CPR Promotional Check-Up - Jul 14, 2015

The Best Line Of 2015 (So Far)

A friend who programs a non-client was mildly apoplectic because they had to miss three to four hours of an event on July 4th that drew a ¼ million people because an AE sold a remote to a car dealer.

Sales person: "It's the slowest day of the year for them ."

PD: "Of course it is…its (profane tirade) the 4th of July and anyone who is not bed ridden or in jail will be at this (more bad words) event. You will of course be working it?"

Sales person: "No, I'm actually taking a four day weekend."

Back 2 School For Sales

This has probably been on the radar for most of your clients for awhile, so here ya go:

Cheerleading Competition This is actually one of the easier events to put on. Usually held at a mall with a soft drink sponsor and in one case, Target sponsored makeup kits and hair product bags for all the girls.

School Lunches Remember: cash can be more than cash. Cash can buy other stuff. In the case of The Wolf in Greensboro it paid for "school lunches for a year!" which worked out to be a couple of hundred dollars. The phones have not yet returned to a temperature where they're safe to touch without asbestos protection. A station here in the Twin Cities is doing a promotion where they're donating money to a local fund for low income students' lunches, for every new like on Facebook. A client is matching this up to $5000.

School Spirit Contests If you're going to do any kind of School Spirit contest, there are two time periods when they're most effective: September and January. Any other time and they've got too much other crap going on. "Highschool Survivor" is the best methodology that I know of, and starting in 2009, began being done as Last School Standing). If only because it's still fresh and hasn't been discovered by the rest of Radio. Questions? Call me. "Pennies From Heaven" (as done by 98PXY and KDWB) and The Can Jam (done by KUBE) basically awarded concerts to schools that collected the most pennies (for charity) and aluminum (for recycling). You want to offer a concert. That's the best prize. For the second and third place schools, offer a mixer for their next dance. They'll be thrilled. Seriously.

School Supply Drives Most School Supply Drives are vibeless entities that are just another lame begathon with no premise or purpose. The set up in Orlando was that the school district was running Y2K compliance checks on their computer…and it kicked out Paco's name. He'd never returned "Yes Billy, Your Body Is Changing" in 6th grade. The fines were up to about $18,000. They'd look the other way if he could help them with getting needed items for students from low-income families.

Sidewalk Heroes What do people do the last week of August on Facebook? Post pics, lots of pics, of their little ones going off to school for the first time. Create a gallery and sponsor it by Olen Mills, maybe Lunchables, Target.

Cut The Cord With Kate Kate McGwire at Mix 106 in Boise annually does a promotion with restaurant, theater and spa clients where she takes women out for a day of getting their mind off…their first day at home alone without the kids. My wife is already sticking up on Ativan. (But she would anyway)

My Facth Ith Too Tite Sure, giving away some spa treatments to weary moms the week the kids go back to sc…zzzz…sorry. Nodded off. Hot 89.9 in Ottawa did Back To School Botox

Highschool Press Conference The High School Press Conference. I lobbed this out at stations until KDWB jumped on it. They had JC from N'Sync coming through and were kind of un-decided on what to do with him because, well, he was JC from N'Sync promoting his solo CD. They sent invites out to every school paper and the first 40 that replied were given a phone number to call at a specific time. They then were given directions to a secret location and 90 minutes to get there. (Conference room at The Doubletree). Once there, the reporters and photogs got to ask him anything they want and pose for pictures. We take this crap for granted. 17 year-old Debby from Richfield High School? Biggest afternoon of her life and KDWB got crazy love in the papers. Power in Atlanta did this, on-line. KILLED. Could be sponsored by fastfood and a soft drink to feed the kids.

Yearbooks A bit from San Francisco is to get autographs and well-wishes from every artist or celeb who strolls through the building. "Congrats class of 2015 from Arianna Grande!" All of these are combined and laid out and printed with a logoed watermark as inserts for year books. In May they would go and hand out tens of thousands of these and they would go into the yearbook and stay there, pretty much forever. Clients could be watermarked on the inserts or there could be coupon possibilities

Bookcovers Oldschool but kids still use them. Distribution or pickup locations at clients.

Back To School Backpacks Back To School is a BIG financial hit on families. So what if you did "Back Pack To School". For a reasonable price, through the station website you could purchase a logoed-like-a-NASCAR back pack. Filled with?

• Snacks like individual packs of raisins or juice boxes.
• Certificates for clothes and shoes
• Supplies like paper, pens, Crayons and a calculator.
• A day at a spa for mom
• Maybe a free pizza for the first day of school dinner
• A reusable nylon lunch bag logoed and perhaps a coupon in-itself, by a client.
• Cell phone minutes
• Hair cuts

Honestly? There are probably twenty other clients you could get in there. And make sure that you make a cash donation for every backpack sold, to a school lunch program.

Limos Anytime you can send a kid to school on the first day of classes in a limo, that's big. Would be a great prize for a client's back to school event.

Highschool Football I would hope that this is something you don't need to be reminded about. And don't limit yourself to one game a week. In theory, you should be able to hit four or five if you plan correctly. The call-ins and the visibility are why you do this. And spread it out: don't hit the same schools over and over. I've done these patrols sponsored by Pizza Hut and later Pepsi. KDWB has it sponsored by a local bank and every Friday night, some kid at some game, is taken out on the field to attempt a fieldgoal for a $10,000 scholarship.

Cheerleaders Get them on the air every Thursday night. Be sure to press release the school papers in advance, and try to get something prerecorded by the night jock, on their morning announcements that morning, to remind them. Like, "Hey Forest Lake, this is Wayne D from KDWB and be sure to be listening tonight at 8, when Barb and Matt and Kia and the rest of the FLHS cheerleading squad are in the studio with me." Or something to that effect. Instead of having them come to the studio, go do the show at a cheerleaders' home. AMP in Boston was the first station to take it to the next level when they still didn't have any air talent: they had squads host the night show. In Phoenix this was sponsor by a pizza chain.

The Dream Dorm This is the single most outstanding mall event or campaign you can do. Ask and I'll walk you through it. The clients love it.

Move In Day Lest we forget the universities, several of you are there with clients food and beverages to greet the parents and kids and help them move in. Great, simple marketing.

Doors Signs & Door Hangers Need something you can stick a bunch of clients on? Dry erase boards to hand out on Move In Day. Things that can go on their dormroom doors. Pizza. Bars. Clothing stores. All could get logos on there. Ditto with Do Not Disturb signs. B-96 in Chicago has done a great job with them.

Campus invasions Done by a bunch of stations including B-96 in Chicago, 94/9 in San Diego: it's a sales promotion that is an excuse for you to hang out on campuses.