CPR Promotional Check-Up

Back To School

Your clients are planning Christmas, and sadly, most stations ignore Back To School except for the prerequisite remotes at JC Pennys. And if you are any form of a Contemporary station, this is the time to be getting the kids reattached to Radio and showing them new ways to use us. So here are a few things to consider.

• 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 (Could also be done as Last School Standing). If only because it's still fresh and hasn't been discovered by the rest of Radio. Questions? "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.
• Charitable campaigns. Most stations miss-the-boat on doing stuff that either helps highschool students, or rallies them together to do something big in the community. Sweet in Omaha did a drive to collect used musical instruments for local kids. They called it "Band Together" and it was focused on helping kids who couldn't afford to buy or rent instruments for participation in their schools music programs. School Supply Drives are invariably large.
• 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.
• 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.
• Database. I've pounded this before and I'll pound it again. If you have a listing of all the area schools, their Activity Directors, the school papers, the cheerleader advisors, and the names of the mascots and team schedules, then you'll be ready. Wild in SFO had the best database that I know of. It's nuts. But in a good way.
• Highschool newspapers. If you send them a press release, they will print it. So if some 11th grader won the front row tickets to your concert, send a press release to her paper. And your night jock should be on the mailing list for all of these papers. It's always nice to have this info handy; it'll make you sound very very tapped into what's happening in the schools if you can mention star players, teachers and accomplishments by name. Wild in SFO regularly sends movie tickets to school papers. The kids are thrilled to be able to see and review a movie for free and Wild gets all kinds of love in the printed reviews.
• 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.
• Yearbooks. Another bit from San Francisco is to get autographs and well-wishes from every artist or celeb who strolls through the building. "Congrats class of 2011 from Trey Songz!" All of these are combined and laid out and printed with a logoed watermark as inserts for year books. In May they go and hand out tens of thousands of these and they go into the yearbook and stay there, pretty much forever.
• Backpacks. These are essential Back To School prizes. Wild in Albuquerque did Back Pack To School and had logoed backpacks full of prizes for on-air giveaway. Extreme in Vegas did it and filled the backpacks with Discmen and other cool toys that any teen would be into.
• 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.

• Teacher Fear Factor. This is something that came up at a recent brainstorming session. Basically you'd get one teacher from each school to do wacky and gross stuff, all with the hopes of winning a concert for their students. This has CNN potential. There is a reason why TV covers every teach-getting-their-head-shaved-because-their-kids-read-their-goal-of-books bit. It's visual.
• Limos. Anytime you can send a kid to school on the first day of classes in a limo, that's big. What would be bigger? How about doing it with your station vehicles. KGGI in Riverside called this "Loco For Limos" and the phones imploded with kids trying to win.
• 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.
• Several of you are "on" the podcasting bit. You would recruit one of two students from each school to be your Spodcasters (sportscasters who post podcasts). Every Friday night after the game they'd submit a 3-5 minute 'cast with some audio highlights and video too, if possible. Someone from Promotions would review for content and then post. 20, 50, 100 new podcasts up every Saturday. All while teaching the kids new ways to use radio.
• Perfect Attendance Record Tracking. I did this in Charlotte and we offered a dance to the school with the best percentage of attendance over a one month period. It required having an intern call the attendance offices every day, but big deal. HUGE.
• 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 Wazz from KDWB and be sure to be listening tonight at 8, when Barb and Matt and Lucia 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.
• Malls. They're probably already beating you up for promotions. Fashion shows are good. So is "The Dream Dorm" which I'll walk you through if you call me. Or "Backpack Or No Backpack"?
• Don't forget colleges and universities. They'll usually have lots happening the first week or two of classes and it's great to get tied in to this stuff. Wild in Tampa did The Back To School Bunker that had them living and broadcasting from campus housing for two weeks last year. Singularly one of the biggest things in that stations' history. A couple stations are going to be greeting that new students on "move in" day and using the street team and jocks, will be making friends-for-life when they help the kids and their parents unload and move-in.
• 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.
• Is there a young-looking, anonymous (in that he/she haven't been on the website) intern on the morning show? One of the biggest things I've ever seen done was when a reporter from the San Francisco Chronicle went undercover for 30 days at a local highschool to do a report on the state of education in California. She won a massive number of awards for the series which opened a lot of eyes in the community on just how decrepit the schools were getting. I've waited for someone to have the nads to pull this off. Call me and I'll help you do it.