90 “NO BUDGET” BONUS IDEAS
Weekly meeting to discuss market/promotions, pop culture, etc. Invite
different people each week; street team members, receptionist…staff
members who don’t know everything about the station and who think
differently than the normal brain trust.
Create a “Boss-Line”. Have the PD voice it, asking for honest, open
feedback from listeners. Run it as a promo. You’ll get great feedback,
and a ton of audio for station imaging.
Do the same thing for the morning show. This can turn into a regular bit
for them and get them a steady stream of audio.
Have studio guests…artists, celebrities, etc. and record intros to station
benchmarks.
When a trend or book comes out…good or bad…get a note out on it
before the close of business that day. Control the spin…always be
positive, yet realistic.
Go to the sales meeting once per month and be their guest speaker.
Field questions; talk about ratings. Treat it like a news conference.
Make sure each jock has his/her own e-mail address so they can plug it
on the air and correspond with listeners.
Next staff meeting…have a drill to have the group come up with “30
Ideas in 30 Minutes”.
Nigh feature: “15 minutes of fame”. Bring listener in to be a guest DJ.
Programming staff meeting idea: have them come in with the top
reasons why the station they grew up listening to was a defining radio
station for them. As a group…come up with ways to make your station
just as memorable.
Think of yourself as a “talent coach” instead of a PD. Each player is
different and requires different care and feeding.
Keep a file of interesting, motivating, innovative ideas….so if you’re
ever on a panel like THIS, you’ll have ideas to steal!
Give each player on the morning show a specific, consistent
assignment;
a. somebody watches award shows
b. somebody watches reality tv
c. somebody watches sports
This way, the show as a whole as the pop culture world covered and
the responsibility is equally distributed.
Conduct an aircheck meeting where you don’t listen to the tape. But be
prepared. You want your personality to know you listened to his/her
entire show and know everything about it.
Show up at a station event incognito…check out how the jock and the
promotional team are representing the station on the street.
Create a “Polar Bear Club” in your city…every New Year’s Day, go
“jump in the lake/river” for charity.
Hey Mom, I’m on the Big 98. Guest DJ feature on Sunday nights
At a concert from the stage, give out the phone number for the cell
phone you have in your hand. First person to get through gets front
row or on-stage seats.
Book a “watch, listen and win” with the CBS affiliate for CMA and ACM
award shows.
19th Amendment ratified on August 18, 1920 giving women the right to
vote. This year it’s on a Wednesday. Only requests from women that
day.
October is Country Music Month. Don’t let this go by. Work the labels
for autographed stuff all year. Feature an artist every day. Give away
their CD’s and qualify all winners for an autographed item from that
artist the next morning.
“Win it Before She Even Records It Weekend”. Slap the competition
with this one. We did it with Shania’s “Up” last year. Every station
wants to be first – you win hands-down.
What’s Ozzy Sayin’ – on-air feature – play an Ozzy clip and have
listeners translate.
Each year we do a Mud Volleyball tournament for the Epilepsy
Foundation. GREAT TV visual. We field a team and emcee the daylong
event.
Grandma got run over by a reindeer – song is played over and over.
Survivor type promotion: who can last the longest wins.
Have jocks bring in something of theirs to give away on the springcleaning weekend.
The 98 WSIX Christmas “Carol’s” – 6 women named Carol rode on our
float in the Christmas parade and sang back up to Jessica Andrews.
OPP Weekend Giveaway – “other people’s prizes” – stuff that was never
picked up
Great Grocery Giveaway. Team up with a grocery store during the
Holidays and giveaway your frequency in gift certificates.
Celebrate the Milestones with the Artists. We threw a birthday party for
George Strait’s 50th birthday…he wasn’t there in person, but we had
CD’s and a Strait Collection to giveaway and worked with our local
Wrangler outlet.
Teacher of the Month. Team up with Outback for the Best Bloomin’
Teach of the Month. The kids can send a letter or email from our
website why their teacher is the best. Randomly draw a winner each
month for a gift certificate to Outback.
Teacher’s Wish List. Ask teacher’s to fax or email you what type of
supplies they buy each year out of their own pocket (Kleenex, film,
pencils, etc). tie in an office store and allow listeners to drop off
donations at your sponsor’s location and then fill the request of some of
the teachers.
Blood Drive. Looking for a warm fuzzy at Christmas? Host a blood
drive. Blood is most needed during this time and donations are down
because of the Holidays.
Bus Driver of the Year. Team up with a couple of local businesses to
present the School Bus Driver of the Year. You’ll find out how many
kids are listening to your station on the bus.
NASCAR Math. Take the number of the cars, add, divide, multiply, etc.
to come up with the driver of another car.
Hero Day. During one of the many festivals we hosted a Hero Day. We
invited fire, police, EMS, etc. to take part in our Hero Day. They set up
displays for the kids and parents to learn more about their jobs and
what they could do to help kids.
Hop A Thon at your local mall when the Easter Bunny arrives. Donate
the proceeds to your favorite charity.
Super Bowl Movie. Work with your movie theatre to show a chick flick
the afternoon of the Super Bowl for all the “widows”. Tie in sponsors to
give away gift packs.
Country Companions. Website feature sponsored by local vet. Users
can email their pet question and the doctor responds to all questions.
We post the answer back on the website or send them an email answer.
Blitz Build. Work with your local Habitat for Humanity on the Blitz Build.
The foundation and stuff is done ahead of time but the house goes up in
a weekend. Broadcast live from the site. Habitat can recruit new
volunteers from listeners.
Partner with a fast food restaurant to distribute their coupons at all your
remotes. Listeners love free stuff.
Free Tax Day. Partner with VITA (Volunteer Income Tax Assistance) to
provide volunteers to do listeners taxes or extensions for free. Do basic
tax forms, listeners provide all W-2’s and proper info. Work with local
post office to do the promotion at their location. Make electronic tax
prep available also.
Valentine’s Day Card Shower. For a children’s hospital. Great for a
morning show promotion. Invite listeners (school art classes, church
groups, scout troops or families) to hand make Valentine’s Day cards.
Have listeners deliver to the radio station and then on Valentine’s Day
your morning show personally delivers the cards to each child at the
hospital.
Use Outside Resources. Two great websites with ideas or ways to
network with other Marketing/Promotion professionals and exchange
ideas: www.lured.com; www.allaccess.com; www.allaboutcountry.com
; www.radioready.com
Get to know those who can help you. Get to know your regionals for
each record label. They can help you with many things from CD’s,
meet/greets, phoners, studio acoustic visits to flyaways to marketing
your station in your area.
Station Screensaver. Have your web guy create a screensaver
download from your website. Your logo, artist pix, etc. Good way to get
your call letters in offices.
Show us your (insert call letters here). An oldie but a goodie for
concerts. Grand prize is front row/backstage. Listeners show up with
most creative and biggest way of showing your call letters to the crowd.
Country Cares for St. Jude Radiothon. If you do the St. Jude radiothon,
and have a couple or more personalities for the morning show, each
hopefully living in a different part of town in a big market, put each
town/city up against one another to raise money.
Story Time. Get your air staff more involved in the community. Many
schools now have literacy projects. Get your air staff out to various
schools to be celebrity readers at elementary schools
Kids Pet Parade. This is fun, but you have to be careful. Host a Kids
Pet Parade at a mall on a high traffic time. Invite kids to bring their pets
(doesn’t matter what it is, but if it bites or is dangerous leave it at home).
They will bring a dog, cat, rabbits, guinea pigs, rodents, whatever. But
they parade ‘em around and are so proud.
Artist Visits. Brand artist visits. Each time an artist makes a studio visit
make sure it has a name. The Lounge, The Living Room, Studio (insert
calls).
Market the station within the industry. If you aren’t, become a member
of the CMA and ACM. Enter the awards nationally and in your state
broadcast association.
Build Relationships with local TV stations and cable. Look for ways to
cross promote. Maybe there is an A & E special on cable about Clint
Black, for example. You will promote the special on air in return the
cable company allow your air talent to videotape bumpers during the
special.
White Hat Award. Find a hat sponsor or a western store. Take
nominations from listeners via the station website or in store
nomination forms for a Good Samaritan or community do-gooder. Once
a week, you announce the “White Hat Award” recipient for their good
community leadership. They get the brand new white cowboy hat and a
letter of recognition.
Movie Screenings. When you have a movie screening, tie in a theme at
the actual screening. Kids movie, get them to come dressed as their
favorite character.
Rescue 411. Great morning show bit. Off the air – Pick an area code
and call an operator in that area ode. Ask them a question with a
random selection of answers. Get a listener on the phone to play. Play
back the conversation between air talent and operator where they are
asking them the questions. Now, ask the listener what they think the
operator said. Once you have the listeners answer, play back the rest of
the conversation with the operator and see if the listener got it right.
Artist/Listener Press Conference. During an artist visit at the station or
a meet & greet, give a winner a recorder and have them conduct a mini
press conference with one or two questions of the artist. If it’s good
enough, edit it and use it later on the air.
Cell Phone Roulette. Collect cell phone numbers via email. When an
artist visits the station or during a back stage visit, select one of the
numbers and have the artist call it to say hello to that listener.
Friends & Neighbors. This is a simple program to serve those small
charities that don’t have an advertising budget. Schedule 1-hour
appearances with a station vehicle and a personality at these events (a
church fish fry, high school carwash, etc) and do a :30 phoner from the
event. Schedule them from Friday evening through Sunday from April
through October. No cost for the appearances, sell 2 annual
sponsorships for the program and include them in the mentions and onsite.
Throwback Thursdays. Book celebrities from the 70’s or 80’s in on the
morning show. Sell sponsorship that includes an appearance at the
sponsor’s location that evening.
Artist’s Living Room. Instead of just having an artist sign at a card
table, create a cool set with furniture on a small stage for an in-store.
Have about 10 minutes of Q & A and listen to a cut or two from the new
CD before the artist starts signing.
Pickin’ Parlor. Rename the room in the station you use for artist
performances and visits as the Pickin’ Parlor. If you don’t have artists
visit your station, then hang autographed pictures & display
autographed guitars in that room.
Ultimate Autograph Passes. Use this when you have a concert with
multiple artists (like the Neon Circus) and award each winner and their
guest meet & greet passes for every artist at the show.
Front Row Cell Phone Call. Collect cell hone numbers during a preshow remote at the concert venue. 10 to 15 minutes before the show
starts, select one of the numbers and call that person from stage for a
front row upgrade.
Lift for Kids. A professional football player or a group of college/high
school players have a group weightlifting exhibition. Instead of lifting
“weights” have them lift other objects like cars, refrigerators or people.
Take pledges for every ton they lift and donate the money to a local
children’s charity.
Christmas Carol Phone Call. Use a list of past contest winners and have
your morning show call them and sing a Christmas Carol. You don’t
have to do this on-air, just call 4 0r 5 people a day after the show’s over.
Personal Database. Jocks collect the email addresses of listeners who
send them mail. Use this list and send a weekly newsletter promoting
specific items to listen for, you can even do some simple stealth
contesting.
Personalized Web Pages. Set up your website so the jocks can update
their pages daily.
Submit for awards. Sounds simples, but you can’t get nominated
unless you submit.
Daily Sheet. Morning show day sheet so the rest of the staff knows
about the topics, bits, interviews from that day’s show.
Drive by Dating. During morning or afternoon drive, have guys line up
along the road or in a parking lot with numbers on their fronts and
backs. Invite women to drive by and write down the numbers of the
guys they would like to meet. Have everyone meet at a local club later
that evening.
Class Reunion Web Page. Listeners submit info about their upcoming
class reunions.
Show your air staff the value of getting 5 more minutes per week. It
equals another ¼ hour, and can really make a difference in your AQH
share.
(I have the math on that by the way) R.J. Curtis at KZLA
1. Give your morning show a homework assignment: Tape competing
morning
Shows, then have them evaluate strengths, weaknesses, etc. They
rarely hear their competition so this can be a good exercise.
2. PD’s…spend a morning in the studio while the AM show is on the air.
It’ll
Give you a feel for what’s happening in the CR behind the scenes. It
could
Make you re-think some direction you’re giving them.
3. Pull Scarborough info on your station (qualitative)….give it to the air
staff. If you can, have somebody from Arbitron, or one of your sales
managers do a presentation for them.
4. Conduct “Listener advisory boards.” These are mini focus groups,
and even though they’ll know it’s your station, it’s great feedback
from heavy users.
5. Once per month, Do your morning show in front of a live studio
audience with lots of listener interaction.
6. Read, then give your staff the book “Be Quick, But Don’t Hurry,” by
Andrew Hill, with John Wooden. All of John Wooden’s beliefs apply
to what you and your staff do every day.
7. Record contest winners and send them a cassette of themselves on
the air. It’s a thrill for them.
8. Buy a TIVO unit for the control room.
9. If you have a regular, weekly meeting where everybody sits in the
same place, start it one week by asking everyone to point to
someone else…then trade seats with them….be sure you do it
too….it changes the dynamic.
10. If you run TV spots….run them on your air as a promo.
11. Night feature: “15 minutes of fame.” Bring listener in to be a guest
DJ.
12. If you have a sports team in town, for example the Lakers…play
“Lakers arithmetic.” Using Jersey #’s, do a contest where listener
has to add/subtract a fast sequence of numbers.
13. Create an award just for the programming department to recognize
some one monthly. (Ours is the “You bowled me over” award. I
found a 60’s vintage bowling trophy…it’s campy, but they want to
win it!)
14. “Theme up” programming department to fit current promotion or
contest. If you’re giving away trips to Hawaii…do a Hawaii theme. I
saw this once when I got a tour of Disney animation. It creates a vibe
everybody can see and feel every day.
15. If you can afford it…one or two sessions per year with an outside,
specialized morning show coach. It’ll be different than your
coaching, and help you be a better coach too.
16. It’s cliché…but “listen like a listener:
- Get away from the station from a day and spend it listening.
- Then listen to the market.
- Make notes…mental or real…of what made you keep listening
or tune out.
- I tell MY staff: “I’m a KZLA P-1 who happens to be the PD.
17. Approach your morning show, and your station like a sitcom. Decide
what the “Plot” is. Define each of the characters. Even map out a
character profile for each player so they always know how to stay “In
character.” It helps the station, and each player always be
consistent.
18. Work with your jocks on how to interview…most aren’t very good at
it. Randi Lane has some great ways to coach talent on this. Most
important tip is getting them to LISTEN.
19. Bring in audio from these assignments to use when describing the
shows.
20. Learn to delegate. Give the “Elbow grease” tasks to an assistant or
your MD. Spend your time thinking about creative ideas and big
picture projects.
21. Be sure your radio station…and your air staff…is respectful of
people’s time. Jay Trachman said “Radio is something people use
when they’re doing other things.” Listeners are busy. More and more
they have other options and radio is in danger of becoming a utility.
So don’t waste their time. Prep ahead of time, make it compelling,
then cut to the chase. I tell my morning show: we have 16 breaks a
morning….every single one has to be an “A.”
22. Remember the Troops
Team up with your Girl Scouts to sell their cookies and send them over to
the troops. Keep the troops in mind for Valentine’s Day Cards and other
holidays. Find a fabric store to team up with now to start planning a yellow
ribbon campaign. Keep in touch with your local base(s) and your local
chapter of the American Red Cross. Host a welcome home party for your
local Base or tie into the party the Base will put together.
23. Gas Out
Find a gas company willing to sponsor a reduction on gas prices. They
buy a schedule, station pays the difference, tie in a 3rd party to sponsor
the event too. Hand out flyers to all those participating directing them to
listen to the station the next day for song “xyz”, the nth caller wins a great
prize from the sponsor. Include a coupon for the gas location and sponsor
on the flyer. Limit the cars to your frequency and so many gallons of gas.
24. Dog Days of Summer
Invite Pet Owners out to your sponsor for some freebies for their best
friend. We have ours at Wal Mart (yes they pay for it) and then tie in
Purina, local vet, groomer, etc. We also invite the local Humane Society
out to give people info on adoption.
25. “Speed” Week
If you have Montgomery Gentry coming to town soon, build a contest
around their new single “Speed” and Nascar. We did ours for the Daytona
500 and Speed Week, listeners voted on line or by mail who they thought
would have enough “Speed” to win. The winner got tickets and meet and
greet passes to their show.
26. Dinner with Santa
Allow kids to sign up at Santa’s home in Center Court at your mall or on
line through your website to win Dinner with Santa. Start registering when
Santa arrives and giveaway one a week until Christmas. Work with your
Mall and restaurants in the Mall to take the family out for dinner. Our Mall
even picked up the tip for each night.
27. 12 Diamond Days of Christmas
Tie in with a local jeweler and giveaway a diamond each day leading up to
Christmas. You can tie it back to the format with the latest CD from
Diamond Rio or perhaps concert tickets if they will be near you.
28. Battery Giveaway
Team up with a local battery store and send out your morning stunt guy to
give away batteries a couple days leading up to Christmas. Parents love
the free batteries for the toys!
29. Kiddie Tractor Pull
Team up with your local implement dealer for a Kiddie Tractor Pull.
Someone at the implement dealer will know someone who has Peddle
Tractors and a sled. That person will have rules he/she has used for
ages. You just tie in a 3rd party for a sponsor and prizes (the Implement
Dealer is a good place to start) and have your djs there to meet the kids
and encourage them as the “pull.” Be sure to have a camera to take
photos of the kids too!
30. Ground Hog’s Day
Celebrate Ground Hog’s Day with a local grocery store and give away
pounds of ground hog.
31. Valentine’s Day “Love” Songs
Put several businesses together and build a Valentine Pack of Giveaways
for the day. Have listeners be the nth caller when they hear a song with
the word “love” in the title.
32. Redneck Olympics
Host your own Redneck Olympics to tie in with the Olympics. Games
include: Casting Contest, Watermelon speed spitting contest, bobbing for
spam, jumper cable jump rope contest, etc. Giveaway Foxworthy CDs,
tickets, etc.
33. Dinner with a Claus
You’ve heard of Dinners for a certain cause, invite Santa to this one.
Work with a non for profit to find kids who won’t have much of a Christmas
celebration at their house. Tie in sponsors for gifts for the kids (sales reps
wrap gifts very well) and have dinner for them. We use our local Outback.
Santa is there and we take polaroids of the kids and give them the photo
so they have it to keep.
34. Hand Fans
If you spend time at county fairs and festivals find a sponsor to cover the
cost of Hand Fans. Put their logo on one side, radio station logo on the
other side and hand them out at summer events.
35. Holiday Cash
Qualify listeners (we use our frequency) on air (we do 5 last minute
qualifiers at the Mall) and then meet at the local mall for the giveaway.
We do gift bags for each qualifier and they randomly pick their own gift
bag. The winning bag wins a shopping spree at the Mall…but they must
buy “x” amount of different gifts in “x” minutes (“x” being your frequency).
We do this the Saturday before Christmas, shopping is crazy.
36. Elimination
Put together 100 prizes (If your frequency was 99) for about the same
amount of money. Qualify people on air over a 2 week period. Each
qualifier gets to eliminate a prize, after you have qualified 99 listeners you
have 1 prize left. Then gather your 99 qualifiers and randomly draw one
name… that person is the first one out. Then he/she gets to pick the next
person to leave, do this until you have 2 qualifiers left. Then the 97 who
have been eliminated vote who will win of the two remaining qualifiers.
The person who wins, will win the one gift that was left of the 100 prizes.
37. Lawn Mower Races
We worked with a local amphitheater and got lawn tickets for a show. We
then had lawn mower races at an equipment rental place with an obstacle
course.
38. Chicks Nite Out
Host a party at a bar where the ladies get in free or get drink specials.
Work with the bar and their vendors to do giveaways throughout the night
targeted to the ladies. You could also use a spin on the concept for a
giveaway for Dixie Chicks tickets.
39. Light Up Your Holiday
Team up with a local decorating company (we use Christmas Décor) and
light up a listener’s home. We did the contest on line to help build up our
database. Then we took photos and put up on the web too. Christmas
Décor bought a schedule too.
40. Car Show/Poker Run
Easy event to put together. Find a car club that will help you with putting it
together. Secure a title sponsor, trophy sponsors, etc. Find 3 or 4 judges
and award trophies to the winners. Entry fee goes to favorite charity. Add
a poker run the night before and sell the locations on the poker run.
41. Pick Up Palooza
Along the same lines of a Car show but this one is just for trucks. You can
tie in sponsors too. Give awards for the highest truck, best truck, etc
42. Largest Sundae in the World
Team up with a guttering company and an ice cream shop and put
together the World’s Largest Sundae. Charge a few bucks for listeners to
try out the sundae and give the money to charity.
22.Santa Bucks
Find “x” amount of sponsors have each give up a gift worth your
“frequency.” Draw out one name at each location to win the gift from the
sponsor. We then drew out one name from everyone who qualified to win
the grand prize for $999.
43. BINGO
Put together a Bingo cards with artists and songs. When a listener gets a
Bingo they call in and win cash. Use a different Bingo card each week
and tie in a title sponsorship.
44. Celebrity Cookbook
We put together a celebrity cookbook with djs and artist recipes. We then
sold sponsorships in the cookbook. We sold them for charity.
1. Ticket Blitz
Sell a one-hour appearance / remote and have listeners register to win pairs of
concert tickets, have the drawings once every 15 minutes. Give the client a pair
of tickets for buying the package. This works best for those shows that have big,
headline acts. Cost: 5 pairs of ticket Revenue: unlimited
2. Choose What You Cruise
If you have the budget to give away one vehicle and want it to sound bigger,
have 3 vehicles for the winner to choose from. You can image each vehicle with
a member of your airstaff and the winner can “Choose What to Cruise.”
3. Hometown Tour
Friday evening concerts from the courthouse square of small towns in your
metro. These are usually the county seats in areas of your metro that you rarely
visit. Schedule 4 or 5 Friday night concerts and call it a “tour” with the possibility
of adding other elements. Great sponsorship avail for utilities, banks, insurance
companies, etc.
4. You Catch It You Keep It
Have listeners build devices to catch big prizes dropped from a 4 or 5 story
building. Items like big screen TV’s or a big kitchen appliance. If they catch it and
it still works, they get to keep it! Actually they’ll get a new version of the prize they
caught.
5. Bobbleheads
Manufacture a Bobblehead in the likeness of one of your jocks. Give them
bobbleheads away at sponsor locations during 1 hour appearances / remotes.
The sponsorship fees cover the cost of the bobbleheads plus generate off-air
revenue.
6. Time is Money (insured contest)
Different version of the Birthday game. Guess the correct hour win $100, guess
the hour and minute win $10,000 guess the hour, minute and second and win
$100,000 or a million.
10. Red, White & Zoo
Instead of producing a free 4th of July concert, produce a free kid’s show. You
can get a kid’s character like Garfield for 3 shows for $$$. Have the tickets
available at a sponsor location or only during special station “ticket window”
remote.
12. State / County Fair Free Stage
Propose to the State or County fair that if they provide you with a stage and allow
you to brand it with your call letters, hang banners and sell the sponsorship avail
you’ll book the entertainment for the run of the fair. Depending on your budget
you can book local or national talent.
13. Fantastic Plastic Pay-off
Pay off the balance of someone’s credit card after the Holidays
14. Classified Concert
Host a free concert but DO NOT announce who the act will be. The audience
won’t know who it is until they are announced on stage. Give away free tickets at
a sponsor location or during special 1-hour ticket window remotes. Make sure to
tell the booking agency this is “classified” and kept off Pollstar, fan club sites and
any other posted itinerary.
15. Dueling Rios
If you have a $15,000 budget to give away a vehicle, instead of giving away just
1, you can buy 2 Kia Rios for that budget. Set up a competition between the
morning show and the afternoon jock. Listeners’ vote for who they think will win
the competition, The daypart that wins the competition selects the winner from
those who voted for them to win.
16. Flags Across America
Distribute American Flag stickers, rearview mirror hangers, or window flag at
sponsorship locations. You can tie it in with the local American Legion or local
military base.
17. Bark in the Park
An event at a local park for dogs (and their owners) Set up booths on the
parameter of a field in the park and have the center area open for Frisbee dog
demonstrations, adopt a pet parades, stupid pet tricks….include pictures with
Santa (it doesn’t have to be around Christmas to so this) and an artist to draw
charactures of people & their pets.
18. Hardwood Hysteria
An on-line office pool for the NCAA Basketball Tournament for your listeners.
Award weekly prizes and a grand prize of a big screen TV. Have your jocks and
other local celebrities choose their picks and play along too.
23, Let’s Make a Wheel Deal
Have the budget to give away a car? Use a method where daily winners can
trade up for bigger prizes, eventually having the chance to trade up for a brand
new car.
1. Animals and All that Country
Concerts with local or national talent at the local zoo. Or you can use this title for a concert at the
county fair.
2. Farmula One
Set up a Formula One Course in open field and race farm tractors.
3. Pit Stop in the Park
Use a local park as the site for a driver autograph session followed by free concert.
4. Dad’s Big Day Out
Father’s Day Promotion. Give away day trips to a cool, fun location for dads and their children.
Have a station personality host the trip with their father.
5. Best Seat in the House
For a station sponsored concert. Put a furniture grouping (sofa, loveseat) on the side of or in front
of the stage. Contest for the chance to sit there and win the furniture.
35. Jock Day Out
Schedule a staff meeting and instead of having the meeting, surprise them with an event out of
the station.
Take them out to race go-karts for an hour, go to an arcade, a climbing wall,
something fun and away from the station.
37. Personality Workshops
Once a quarter meeting with your programming staff featuring local speakers
Have the TV news director talk to your staff about how they prep for sweeps weeks. Presentation
from Arbitron about ratings, the coach from the successful sports team (it can even be a high
school team) use your imagination and there are lots of other people who make great speakers
and are a great resource to your staff and the station.
38. Comrex Vector
This piece of equipment uses a regular phone line and produces broadcast quality audio similar
to an ISDN line. This allows you to broadcast from huge events (Olympics, Superbowl, etc) at a
very low cost, even just using the phone line in your hotel room.
Pick the Pros
39. Christmas Channel Dot Com
For about $2000 you can set up an internet channel to stream Christmas music on your station’s
website. Sell the whole thing to one sponsor and air only their spots on the stream. This can be
promoted on multiple stations because it’s imaged as “The Christmas Channel”
40. The World’s Largest CMA Office Pool
Set up an on-line pool for listeners picks for the CMA Awards (or you could do the ACM Awards
too) Have the airstaff make their picks too so listeners can compare. Grand Prize can be
anything, tickets to a concert the next time one of the Entertainers of the Year nominees is in
concert, or a flyaway to see the Entertainer of the Year winner.
41. Drive Through Job Fair
Have potential job applicants drop off their resumes at a drive through location during a station
lunchtime remote. Offer free lunch for every application.
42. Stock Car Challenge
An on-line fantasy NASCAR…..opps I mean “Stock Car” league. Since it’s skill you can charge an
entry fee. Grand Prize at the end of the season is a trip for 2 to next year’s Daytona 500.
43. Zoo Year’s Eve Party
New Year’s Eve Party at the zoo or another family friendly venue. Have the countdown to the new
year at 9pm so the kids can enjoy the excitement of the new year.
44. Honey & Hunks
10 or 12 men and women you select to work big station events. You select them from a
competition during 2 or 3 bar nights. You can even use them for a station calendar or website
content.
46. Party on the Pavement
After work parties on Thursday evenings in the parking lot of a huge office complex. You can do a
series of these through the spring, summer or fall.
47. Park Here Signs
Station logo’ed signs about the size of a realty “For Sale” sign that advertises “Park Here” with the
for big area events. You can do placard size that people can hold to direct traffic to their parking
lot.
48. Welcome Banners for Big City Events
If your city hosts a huge event, like a NASCAR race or Final 4, print banner on a roll “Welcome
Race Fans” signs with station logo and have them available at sponsorship locations.
Strap 50 pagers all with the same number onto a listener in the studio / some set
to vibrate some to tone and give out the phone number on the air- if they make it
to 10 o’clock- they win something cool.
Have listeners call with their guesses as to the speed at which an airbag will
deploy. Morning show “intern” then drives a vehicle into a wall at 2, 4, 8, 10, 15
mph.- Make sure the audience (and intern) has no idea that the vehicle has NO
airbag- If they use a company vehicle, suspend them all for at least a day!
Movie Marathon- (winter) Hook up with a local movie theater and show all the
summer blockbusters back-to-back. Give away tickets on the air – discount
tickets – charity tie
Child Id program. Easy now to create a child id with a digital camera and a
laminating machine. Make sure to get the Logo on the card!
We’ll provide the Superbowl party, you provide the half-time entertainment.- Fax /
e-mail what you will do at the half. Personalities deliver big-screen and food.
Great on-air content as the faxes come in.
Work a deal with the largest local delivery company in the area. Get your logo on
every one of their vehicles, then credit them on-air. “Joe Blow Delivery will bring
that prize to you JoAnne Listener”
When a promoter sends you crappy seats, do a “Worst Seats in the House
Weekend.” Have fun with it. We gave away binocular rentals from the venue and
a box of tissues for the nose-bleeds.
Dive-In Movies- show movies at local water park once a week during the
summer.
Ugly Truck Contest
Invite listeners to drive up in their ugliest trucks to win prizes. Award prizes for
most dents, most primer showing, All Cracked Up (based on glass breakage),
baldest tires, saddest upholstery, most eroded truck bed, etc. Give extra points to
anyone who's holding on a fender or bumper with baling wire.
Mr. Puniverse
To qualify, contestants must weigh under 135 pounds and stand under 5'8. They
will be required to strut about on display, flex their muscles, arm-wrestle and
pose in skimpy clothes. A panel of judges can be appointed to select a winner or
the crowd can vote. Prize packages can include a three-month membership to a
health club or weight-gain products from a nutrition store.
St. Patty’s Day Pot of Gold- Paint a real potty gold have listeners on–site guess
what’s in the pot of gold
Groundhog-ed
The week leading up to Groundhog Day (or day of), a morning personality is
placed in a manhole/sewer broadcasting live. At your designated time, have the
personality literally pop up out of the manhole to see if they see their shadow or
not. Have listeners place wagers to win "Ground Hog" (sausage) and one lucky
person who guesses correctly wins a trip to a warm or cold location (depending
on the shadow outcome).
Swim With Sharks
Personality climbs into a tank with live sharks. No net, no cage and no protection.
Have personality in wet suit, mask, fins, and life vest. The catch is that the "tank
of sharks" is a child's pool filled with 1-inch, pet store shark(s).
Undy 500
Each of our stations fields a team of 4 listeners and one personality to compete
against each other. Team is then decked out in Underwear with station logos and
ride tricycles on a race track at center court of a mall. Each team member has
already won tickets to the Indy Racing League race at the Super Speedway.
Undy 500 winning team members each get an IRL Chicago package including
airfare, tickets to the race and hotel for them and their guest.
Picket For Tickets
Instead the usual ticket give away, have people make up signs and picket in front
of the radio station (or other high traffic area) to win...the most creative sign wins.
Reba Casting Call- put casts on 5 listeners arms- gave them a disposable
camera and $5 for developing. They had one week to get autographs from
famous people- the person with the most famous autographs and pictures with
that person won a trip to see a taping of Reba’s TV show. Casts were taken off in
the studio with the drill in the background. Great promotion!
Have jocks bring in something of theirs to give away on the spring cleaning
weekend.
One morning around Easter we had the 98 WSIX Money Bunny walking around
downtown handing out dollar bills (it was a tough year)
Each city has a parade of homes- decorate one room in one of the houses in a
country music theme. Use artist stuff, gold records, stand-ups, autographed lamp
shades etc.. then auction off the items for charity
St. Panties Day
Give away underwear to your female listeners. You can also give away
autographed panties from a celebrity (you may want to start collecting for next
year now). You can have a lot of fun with this promotion and this could also be a
great charity auction
Put client coupons on the back of airstaff’s business cards. It’s not just a
business card; it’s also a prize. (I.e. Big Mac, free drink, etc.) Plus, the
client pays for the cards.
Concert Patches. We call them “front stage passes” They are stickers that look
just like backstage passes. Hand them out before the show and then give away
prizes to people wearing them inside. Also, sponsors can coupon back and logo
front to help cover costs.
Turn a cheap gas promotion into something really cool. Tell your listeners and
the media that you are starting a “New Country Station”. They take over the gas
Station, offer cheap gas and try to recruit some stars to help pump the gas….
Get it, a COUNTRY STATION…media bought in, hook-line and sinker. Tons of
media on site
‘WSI-Excellence In School Program.” Report cards containing at least one “A”
were faxed / mailed to us. Each Friday for a month we drew a winner. The winner
received a new computer and one was donated to that student’s school.
Musical Chairs for huge prizes – great visual!
Tacky Light Tour at Christmas. Listeners bring a toy to get on the bus(es). Tour
the tacky lights in your town. Bus hosted by personalities. Play bus games for
Christmas gifts (prizes).
An Intimate Evening with Clay Walker
100.3 KILT partnered with Clay Walker to develop a unique concert event that
would raise money for the local MS Chapter. Multiple Sclerosis, is a disease that
effects more than 350,000 people in the US including Clay himself.
The goals for the promotion were to:
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Generate awareness for MS
Raise money for MS
Create an event that was a great experience for the audience
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To get our personalities really involved with an event that would touch the
listener’s hearts.
100.3 KILT promoted the concert for two weeks before the on sale date and the
concert sold out within 15 minutes. We then gave listeners the chance to win
tickets to the event on air and on the web site.
For two weeks before the concert event we gave auctioned off personal items of
Clay’s and a pair of front row tickets to the concert. The items were featured on
the web site and auctioned off on the morning show. This generated $18,000
dollars in donations. Some of the items included were: “On-air” light from the
original KILT-FM studio autographed by Clay, a pair of Clay’s jeans that he
autographed, and a Golf Cap that Clay wore in the 2001 Detour Golf Tournament
that Clay autographed.
During the promotion of the concert we also featured interviews with Clay Walker
and with his Doctor to help raise the awareness for Multiple Sclerosis.
The day of the show we broadcast afternoon drive from the venue and had on
air, Clay Walker and Steve Holy (opening act), Clay’s Walker’s Doctor and Harris
County Judge, Robert Eckles who declared it “Clay Walker Day” in Harris County
Texas.
Plus, we also invited top advertisers to a private Champagne reception prior to
the concert. It was an awesome way to showcase the station with clients.
The listeners were greeted that night by The KILT hosts and then were treated to
an unbelievable concert experience. Clay did an awesome job that night and
the listeners really loved it.
This promotion met all of the goals and then some. We raised over $60,000 for
Multiple Sclerosis, donated over $250,000 of airtime to raise the awareness of
MS, received outstanding press coverage of the event, MS, Clay Walker and
KILT and we touched the hearts of the KILT audience in a way that could not
have been foreseen.
Rodeo Rumor Weekend
Every market has a county fair, state fair, country music festival, rodeo…You
name it you have it! A couple of weeks leading up to the announcement of Rodeo
Houston here! Everyone thinks they have the scoop on who is gonna be on the
line up! Mind you it is 20 concerts in 20 days here in Houston. Committeemen
think they have the inside track… I am friends of the drummer in Toby Keith’s
band… Yada Yada Yada…. So we decided to make a weekend out of it! We had
callers call up all weekend long and tell us who was coming to the Rodeo…. And
they guessed 10 of the artists…. The person with the most correct guesses won
tickets to all 20 shows!
Jr Broadcaster
We actually did this on our Sports Station but it would work on KILT as well.
Kids and their parents filled out entry forms telling why they wanted to interview a
Houston Texans player. We worked with the Texans PR department to set up
the interviews each week with a player. The student and their parent was picked
up in a limo then joined by one of our sports reporters and taken over to the
training facility. The reporter gave the student tips on interviewing players. We
took the interview and used portions of it in the game broadcasts as a feature.
Hope for the Holiday’s Radio-thon
Your typical Radiothon…but different. We do it for a local charity – Star of Hope
Mission which is a Christian based mission for homeless men, women and
children, plus a full drug rehab program, plus a 60 family living center for people
to go from homelessness to working families.
We held it at Memorial City Mall the Day after Thanksgiving. This mall has just
been redone and is one of the more popular shopping destinations this year.
The exposure for the station in the mall with our whole staff on the busiest
shopping day of the year doing something good for the community!
We promoted this a couple of weeks out. Got sponsors for the hours to donate
prizes to give people for donating. The last hour we auctioned off a few items as
well.
Free Money Stampede
National contest… almost everybody’s got em…. This is a way we found to take
the emphasis off the national contest and make it entertaining!
Family Game Night
100.3 KILT teamed up with Walt Disney World and Hasbro for a Family Game
night contest. We gave away slots to the tournament on air, on site and at Toys
R. Us. We hosted the event at a Home and Garden show and families competed
using short versions and quick play rules of the games. Each round eliminated
half of the contestants. It was set up to accommodate a maximum of 32 teams.
They played Monopoly, Sorry, Guesstures, Yahtzee and Outburst Jr. The
winning family won a trip for four to Walt Disney World.
Clint Black TV Spot
What a better way to get a country superstar, hometown hero to endorse your
stations and throw your competition into fits!
This was part of a 3 month campaign we put together with Clint to promote his
Greatest Hits II album. Other parts of this campaign was a win it before you buy it
weekend, and Clint was also one of the major stars of our 10 Man Jam II.
This was truly a “partnership” with an artist!
We debuted the spot in the CMA awards where Clint Black was presenting an
award. Also, ran it in Kilborn that night since Clint was a guest that night. We
had the on air personalities talk it up a few days before it debuted as well.
Christmas Stories
We thought… Everyone does Christmas music on Christmas Eve, or track Santa
or really does nothing at all…. So we came up with Christmas Stories. We go
commercial free from 6p-10p on Christmas Eve! We play Christmas stories from
Country Superstars, Local Celebrities, and all the KILT staff… We run about 7-8
stories per hour with Christmas music in-between. IT was quite surprising how
many emails we received that they let Kenny Rogers read their kids “The Night
Before Christmas”…
Auto Show TV Program
Team up with a TV station or another company that is producing a TV show that
your talent can host. In Houston, the Auto Show does their own one-hour
preview show and we worked with them to have Marc Vandermeer host the
show. Marc is the voice of the Houston Texans, does a show on our sports
station and does sports reports on KILT. We ran promos promoting the show on
the sports station. The TV station ran promos that had mention and logo of
SportsRadio 610 and during the show he was identified and we got several plugs
in for both the Sports Station and KILT. The show aired on a Friday night at 8
pm then again on Sunday afternoon.
100.3 KILT Ten Man Jam
Ten Musicians . . . One Stage . . . One Unforgettable Evening
The 100.3 KILT Ten Man Jam is one of the biggest concert events to hit
Houston. This concert featured acoustic performances from some of the hottest
names in country music.
Mark Chesnutt joined us in studio to announce the concert line up. We
announced the line up one artist at a time and played a song after the artist was
announced. Listeners couldn’t buy tickets to this event (except on e-bay). They
got them by listening to win, going to KILT.com to register, using their points in
an web site auction or go to a ticket stop.
KILT broadcast live from the event and featured on air interviews during
afternoon drive with all the performers from that nights show.
Got great press coverage including the cover story of the preview section in the
daily news paper. After the contest KILT produced a 1O Man Jam CD. This one
featured cuts from all three 10 Man Jam concerts that we produced. CD was
given away to listeners and clients.
Survive the Rodeo Contest –
Everyone has done his or her version of Survivor. In Houston, the Houston
Livestock show and Rodeo lasts for three weeks and surviving it is an
accomplishment. So we combined Survivor with this event.
We promoted the pre-events to select the contestants on air. In addition, we
featured the contestants on the air during their week of Survivor. They were also
featured on the web site.
We teamed up with a grocery store that was near the Rodeo Site. We choose
our rodeo contestants by having them compete at the grocery store locations.
For five days our contestants lived on site in a grocery truck. Each day they
had to compete in challenges. Each morning the contestant with the lowest
score from the day before was kicked off. During the week they did the
Albertson’s Animal Hunt, the hunt for Beasts on the carnival grounds, they went
looking for the Witch Doctor, played Ridiculous Rodeo Games, had the Serengeti
Swine feast and much more. The two final contestants had to put in order
oversized George Strait album covers.
The winner received $5,000 and a pair of tickets to the sold out George Strait
concert that was the closing night of the rodeo and the last performance in the
Astrodome. (now available on CD and DVD)
Operation Freedom
Ever have too many good things going at once? Find a way to package them into
one promotion! Toby Keith’s “Courtesy” was at it’s highest at the time of this
show! Wings Over Houston air show does about 250,000 people over one
weekend! Had to do both and make them both A promotions on the air! This is
just a way we found to package a great concert with the biggest Air-Show in
Texas!
We made sure that all that 2 weeks they we looking for “Soldier #10”, we will be
“looking for enlistees” next hour, “infiltrating the woodlands” – Lots of Theater of
the Mind!
I DO 2
Morning show promotion: Took letters all the week of Valentine’s Day and asked
married couples to send in their stories about why they have lasted so long. We
read a story every hour all week long. On Thursday at 9am we picked a winner
and on Friday – Valentine’s Day we had them renew their vows live on the radio!
Lots o Clients: Wedding held at IW Marks Jewelers (Morning show live client),
Cake and Flowers by Kroger, Honeymoon trip to Moody Garden’s Hotel in
Galveston, Local Photographer or mentions.
CMA TV spot with Hudson and Harrigan
We worked with the station here that was airing the CMA awards show. We
wrote the spot and had our morning show in the spot and the TV station did the
production for the spot. So instead of running a generic radio spot in the awards
show we did something custom that fit the program.
100.3 KILT’s 21st Birthday Celebration
How do you take a neutral concert and make it yours!!!! We took a great concert,
The Brooks and Dunn Neon Circus, and made it our birthday party. We really
took this concert event over the top. Brooks and Dunn voiced custom KILT
promos, liners and giveaways. We did ticket giveaways four weeks prior to the
show.
The week before the show Brooks and Dunn and the other stars of the show
called into the station sending their birthday wishes and inviting listeners to join
the big celebration!
On the way to the concert, listeners tuned in to hear a special KILT-FM preview
show featuring all the performers live backstage! The artists shared personal
stories of past tour experiences and what they could expect to see from the day’s
concert. (Pre-recorded)
On site the concert was bannered by KILT, the entrances and highway to the
concert was also bannered by KILT. On site we did a live broadcast where the
performers stopped by to wish us a happy birthday. We also did a “show us
your KILT contest to award listeners backstage passes.
1. "Red, White And Boots"-Collected old boots from listeners to send to Peter
Jennings at ABC to show support for Toby Keith after he as cut from the
network's 4th Of July special. Over 450 boots from across the US and Canada
and local TV coverage as well as nationally on CNN, Fox, NY Post and Christian
Science Monitor.
2. "Valentines Drive Thru Donut Wedding"-Team with Krispy Kreme to marry
listeners and renew vows in drive-thru. Find a minister or go online to ulc.org to
be ordained. Be sure to include a dozen donuts to each couple and ask if they
would
"like a life-time commitment with that order."
3. "Stop March Madness."-Get a service station to offer discounted gas
(frequency) for (frequency) amount of time. With each fill up offer a 5 minute
professional in car massage. Have personalities manning pumps with stickers
and freebees.
4. "Give Dad The Finger For Father's Day"-Offer Dads free prostate exams and
stress the importance of yearly examinations.
5. "Saturday Super Bowl"-Get a Bowling Alley to offer all day or half day free
sessions the Saturday before the Super bowl.
6. "St. Panties Day".-Give away autographed underwear from male country
artists all day on St Patrick's Day.
7. "Eight Minute Mate"- Find a local "Speed-Dating" company or do your own at
a club or restaurant. Listeners have eight
minutes to mingle with potential
mates in a various round table settings...Referee with whistle and stop watch
calls time and listeners switch until everyone has met. 8minutedate.com
8. "Listen or I'll Jump"-Pick various billboard locations to place mannequins
holding signs that read "Listen or I'll Jump."
9. "Hijack An Ice Cream Truck." Trade or buy inventory from ice cream company
and use of one of their trucks. Announce daily summer locations where truck will
be with free ice cream.
10. "Adult Easter Egg Hunt" -Parents dressed in bunny ears with baskets look
for eggs filled with gift certificates while their kids cheer them on.
11. "Great River Raft Regatta" or "Whatever Floats Your Boat"-Listeners race on
homemade rafts made of Styrofoam,
cardboard, beer cans or anything else that floats...No store bought rafts or boats
allowed...Prizes for winners in race as well as most creative vessel.
12. "Brawl At The Mall" -Trade out a night with a party inflatables company for a
boxing ring and oversized gloves. Set up at center court and have moms box
each other in 3 one minute rounds for a shopping spree.
13. "Marriage And A Movie"-Get a minister to marry couples and renew vows at a
movie theater then follow the ceremony with a special showing of a movie. Be
sure to include free popcorn and other prizes.
14. "Dad's Day Hair Ball"-Solicit for pictures of dads who have the hairiest backs,
chests, ears, etc. All are posted on the web with winning dad chosen by listeners.
Winner gets a recliner, big screen or other traded "manly" prize. All entries are
invited to the Ball (a restaurant/nightclub party thrown in their honor.)
15. Administrative Professionals Day "Ugly Copier Pageant."-Send/e-mail
pictures of office copiers. The winning office gets a new copier, a free lunch or
dinner party and a chance to retire their old copier.