chase Galleria. Selected entrants got to act out their fantasies on stage, with their bosses. The winner put her boss in baby diapers, poured molasses over him, and beat him with an open-ended feather pillow. The winner and her boss each got $500, a weekend hotel package at the luxurious Winfrey Hotel, and she got a day off with a temp provided by the station and a gift pack of Paul Sebastion fragrances. The judges included a local standup comic, a TV weatherman, and a newspaper reporter.
For Secretaries Only – KJMZ in Dallas was one of the stations that did For Sisters Only expos, and they added a For Secretaries Only party after work. In addition to prizes, free food, and discount drinks, the party featured a type-off. On the house mic, the jock dictated a memo and the first secretary to type it with the fewest errors won a personal computer. You could also do this on-air with your announcer dictating a letter to the listeners. The first person to bang it out and email it in would win. As done by Mix in Cincinnati as an after-work get-together.
Office Olympics – Another name for what KJMZ did with their For Secretaries Only party. Since few people ever socialize with their co-workers after 5:30 pm, you’d be a hero for getting these people out together, bonding, having fun, and participating in silly games.
Seccies – Workplace selfies on the 23rd.
Toss The Boss – If you have access to a bungie tower, then you’re set for this exciting promotion. However you get the secretaries and the bosses they’ll toss, doesn’t matter. This is real photogenic and should get you some press. “Mike” the boss who takes the plunge. It should sound great. Get as many of his employees on the tower as possible and let them all lend a hand. Or aim high and see if you can get a boss who will let a secretary toss him out of a plane! The station I “did” in Salt Lake City got this done in 2003 and it was massive. The audio was Hall Of Fame quality. Her, the employer, screaming obscenities while plummeting earthward, but then yelled, “That was great! I want to do it again!” as soon as she landed. Could also be done with a slingshot at a theme park.
Morning Show Topics – There will be many potential morning show topics for that week. It’s always warm ‘n fuzzy to have the bosses call in and talk about how great their secretaries are. It also doubles as Seconal for knocking you out. At the other end of the spectrum are such topics as:
- Cheapest boss
- Best blackmail that you’ve got on your boss
- Dumbest memo
- Dumbest thing your boss ever asked you to do
- Assign characters from The Office to people in your workplace. I don’t think I’ve ever worked at a station that we didn’t WKRP-ize, ie: Bob is Andy, Don is Herb, Allison is Bailey…
- Workplace bootycall rooms. Was done by a couple of stations for Valentine’s.
Or do a secretary/boss version of the Newlywed Game and have them guess the other person’s answer to certain questions.
Secretarial Pool Party – Get businesses to let their secretaries out a little early for a Secretarial Pool Party. Take over the pool-side area at a local hotel and throw an Appreciation Party for these hardworking individuals. Do a swimwear fashion show. Hire a reggae band. Do a limbo contest. Invite the bosses to come down for the First Annual Bosses Bellyflop contest. If you’re still thinking about doing a Typewriter Toss, why not throw them in the pool? Very photogenic. Do it like an Olympic diving competition and have judges there to rate the tosses and their entries into the water. KSFM in Sacramento did this several years in a row.
Nuts At Noon – That was the title of an event that Wild 94.9 did at Justin Herman Plaza over the lunch hour on Secretaries Day. Besides trotting out the Male Exposure Dance Troupe to entertain the crowd of female office workers who normally eat lunch on the grass or around the fountains, they also had roses for the women, and the prize wheel was spinning to raise funds for a women’s shelter. The name has since been co-opted and used frequently for the promotion below.
A Limo Full Of Strippers – Nikki, the mid-day person at Jamz in Vegas, had the gutwrenching duty of riding around all day with a limo full of male strippers. She went to workplaces, got secretaries and receptionists, piled them in the limo, and rode around for a quick 10-15 minute show, returning them hot and sweaty to work. Julie Pilat at KUBE in Seattle had the arduous duty of doing this. She took a limo full of male strippers around to offices, they’d run in, strip for a few minutes, and move on. The women in the offices loved the break from work…and I think Julie had a pretty good time too. Angie at KDWB did this in 2005 and was equally pleased by the event.
S.O.B. – Secretaries On Break. Once again, a hotel pool, race track, indoor adult entertainment center like a Dave and Busters: these are all great places to have a bunch of your mid-day audience hanging and relaxing for a day.
Looks good