The casino that I do work with does Trivia on Thursdays in the bar. One Thursday a month is “theme night,” and instead of getting everything through Buzztime Trivia, one of the Marketing people creates it herself using Kahoot! for hosting it on the big screens.
Previous theme nights have included Friends and Harry Potter, which set a Food and Beverage sales record.
Last week was “Scary Movies” and covered everything from Stephen King to Wes Craven to Beetlejuice and The Simpsons. There was an updated menu, candy, costumes and it was done entirely on phones.
There’s no way to pull this off in the time remaining… but… if you have a bar or restaurant client that wants something in December, this could absolutely be done with holiday movies and TV shows like Charlie Brown and Frosty.
Theme nights in 1st Q are going to be Seinfeld, Star Wars, and Taylor Swift, which should blow the doors off the joint.
And now on with the Dumpage:
Dream Cube
One of the best revenue-generating Back To School bits is Dream Dorm. Well, we need to think outside the dorm. What else could inspire dreams? How about a Dream Office. Robin Thompson at Radiowave in Windhoek had a client called The Furniture Emporium that wants “foot traffic”.
So what if you built an office in the middle of the store? Stanchion it off. Desk. Computer. Coffeemaker. Hard drive with 13 gigs of adult content (I’m assuming that all offices are like mine). Nice chair. Etc. Etc. Ad nauseam. To win it, guess the total value of everything in the office, to the penny. Which is pretty darn simple if you just take a few minutes and stroll the store. Draw a winner from everyone who got the correct guess.
Halloweek
There are some holidays or occasions that are big enough that they can own the morning show for a week. If not own, be heavily indebted to.
Davey and Chris at KSFM in Sacramento did “Love Week” leading up to Valentine’s. Every day a different bit that acknowledged that the 14th was looming. One day they did a surprise proposal. The next day they did a version of Bait Your Mate. The next day they had a Romance Expert who talked about secrets for picking people up. They had two hookers the next day talk about Love 4 Sale. And on Friday they did something with an intern dressed as Cupid on the streets.
The Beat in Austin did Toy Week leading up to Christmas. Every day was about a hot toy, and one was awarded through stunting or contesting.
No station, as far as I can tell, has done a theme week for Halloween. I bring this up because I did no less than four conference calls with morning shows yesterday, and there were literally so many things they could choose from; it was tough to settle on just one. If I were a morning show (and it’s good that I’m not), I’d do this:
Monday: Have some listeners scare their co-workers and submit the videos for voting. As a topic, I’d open up the phones and have people talk about the scariest movie they’d ever seen.
Tuesday: I’d have a pet psychic in the studio. Drew at B-103.9 in Ft. Myers has one in regularly…and the phones melt. I’d also do a poll on who the audience wants you to channel on Friday.
Wednesday: I’d have a local paranormal person talk about famous hauntings in your market. Ask the audience if anyone thinks their house is haunted. Pick one and have the ghost hunter and one of the morning show at their house the next day.
Thursday: I’d announce the winner of the scare-your-coworker video and, in costume, bring a Halloween party to their office the next day. I’d announce who your special “dead in-studio guest” will be the next day. And do your investigation with the paranormal person and co-host. Get video for the website.
Friday: It’s all about channeling the dead celebrity. And then hitting not just that winning office but a few others during the day. Because if you don’t “sound like Halloween”, you’re going to sound like idiots.
Wow. Can you imagine? THAT would be a killer week.
Turkey Tips
(Say that ten times fast and try to keep your license) Thanksgiving is nigh, so this might be something to start working on with the air staff.
December Sales Requests
This would probably be the time to figure out some way to tie all of the sales promotions together that you will be asked to do in December. Reindeer Races, Stocking Stuffers; there are a few things you can do. Or turn them over to the morning show to create something fun and seasonal with them, like Elves On Shelves, Ghosts Of Christmas Past, Secret Sounds Of Christmas.
One of the stations already has three different requests for gift card contests and no one wins when you have “Call and tell us your shopping story”, “Text and win a gift card and then come to our remote” and then “Call and be the correct caller to get a gift card to buy wireless service”. At the same time.
Any other time of year except December, “gift cards” kind of suck. But people love gift cards for Christmas. What if you did 12 of them for one winner? Or 12 of them that could be stuck in Santa’s sack and the talent “reaches in and pulls one out” and that’s what you win?
Artificial Wintelligence
One of the stations brought this up as a possible name for a Group Contest. It’s a great name, but I’m afraid that with a group contest it might be wasted. “Pay Your Bills” has kind of just become a name.
Jamz in Orlando had a character “security guard” who was deep underground in Sub-sector Z, guarding the prize vault. I modeled him on the old dude guarding the hallway in Men in Black. Occasionally the talent would take the elevator down to get some tickets or other prizes, and he’d ask about how everything was up on the surface. “That internet thing ever take off?”
Fly in Albany had Tammy The Ticket Intern, who was a perky college student who was spending her summer vacay earning college credits by managing their huge inventory of tickets. Her character evolved, and she returned to college a jaded, angry shell of her former self.
So what if you took Tammy and made an AI version of her? Why? Why not? And she needs to have some occasional challenges and plot twists.
Team No Sleep
I worked with a guy who did the overnight show, and he ripped off Bill Murray and Christopher Guest and did “Insomniac Theater”: at 3a he’d play a QUICK clip from a movie. ID it, and before 6 am you could come by the station, and he’d hand the winner a cup of coffee out the studio window.
Moug and Karla at B96 have Team No Sleep, which are the people listening and calling in at 5:30a. So much that you could do with that.
Baby Needs New Shoes!
Bingo has always been a great web diversion for people stuck at monotonous jobs, like working a 12-day festival at a radio booth. One of the Twin Cities stations created State Fair Bingo for their staff at the Fair. Basically, the panels were all stuff you’d expect to see at the event, like a pregnant woman smoking or a family in matching camo.
Most of the great contest methodologies or digital content can be traced back to 4th grade birthday parties or carnival midways. Or with Bingo, church basements, and VFW’s. You could do “Thanksgiving Bingo” with things seen/heard at the big feast with all the rellies.
Binnie in Maine is doing a bingo party for Halloween.
One of the Stingray stations has really gotten into that theme
It’s an exclusive, adults-only night packed with:
🕺 Spooktacular tunes from DJ Ritchie Rich
🎭 Costume contests with awesome prizes
🎲 All-inclusive BINGO packages for every player
🎰 Free play vouchers for Vegas-style gaming machines
🛍️ Halloween welcome bags filled with treats
🎉 Plus plenty of tricks, laughs, and good times!
You could do Christmas Shopping Bingo with visuals and experiences while at a mall.
I’d brought up the $10,000 Bingo promotion that K-Rock in St. Johns did. You won bingo cards on the air, and on a Saturday, they pulled balls and played the game.
KOOL in the Twin Cities did a riverboat-ride bingo night.
KOZE in Lewiston has done it based around their music.
When everyone paused to watch the Royal Coronation, myTalk in the Twin Cities turned it into a bingo game.
Y94 has done Purse Bingo on Wednesdays. The client pops for the purses and Zero and Amy run a night of bingo and purse giveaways. Big? It got ticketed by the fire department for overcrowding.
Blizzard Bingo could be something to stick on your social media for these weather moments:
I think that Q-102 in Cincinnati was the first station to do Office Bingo. Print out a daily card from the station, and while you are sitting in your cubicle pounding out TPS reports, mark off boxes when you hear or see stuff around the workplace like “I’m going out for coffee. Anyone want me to bring them something back?”
Hot in Sudbury did it with hockey. You could do this with the MLB playoffs and definitely football.
Thanksgiving is very bingo-able.
With Super Bowl parties of some shape and size probable in most markets, this is a GREAT game for on-site. Or you can do what some of the Alpha stations did with Hallmark Movie Bingo and have the cards printable or saveable from your social media.
Or
“Bovine Bingo” is a radio event that dates back to Marconi. Line out 100 squares in a fenced-off grid, put a cow in there, and whoever’s square gets plopped on wins. Doing it with a reindeer, a tree, and some presents for prizes could be a nice addition to a December sales appearance.
Hallmark Bingo courtesy of Ryan Smetzer with Alpha Media in Hagerstown. Easy peasy Christmas Content(™). Ditto with Christmas movies.
