CPR Promotional Check-Up

How To Own The 4th

Easy. Be where people are and talk about where you're at. Air some occasional audio accoutrement of the DJ crashing a backyard pool party, stripping down and doing a belly flop (Wild in Tampa), and you'll crush the other stations. Surround it with imaging that would sound odd if you ran it on March 19th, air some calls from people talking about what they're doing, and even if you're VT'ed give them a list of parks and festivals to refer to. It really IS rocket science.

How To Own A Concert

For the nth thousandth time, when it comes to concerts, be the first person they see and the last person they see. From John Shomby at The Eagle in Norfolk: we owned Brad Paisley last Friday night. (First show of his tour here)......even though our competitor was there.....yours truly spent some quality time in a dunking booth for charity; our jocks introed all of the acts on the sidestages and main stage. We had a water balloon toss and water cornhole going on at our broadcast area. We were there until 7 broadcasting live. Stayed until after the show.....had one of the opening acts host our on air concert after the concert. Our competitor? They were gone by 5:45.

Oake On The Water

My definition of a great promotion is that it's so local, so ridiculously focused the listeners of that station in that market, that it's hugeness is inexplicable to people in other cities.

True story: I was having a one-sided debate (ie: I was being yelled at by a COO) about "lifestyle" promotions. He challenged me to name a good one. I said "Oake On The Water" at Cities 97 in Minneapolis and explained that every Thursday in the summer, Brian Oakes takes his afternoon show to any of a 100 dockside bars on any of a 100 lakes or rivers, and, well, does his show. It's not a remote. It's a show. And they just happen to be doing it where people are.

Not surprisingly, he hated it. Because. He's. Not. Here.

They nailed it. Sun. Water. Music. Beer. That is all you need to know. It's huge. And the first of the year starts this afternoon

So the question is: what is so uniquely specific to your market that it would be hard to explain to someone in Minneapolis? Find it and build something around it.