CPR Promotional Check-Up - Jul 7, 2011

Historic Moments In Concert Buttkickings

Rihanna was last month in Ottawa. It was also the first day for most of their new street team so it seemed like a good opportunity to initiate them with one of those success's that power a station's morale for MONTHS.

It was ugly.

I don't often feel bad for a competitor. But I did.

They packed up and were GONE at 7:45, which was 15 minutes before the warm up act started.

Pre-Battle

Both Hot 89.9 did the Google Earth plot of their venues and all the roads leading in. This allowed them to plan out where bodies, signs, banners, vehicles and photogs would go before the show, during the show and after the show. Things were planned to make adjustments.

The Two Essentials

If you have more bodies and if you are the first thing they see when they get there and the last thing they see when they leave, you will win 9 out of 10 times.

Pre-Show Broadcast

The competitor did the standard 3 to 7 broadcast. It was ALMOST as exciting as listening to a remote from a car dealer. Mauler and Rush did the fake backstage broadcast starting at 11 am and painted this ridiculously amazing picture of what was happening inside the arena. It. Was. Art.

The Classic Concert Mistake

The dramatically lower rated competitor got the primo spot on the plaza at the arena. Cool. But they made the mistake of believing that they had to relegate themselves to sitting there.

Having a place on the plaza is great. But it's a piece of the pie. Most stations will think "that's it, we're gold." HUGE mistake.

What The Venue CAN'T Control

Hot had their assigned spot which I'm sure the competition thought sucked. It was out by the road. And where 50% of the people would walk past. So Hot got to greet everyone personally before they even GOT to the competition.

The venue said "No banners". Cool. We bannered overpasses, and all the roads leading in. You would have had to have been blind not to have had Hot 89.9 puked all over you blocks before even getting to Scotiabank Place.

Vehicles with street teamers dancing with specially made Rihanna signs were at all the key intersections.

The Plaza: Utah Beach

The competition had two vehicles, a canopy and a Rihanna stand up and waited for people to come over for a photo.

Hot had:

A vehicle at the far end, with two dancing street teamers, to cover the 25% of the people coming that way.

Across the wide expanse of the front of the plaza, they had perfectly spaced street teamers with Rihanna placards who were greeting people and thanking them for "coming to our show!"

Near the competitor's booth, the full Hot morning show stood as Blair the Promotion Director bullhorned people AWAY from the competition to get their photos taken with The Hot Tub.

People were handed a "You've Been Snapped!" card that directed them to the hot899.com site to download them for profile pics today. ANY time you can have one of the biggest morning shows IN THE FORMAT greeting 16,000 people, that's pretty good.

Afterwards

All vehicles and street teamers were relocated to work the people LEAVING the show. A special mix of Rihanna music was on the air and everyone was handed a bounceback card to win $100 today when "S&M" plays.

It was a bloodbath. With so many stations setting up a canopy and a prize wheel, it's WORK, but easy work, to make these humiliating, crushing defeats for the other radio station. But the real value was having 20 new street teamers laughing and hugging and saying "Wow, that was a (profanity deleted) blast! Katy Perry needs to be even more brutal!"

If you go to my Facebook page, there are photos. They're good at showing how Hot blocked the sidewalks and made it almost impossible to enter without getting greeted.