CPR Promotional Check-Up - May 16, 2011

Fuel Or No Fuel

Yes. The name is old. But the methodology kicks butt. It's a game show. There are winners and losers. As exciting as "93rd caller gets a gift card!!" there's ZERO compelling reason to listen for the majority of people who don't play contests.

Q in Halifax just did "Wacky Gaddafi's 10,000 Liters Of Gas". You call. You pick a gas can. There could be 25 liters in there. 5 liters. 100 liters. 200 liters. Or maybe nothing and you get zonked. You stick and keep it or try trading for a better. They did over 10,000 liters in a few weeks. Ask and I'll send you a play and a promo.

Something Fun For On-Site At Concerts

From the aptly named Special Ed from Wild in Tampa. Note that it doesn't need to be done for Gaga:

What if you did a "Lure This Way" contest......basically listeners that want to compete submit their information at the station tent day of the show....then the they have to go out and bring people over to the radio station's table.....each person that comes to the table gets a radio station stamp on their hand (and the street teamer makes a notch on a flow chart)....listener that brings the most people to the table wins front row tix, meet n' greet, whatever......best part about this contest is A.) Your constantly streamlined with people at your table; B.) Listeners are doing the work for us; C.) People all over the plaza are walking around with your station's stamp on their hand, cheek, arm etc and lastly; D.) It's cheap!

Have Someone Else Pay Your Bills

I'm not ANTI-Pay Your Bills by any way, shape or form. I used to think it was the most outstanding post-holiday contest ever. And there's no doubt, as witnessed by the volume of entries this gets any time of the year, that there are LOTS listeners with bills they want paid.

But we're in Show Business. Taking an entry, calling them up and saying "We're paying your bills Debby!" doesn't pass the Show Biz Litmus Test. But that's just me. I'm attaching a promo from The Beat in Vancouver where they had done Beat Your Bills (the above promotion) two times and wanted to tweak it and update it. So they hacked into the credit card company's computer and erased peoples' bills.

Identity theft is a big buzz term/issue now. As witnessed by the singing pirate TV spots. What if you've been assigned (through the companies Community Outreach program) a young man who got busted for id theft. Since the budget got axed because you used too much copy machine toner last year, our new hire will help pay off his debt to society by doing what he does best: cracking the mainframe at a credit card company and cutting/pasting your bill onto someone else's.