One of the stations was promoting that they had hundreds of tickets for Summer events. I suggested that they change it to “thousands” and was told, “We don’t lie to our listeners!” I suggested that telling the audience to join you at a car dealer for “fun and pizza” was a lie because no one has ever had fun at a car dealer.
This was not well-received.
Radio has always been a subtle blend of semantics and subterfuge. KDWB has a “prize vault,” which sounds bigger than a prize closet. In San Francisco at Wild 107.7, we had one (1) vehicle. So whenever it was out, it was referred to by a different number: “Chuy’s out in Van #7 in Alameda this afternoon…” It sounded bigger.
The same goes for event photos on social media. Try to get angles and shots that create a presence of a crowd, because just a picture of a personality standing by themselves under a canopy gives the impression that you have no fans. Crowds of fans are bigger than the solo shot.
Semantics and creative use of the language to inflate the size, resources, and popularity of a brand cost you nothing. And if it means taking some license with facts, well, I won’t tell.
Now, on with the Dumpage.
Pool Crashing For Beginners
In many markets, that’s where you’re going to find people. So, that’s kind of where you want to be.
- Get cold sodas or water or chicken wings or whatever a client will pony up.
- Promote that you’ll be out crashing pool parties.
- Solicit people to call or post from their party. Have the talent direct you to where they are.
- Show up.
- Post some photos.
- Head for the next party.
And you do it for the audio. From Island 106 in Panama City.
Live From Fantasy Park + The WIOG Staff Christmas Party =….
….what 93.1 The Wolf did for the 4th.
Fantasy Park was a syndicated music show that ran in the 70s and 80s on 3-day summer weekends where they presented a theater of the mind music fest with the biggest bands in the world. Stage announcements, interviews, and recorded live music.
WIOG once did a weekend as if there was an all-day/night staff party at the station with all of the breaks prerecorded and with noise and other stuff happening in the background.
The Wolf merged those two and had a cookout on the 4th, visited by some of the biggest celebrities and names in Country music.
Divorcing A Friend
I heard this very Seinfeld-esque thing on a station yesterday. A listener has a long time friend who had just sucked the life out of her. This person is just a drain on her emotionally, and she doesn’t know how to break it off. So the morning guy is going to.
Closest To The Pinhead
The last station to take a morning guy, stick him on a golf course and have listeners drive golf balls at him was Hot in Mankato, which was close on the heels of Q in Halifax. Closest to, without hitting, wins a prize. Or just do it because you’re a sadist. From DAVE-FM. Choppy, but you get the idea.
Patio Parties
Promotions is the Art of knowing where your listeners are and either being there or referencing it. Twin Cities? “The lake.” Newfoundland? Your “shed.” Charlotte? Apartment pools. San Jose? Cruising. In Fargo, businesses have patios, so Y94 is touring them this summer.
Games Kids Play
As I’ve said before, I truly believe that some of the best contest methodologies can be traced back to 4th-grade birthday parties.
Hide ‘N See
I can not possibly tell you how much I love this. It was done at Hot 99.1 in St. Johns for Alanis tickets. They come to your place, you step outside, they come back out and you have 99 seconds to run in and see if you can find where they hid them.
Ice Cream Trucks
Ice cream trucks are great. Awesome marketing. If you have one or access to one, that’s fantastic.
If you can get one for a day, cool. (Pun intentional) Billy at Kiss in Dallas was presented as “going crazy from the heat, running out into the street, grabbing an ice cream truck and driving all over town just giving the stuff away…”
The ABC stations in Juneau are about to do something similar. From Jason Palmer:
“We found the keys to the local Juneau ice cream truck. It’s ours and we’re not giving it back until we give all the ice cream away. Angel hits the street tomorrow live with Beat the Heat Week, permits and stops planned at parks and the lake, also stopping at fire stations for some pre-4th fireworks love.”
Back To School Brackets
The Beasley stations have demonstrated an amazing ability to monetize brackets. Like in a ridiculous kinda way. Now would be the time to be selling a bracket for the end of the summer/early September.
KZIA did Juice Box Heroes, which was a gallery contest: submit a pic of your kid on the first day at the bus stop, and the pic with the most votes won a backpack full of stuff for the kid and mom from clients. Just a lot of products and services.
Hot in DC looked for “the best high school in town.” I think the school got a dance, and random voters won stuff.
Rob & Joss at KyXy in San Diego did a School Lunch Bracket for their AC audience (ie, what did they enjoy in the local public schools). I believe it was sponsored by a grocery store.
File For Your Next Heatwave
Some great and creative imaging from WKLH in Milwaukee.
And one plus another from 98.9 The Bull in Seattle
The Days Of Our Lives
With the advent of social media, there has been an explosion of new “dates” that more traditional calendars like Chase’s Almanac might miss. Like National Ex’s Day last week. And thank you to Nikki Landry with Magic in Colorado Springs for having me do a phoner as one of her (I assume MANY) really bitter exes.
I send out the monthly dates, but the morning shows especially should do a weekly look at these kinds of sites to make sure that nothing sneaks past them.
