If you have not begun to puke Halloween all over your audience, you’re on the cusp of being irrelevant. Obviously, “how” you acknowledge Halloween is determined by your resources. 93Q in Syracuse is a Content Monster. They have never missed a Hallmark Holiday.
They have done a pet costume event.
Then they did a gallery of “creepy dolls”.
This year? Bumpkins. Listeners drawing pumpkins on their pregnant bellies. What is NOT to love about that?
And now on with the Dumpage:
Fugitive
Good chase underway at 96.7 WOW in Peterborough. Their last chase unique views were up to about 12,500 a day, which is very big, almost double the average for the station. And some stalking evidence is up at WOW 96.7 Fugitive | PTBO Today.
Win It Before They Record It
K-Rock in Charlottetown once gave away Nickelback’s new CD. And it hadn’t even been recorded yet. Steal this bit.
Creepy Clowns
First, why not parody Christopher Walken and have a morning show read kiddie books dressed as a clown? 94.9 in San Diego did a great job of theming all of their iPad contesting for a couple of years on Star Wars. For whatever your current promotion is, what if you clownified a vid or two?
Treat Tracker
It is traditional for there to be maps and resources of the best holiday lights in markets. The Zone in Victoria is doing that with Halloween. This could be as simple as a solicitation on social media for people to boast about what they’re offering this year.
A Onesie & A Twosie
In fact, that could be a photo contest: submit a photo of you plus one, crammed into a onesie.
Anyway, one of the Townsquare stations regularly celebrates the last morning show before Christmas vacation with a party in the studio, and they invite the audience down for eggnog and desserts. And the listeners pick the onesies that the show will have to wear.
This could just as easily be done as a theme or element for whatever holiday bash you are throwing or are tied into. And one of the Stingray stations sold branded onesies as part of their online wares.
Merry Pop-Ins
Whatever you plan for December should be on the streets and hopefully getting sponsors now.
A lot of businesses don’t have the big evening staff Christmas parties and instead have a designated day for people to bring food and celebrate together in the breakroom. Cool. You should find an excuse to be there too.
I’ve heard this done as “Drive-By Noggins” and also as “Merry Pop-Ins”, but both times with food and beverage clients who provided deli trays, punch, etc to be delivered by the morning team dressed as Santas.
If anything, it’s a great opportunity for some in-person marketing.
Taylor Or Terror
Ben and Kelly at ’DJX in Louisville read lines on the air and you had to ID them as being from a Taylor song or from a scary movie.
Petarazzi
I Googled this. Except for some fancy pet food stores and groomers, no one has done this.
In the beginning there was Baby Idol. And it was good. And stations got two years worth of hits in 72 hours. And joy rang across the land.
This “submit a pic and tell all your friends to vote” has been done as Office Hottie, Baby Bumps, Backstage *sses, Hot Popo, Baby Gaga (Y-94 in Fargo, where listeners [many] dressed their toddlers up as prostitutes, any number of Hot Mom promotions, and even Mangled Mouth (for dental surgery).
This would basically be a Pet Costume Contest but with a genre. And Pet Costume Contests kill online.
- Music Stars
- TV and Film
- Athletes (much like 97 Rocks’ “Sexiest Bills” fan)
Submit. And encourage your friends and family to go and vote.
The Morning Of The 30th
Was talking with a morning show on Friday, and when we got to “what to do for Halloween”, I got a common reply: “Do you know any psychics we could work with?” Excellent and common question. Go here. Great starting point for whatever you choose to do. Just about every city has a Paranormal Society.
A Candy Bracket
Go on Facebook and post, “Sophie Turner’s post-breakup fashion style has heads turning!” And then go on Facebook and ask, “What was your FAVORITE candy to get on Halloween when you were a kid?”
‘Zactly.
Brackets are basically social media but with a voting mechanism. As is being done by Y94 in Fargo.
The Twelve Days Of Textmas
One of the stations has what can only be described as a buttload™ of GOOD concert tickets with a mobile company as the sponsor. The idea would be to announce, scroll, or tweet a Christmas term for the day each morning. “Greed”. “Grinch”. “Mall”. “Sweater” or something similar. Four or five times a day, this will be casually woven into jock talk, and the first person to text it back wins.
