The first couple of weeks of February are back-to-back promotional opportunities with Super Bowl on the 8th, Valentine’s on the 13th, and Mardi Gras on the 17th. That’s a whole lotta fun crammed into a short period of time.
The Super Big Game Bowl Thing ceased to be watchable football in the ’80s, unless of course you have a team in the game. It’s about food, TV spots, and the halftime. It is also a massive day/night for social media.
If you’d like a metric ton of Super Bowl ideas, answer me this: What was the name of Les Nessman’s dog on WKRP?
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And now, on with the Dumpage:
Winter Olympics
Skating With The Stars I don’t think there’s a station that hasn’t done some version of Dancing With The Stars. Orlando at Wild in Tampa was marginally historic. What if you paired up DJ’s and listeners with pros, and start on the 7th and end on the 23rd with an event. The video content potential is amazing.
Local Kid Makes Good If someone local is going over, make sure to glom onto them like a pilot fish on a shark. Have them or one of their family members be your reporters. And send some stickers or other logos for posting and photos, and hopefully for when they do shots of the family in the crowds.
Torch Run KZIA is a fun station. They just have fun. And every Winter Olympics is kicked off with a torch run in long johns and a plunger filled with lighter fluid.
Human Curling Again, why not? You have some good tickets or another prize worth going outside the station, have listeners slide friends and go workers on those round snow rings at a circle on the ice.
Broadcasts The soft drinks don’t seem to be sending DJ’s but if you have anyone going, let me know. Because people really don’t care that much about DJ’s broadcasting from things they’ll never get to go to. One of the rare times it didn’t suck was Angi Taylor from KDWB in Minneapolis who went down to Sydney’s Red Light District and found “local color” not covered by stations who sat in Coke village and waited for the client to bring them a Peruvian luge’r.
“Your Favorite Olympic Moment!” If asked, don’t do this. There are two: 1980 hockey and the Dream Team.
Alternative Olympics If you’re in a cold-weather market, put together a list of sports that never quite made the cut. Snowball Shotput. Basketball On Ice. Hockey With Stuffed Gerbils.
Opening Ceremonies These are to the Olympics what the TV spots are to the Superbowl. It is a Social Media Event. Don’t miss it.
If They Win, You Win There are 93 nations participating. Do a version of Fantasy Football and assign a listener to each country and track what they win.
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 goof mediums.
The other option would be Brain Freeze Friday with a mouth full of ice cream, followed by attempted singing. And there is no reason it couldn’t be sold to an ice cream client.
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, and first song will be picked by the listening audience using fax or social media.
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?”
Well, the answer to that in San Diego is the garbage strike.
So, Rob & Joss from KXKY left random items at the end of their driveway with a sign that said “Free!” to see if anyone would take the pickle jar full of clothespins or the used paint brush.
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.
Valentunes
Valentine’s falls six days after the Superbowl and it’s one of those Hallmark Holidays that really lends itself to social media, so maybe you can lose the B-list celeb gossip for a few days.
Valentunes would be some polls about great/worst “love songs”.
- Saddest post-breakup song (“Once Bitten Twice Shy” messed me up for a decade)
- Best, uh, mood music
- Sappiest love song
- First wedding dance
- Guilty pleasure love song
- Misunderstood lyrics “Oh Mickey, it’s a pity you don’t understand, you take me by the heart when you touch my thyroid gland.”
March Baldness
If your audience is not necessarily in college basketball, here is another way to acknowledge it: listeners writing your call letters on their spouses’ heads and posting for prizes.
Or you could do a cat gallery.
Or a dog gallery like BEN in Philly.
Or do mall gift cards all month.
Our Logo On Your Meat
A station-to-remain-nameless has a steakhouse client that wants a promotion. My suggestion would be to have a station ‘cut of meat’ with the station logo actually branded into it. A dial position number of cents from each steak sold would go to a food shelf.
Cougartine
Ah…I love people who want to try something different. A station-to-remain-nameless has a bar that (OM’s phrasing): “caters to hot rich women and hot chicks who roll with the social party scene.”
The concept would be a Cougars party for Valentine’s. I kinda was sketchy on it to begin with, but the more I thought, it became clear this was GOLD (Jerry). With every other station doing “Broken Hearts Ball” or a warm and fuzzy thing, this will stand out. Which is the basic theory of Promotions. To get noticed and be remembered. Like Dave’s Pajama Party in Minny.
Flip the cliché bar bit: guys under 25 get in and drink for free. Do a Cougar Lingerie Contest. Do Cougars/Cubs and have women bring their daughters. Prediction? This will be large.
Famebook
It’s not “Dinner On The Mayflower” or “Family Four Packs,” but one of the more elderly morning show bits is to award a prize to the listener who gets a Christmas card from the most famous (subjective) person. Or can you get that person to phone in.
What if you did that with Facebook Friends? It’s got to be the celeb’s actual FB page and not a fan page. It also allows the morning show to add a few famous people to their Friends list. Good connections for, well, “stuff”.
It’s interesting just looking through who some of the people my high school friends know. They freaking beat me. And I have:
* Wendy T Engler (Pigeon Forge-based Dolly Parton impersonator)
* Angie Pollock (Peter Gabriel’s keyboardist)
* Adult Film Superstar Teri Weigel (suggested by Michael Martin)
* Cindy Morgan (“Lacey Underall” from “Caddyshack”)
* Roberta Leighton (Twin Cities-born actress who was on Y&R and was Bill Murray’s GF in “Stripes”)
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 JoJo 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 that wanted him to do it.
Need something outside of your appointment time features to throw as a curveball? Having one of the talents beg for a shot, just for one game, to realize her childhood dream of snagging foul balls.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XusX2ZMEFoM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhuWPXkUjD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3KfmdRdpZ0
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 were.
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.”
Bridal Idol
One of the stations has a bridal expo in March and is going to do a gallery contest to pick the couple that will be the “face” of the event.
It could just as easily be a gallery contest for Valentine’s, and honestly, what client couldn’t be involved with a cutest couple promotion?
