CPR Promotional Check-Up - Nov 3, 2011

Tanksgiving And Free Food

Like "Pay Your Bills", this is an old old bit that suddenly has incredible relevance.

One of the people who is now no-longer-employed with a CPR station, last Fall, when gas had plummeted to ONLY $3.79 a gallon, said that, and I quote, "Our listeners don't care about gas."

(Feel free to connect that comment with their current employment status)

I was in (beautiful) Forest Lake yesterday for errands. Passed the station in Scandia where gas was $3.49 a gallon. Passed the BP near the high school where it was $3.43 and then the Holiday station where it was $3.42.

Across the street at Moto Mart, it was $3.29....and cars were lined up about a block.

So, on Wednesday the 23rd you if could take a moderate sting out of people's pumps while gassing up for the Big Trek, it would be monstrous. Like what J Kruz from Rewind in Cincy witnessed when he was in Detroit for the 4th of July last year: a church doing thirty cent discounts to help out the community, and something bordering on a well-behaved LA Riots was occurring.

Here's what you do: you get six clients who each want to be perceived as heroes. They each pony up $500. You could do 6000 gallons of gas with a fifty cent-off discount.

Allow the clients to join you in the bannerpalooza and give them mentions throughout the event. The value? Well, when Hip Cricket moved into Las Vegas, they realized that $10,000 in free gas would get them way way way more buzz than $10,000 in traditional spots. KLUC just happened to be the station that did the pumping.

On another note, stopped by the Grand Re-Opening of the little grocery market in my town. Muss from K-102 was there. They had balloons, some prizes...and free lunch. A choice of a hot dog, brat or pork sandwich, a choice of three sides, a soda, and a piece of cake.

Not since the Thorvilson twins went to the state curling semi-finals in 1966 and came back with a 3rd place, has there been such hoopla in Scandia, Minnesota.

Free food? LONG LONG never-ending line throughout the event.

Back in day at WLOL, we did a series of events called Worlds Largest Outdoor Lunches with a major grocery store chain. It was a co-op/vendor program orchestrated by this 22 year-old little blond AE, fresh from the Iron Range. Smart smart woman. She's VP/GM of some tiny station called Power 106 now. Too bad. I thought she had a bright future.

She scrounged and dug up co-op dollars from everything like Hormel hotdogs, La Casita snack chips, Popscicles, Barq's rootbeer, Hines ketsup; you get the idea. Even the plasticware and paper plates were from clients.

Three Saturday's a summer we'd set up the equvilent of a Dead concert of food in a grocery store parking lot. It was all free.

You went into the store and got a free ticket. You then came back out, turned in your ticket and went through line being LOADED DOWN with food items. A hotdog. A square of Tombstone pizza, some microwave popcorn, a #10 cup of baked beans, chips, a piece of corn on the cob, a frozen ice cream sandwich, a soda.

Imagine how many people show up when you do free pizza at a remote. Now, imagine what I just laid out. (and there was way more food then I just described) People drove from Northfield (50 miles away) for these things.

If you have someone savvy with a nose for elusive vendor dollars, that's what these things were. Arguably one of the biggest promotions I've ever been involved with. And that was during a healthy economy.