CPR Promotional Check-Up - Apr 18, 2013

Green As In Revenue: Earth Day

Earth Day is an incredibly under-utilized promotional and sellable opportunity. And I don't think I've seen a soft drink request in a decade that doesn't involve terms nature, environmentally friendly events and terms like "natural" and "refresh". So damn simple and it's this coming Sunday

And just about every client can somehow tie in to it. Like....

The Transit Company
I can't think of a market where they don't come and ask for a promotion every April. It could be as simple as what one station did which was to have co-host do her show from a bus. It could be to wrap one of the bus's and debut it with a big launch party on 4/22. The station in Charlotte tied in a company that served organic coffee and every morning that week were on a different "line" giving it away for free.

All Things Organic
The youth group at my church sells organic coffee as a fundraiser. Could you get hemp book bags, fill them with coupons and samples from clients, and either do these on-line or out on the streets?

BicyclesBig day for people to (at least be encouraged to) ride their bikes to work. I saw a station in Minneapolis sponsor the "bike lot" at a big summer festival. Ride to Taste and leave your bike for free in a big enclosed area.

One Hug At A Time
One of the oldest and quickly becoming cliché'd launch bits for a morning host is to go and sit in every seat in a stadium. I never quite understood that. But then, I like watching "Boy Meets World" on Telemundo. KS-95 started their morning show in Minny by having them go out and try to shake hands with every listener in town.

What if you morphed these and had the morning show go out on Earth Day to a park and hug every tree in it. Walk up, thank them for the clean air, give them a hug and add "I love you man!" Attaching the web graphic from one of the stations from last year.

Shaken, Not Stirred
From B-103.9 in Ft. Myers where in '09 they did "Earth Week". "When it's time to save the planet, the 18th caller shook their Earth Tree and won whatever fell out. Naples Zoo tickets, Katy Perry tix, Nickelback tix. Everyone who won also got a tree seedling to plant and help make the earth a little bit greener."

The Station That Gives You Wood
McDonalds in the Twin Cities does an annual thing. On that Saturday every store in the 11 county region has hundreds of little bagged saplings. Free. Just some in and get one. And I do. Why? It's a FREE TREE. Why wouldn't I? Got a nursery that wants to play? Here's the hook. These are the people who do them. They're the Bag & Tag Promotional Trees and you can get customized artwork, ie: CLIENTS. http://www.itascagreenhouse.com/page18.html

Free Grass!!!
KSFM in Sacramento successfully landed on the radar of the local police when they gave out Ziploc baggies of grass (seed) with their weekend contest that also included Snoop tickets.

Really Not That Huge Of A Departure
Chet, Lauren and Spence at KLUC ran recycled bits for their morning show on Earth Day.

Actual Global Warming
Intern. Magnifying glass. Classroom-style globe you might find at a thrift shop. On-line pool on how long it will take him to set it on fire just using the sun's power.

What Would Google Do?
Four years ago they surrounded their logo with forest wildlife. Got a "0" in your dial position? Stick a spinning globe in there. Or turn the site green for the day. Or, just blow it off. Everyone else will. Which, from my school of thought is reason TO do something.

Actual Gerbil Power
This has been bandied about by a couple of stations and no one has yet pulled it off. For Earth Day you're taking the station off the grid and having it powered by a gerbil. Website is just a live (not) shot of a gerbil running in one of those little things. Put a sticker behind him and PRESS RELEASE THE WORLD. (It's just a continuous loop shot of him/her/it running. In a perfect world they would pause and the screen would dim just a little)

Festivals
There's going to be stuff in every market. Be there. Duh. But have some common sense about your setup. Having a big gas powered generator belching smoke will kind of make you look stupid.

For The Website
Have some tips from home repair and auto maintenance people on basic "any idiot can do this" (that would be me) suggestions for cutting down on AC use and increasing gas mileage. Go. Sell. Now.

The Diminishing Ice Pack
Few years ago on one of those temperate Memphis days in July (read: 108) Q-107.5 froze some tickets in a frozen Q (hotel banquet ice carver did it) Guess how long until they "melted out" and fell to the pavement, to win them. This has "Earth Day" written all over it. The prize could be whatever you have immediately available and you needed a topical hook.

It's a thousand shades of "Duh", especially with so many clients requesting (why do they call them Promotional Requests when they're actually Promotional Demands) something ecologically friendly to help offset the bad press when their company flooded a small village in Peru with medical waste.