This is going to probably divide the room, but I don’t think there are many people who go, “A call in contest with excited listeners? Nah. I want to have people enter their email address to win.”
It’s a methodology that we do because of necessity and for some prizes it feels like a total waste. I saw a station do digital entries for seven months for Taylor Swift and then were horrified that they were the only brand in the industry that didn’t get a Taylor Bump.
I have a friend whose brother wins so much stuff from radio stations digital entries that he literally gives stuff to Joel to avoid the tax hit. As my friend commented, “It’s like he’s the only person entering this stuff…”
A client package of motor oil from Valvoline? Digital entry. Little River Band tickets? Digital entry. AC/DC or Bruno Mars tickets? An on-air contest I would hope.
One of the things that Mark Adams has always been brilliant at is creating a methodology based on what he believes he can “get” out of the prize. He’ll look at it from a bunch of angles and then decide on, say, “Hi/Low”. One of the things I do with clients is a prize inventory: we go through what they are sitting on and then build contests around them. B96 in Chicago had Nicki Minaj tickets. Okay, this is an above average prize, so they did the Nicki Montage which was a mash-up of hooks: ID them all and win.
It was great. It played to the 96% of people who don’t play radio games. It sucked them in.
This is only topical because I’m watching a station about to blow a money-can’t-buy artist experience with “enter your email to win.” Somewhere Bob Barker and Monty Hall are rolling their eyes.
Enough of the diatribe and now, on to the Dumpage.
Morning Show Topic
I’ve spent a good portion of the last Marchin airports and with Spring Break, mission trips and other travel, there were a sea of teens and chaperones. I got stuck in a hotel for 72 hours with 300 high-school girls swimmers (my letter, and the parental chaperones were working overtime. Which would be a great topic. Find some parents who escorted a Spring Break or church mission trip and get them on the air with their war stories.
Slink Your Way Backstage
Was talking First Day Of Spring ideas with a station and this is something that came up and could pretty much be utilized for any front row or backstage thing.
Remembering of course, the next great contest methodology is no further away then Tom Wasmoen’s birthday party in 4th grade, what if you got ten qualifiers and ten Slinkies (it’s a fun and a wonderful toy)(good for a girl or a boy) and one at a time, send them (the Slinkies)(unless you have AMAZING release forms) down the stairs at the station. One that goes the furthest, wins for “its listener.”
Free Day Weekends
Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends are great, sell-able prize spots. Generally we don’t want to sell weekend themes and contests, or at least we want real strict control over them so we don’t end up doing Nix Head Lice Cream Christmas Trivia. But the summer three day weekends are about barbecues and theme parks and pools and bikinis (the Z-90 Incredible Bikini Wax Weekend where they mixed and gave out women’s swimsuits almost blew the phones off the walls) and ice cream and concerts. So put together packages for both and get them on the streets.
Jacket Bracket
It’s worth doing if only so you can say “Jacket Bracket”. This is from WGRF “97 Rock” in Buffalo and they had me at “Nehru.”
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Underwhelming Achievements
This is a twice-a-month feature at JACK 102.3 in London, Ont., where they honor people with flowers for such underwhelming achievements as putting away the dishes within a day of washing them, or getting every last squeeze of toothpaste out of a tube.
Fun Finder
Every Summer, “Hot 99.1” in St. John’s, Newfoundland, hires someone to be the face of the station in the community. And their name? “Fun Finder”. Their job? Be out at softball games and clubs and pools and wherever people are, greeting people and taking their photos. Recruitment for 2024 has begun.
Say Yes To The Dress
This is K92/Roanoke’s version of Gown Town. People have been donating their used prom dresses, these are being cleaned and on Saturday there will be a massive sale at a client’s location, with all of the money going to a great LOCAL charity.
The 100 Greatest April Fools Pranks EVER
One of the PD’s in 2019, who, in the midst of personally destroying his heritage CHR and driving it out of the format, sent me an e-mail. “We won’t be doing anything for April Fools. I don’t like lying to my listeners.” A.: he didn’t have many listeners left, and B.: he’s now selling cars. Taco Bell. Burger King. NPR. “Sports Illustrated”. All of have done Hall Of Fame pranks. And they seem to be doing fine. Here is the ultimate list. http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/
CSI (Concert Seats Instantly)
One of the stations has TV trade that would run during “CSI”. Which is moderately huge. If you could run quick vignettes of a who-done-it, and the listeners had to solve them for a pair of tickets to every show that comes to town this summer, that would be great. Not as large as some headshots of artists and a positioning statement, but close.
106.1 Kiss FM in Dallas just did Taylor Swiftly and had the street team deliver the prizes. From Maloree Hood: When we did Taylor Swiftly, peeps loved it. Feedback was awesome. Dfw is so big – I think not having to drive to the station was as big a prize as the tix themselves.
Drunk Movie Reviews
One of the stations has a film critic who wants to do reviews but wants something fun. Not just talking about the new Emma Watson movie.
One idea we talked about was getting him drunk and having him review fairly awful movies from the 80’s and 90’s.
Add “drunk” to pretty much anything and you are halfway there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wSw8NF-K9o
Wiki Wednesday
I remember that the PD at Power 96 in Miami was spotchecking other station sites and noticed that Power’s jock bios were pretty much identical to everyone else’s in town: “Paige will wake you up with a smile as he brings his own unique brand of family-friendly humor…”
So he had the audience re-write them. It was great and funny and just an excuse to do something stupid.
You could either have the audience create your wikipedia page and do it semi-funny with some little things worked in, “Following her early release, Elizabethany was brought on board in 2014…”
Or do it straight and once a week make a minor edit. Have the audience give you a word like “moist” that needs to be inserted into it. Wiki Wednesday? Or find just really odd Wikipedia posts and highlight one each week. Freaky Wiki?
Sherri with Hot 93.5 in Sudbury, Ont., once has a listener every Friday rewrite the morning shows bios just for that weekend.
What The Truck?
This would actually be a great name for “secret sound” if you had a truck to give away.
When I did the Sales Promotion webinar a few weeks ago, I started by saying that Hubbard in Cincinnati would be getting multiple references. Why? Because they do great stuff. For Monster Jam tickets, ID what truck and the TV show or movie that Grover was hinting at.
Mudders Day
One of the stations has some car wash giftcards to give away. And honestly, these are great prizes. Especially in the northern tier of states right around this time of year. With Mothers Day in the 60 day window, it could be a weekend theme or something for social: write “I (heart) You Mom!” in the dust on your car hood and post.
Best At Show, or, ‘Who Dressed Best?’
One of the things that dates back to the invention of the camera is that (usually) women will take a group photo before going out. My friend Kathy went to a ton of concerts in high school and college and has about 200 photos of her and her friend Brenda in front of her bedroom door. All the same pose. Just different clothes.
And then along came the internet and social media.
What we learned from Taylor Swifts last tour is that her fans have taken this trend to a whole new level.
Cool. They should tag you, and either randomly pick a few photos or do a gallery contest to award tickets to whatever your next big summer concert is.
