The Green Bagel Machine
On Saint Patrick’s Day, find a local bakery that produces green bagels and hand them out in bags with your station’s logo and call letters on them. These make great giveaways if you have a parade, Irish store or restaurant in your town.
Show Us Your Green Thing
Here’s a St. Patrick’s Day promotion which can take place at a local night club or as part of a remote: invite listeners to stop by and “Show us your green thing.” Award prizes in categories such as most creative green thing, ugliest green thing or biggest green thing. You’ll be amazed at what people show up with.
St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast Remote
St. Patrick’s Day has become a big adult party day, often associated with alcohol consumption. If this isn’t an image you want to connect too closely with your station, a good solution might be a St. Patrick’s Day breakfast remote. Choose a popular and accessible restaurant. Set up your morning team in a spot where it’s easy for people to stop by and chat. It’s a good chance to visit with listeners and do all those “Irish” things…from music to stories about leprechauns and Irish toasts. Doing a morning show remote makes sense, because you can promote other events coming up during the day…and have your listeners toasting themselves with green omelets instead of green beer!
A Taxing Situation
On tax day, April 15th, there will be at least one location in every town that’s open until midnight to postmark tax returns. Your station should be there to hand out stamps, cookies, hot chocolate and station paraphernalia.
Getting Back at Uncle Sam
On April 15th find a location that’s near a post office (one of your clients’ parking lots would be ideal) and have a dunking booth with someone in an IRS T-shirt in it. Invite people to “dunk the tax man” to help ease their frustrations.
Do I Really Want To Know?
On National Honesty Day in April invite listeners to call in and “bare it all” on the air, being honest about something they’ve never been honest about before. You can get a lot of really interesting stuff…just be careful to pre-screen the calls since this can get a little risqué.
Honoring the Office V.I.P.
A promotion honoring secretaries is especially good for strong at-work listening stations. Hold an after work party on Secretary’s Day in April for all the secretaries who listen to you; you can have co-workers or supervisors call in to add their secretary’s name to the guest list. Get sponsors to donate gift certificates to local shops, boutiques, spas and restaurants. A variation of this would be to hold a Secretary’s Lunch instead of an after hours party.
I Cannot Tell A Lie…Or Can I?
On National Honesty Day, have your morning person announce three facts and one lie on a particular subject. Invite your listeners to call in; the first one to tell the DJ which one is a lie wins a prize.
A Parade…No Foolin’?
For a wacky April Fool’s Day promotion, broadcast on your station that there’s a parade in town on April first (which there really isn’t). Announce the time and place of the parade on the air and send someone from your station to that location to see if any listeners show up.
April Foolin’
If your station has a high-profile morning person or team, this can be a lot of fun. Choose another station in your coverage area that also has a popular morning person or team (try to choose a non-direct competitor) and with no pre- promotion, switch stations for the day. It’s a good promotion for you and one of your competitors, and if it’s a non-direct competitor, you can both win…it’s guaranteed to get listeners talking about your stations!
Dads and Daughters
Since Bring Your Daughter To Work Day is becoming more and more popular, have your air personalities bring in their kids or kids of people who work at your station to help do news, weather and sports during morning and afternoon drive. You can vary this by having a public figure like the mayor, police or fire chief stop
by with their daughters (if they have one).
Caesar Who?
To celebrate the Ides of March (March 15th) — the day Caesar was killed — get with a local restaurant and create the “World’s Largest Caesar Salad.” Invite listeners to stop by the restaurant and give away free Caesar salads with the purchase of an entree. You can give away prizes for the best Caesar-like hairstyle, bottles of Caesar salad dressing to every 15th customer, and enter anyone who wears a toga to the restaurant in a drawing for a weekend trip to…where else? Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.
Thanks, Abe!
For President’s Day give away pictures of the presidents — which are, of course, found on money. You can do this on the air, giving away cash for correct answers to presidential trivia questions, or at a remote location like a shopping mall or grocery store. If you do this outside the station you can announce on the air that the first XX (your frequency) number of people to stop by a particular location will receive an envelope containing cash, which can be in any amount — from $1 to $1000.
The WXXX Hidden Treasure
Hold a scavenger hunt for prizes the week before Robinson Crusoe Day in February. Get local sponsors involved by setting up the hunt so that listeners have to register at different stores in the area to pick up clues to the treasure’s location. Work with sponsors so that listeners who register get a special deal at the merchants on that day, like “30% off on all merchandise to WXXX listeners.” Merchants can also give away prizes to the Xth (your frequency) registrant of the day. On the final day of the scavenger hunt give clues to make the location of the grand prize obvious. Then, the first person to show up at the right location wins. An appropriate grand prize would be a trip to a tropical island.
Spotting The King
To celebrate Elvis’ birthday on January 8th find someone who’s willing to dress up like The King. Hire a red and white limo and take him around to K-Marts, Wal- Marts, and shopping centers. Inform your listeners that Elvis has been spotted in the area, and the first person to call the station and report a sighting wins. Donuts, peanut butter and bananas can be part of the prize package.
A Kazoo For You
In honor of National Kazoo Day in January, hold a contest for listeners to call in and play their kazoo along with a CD. Air personalities can judge the entries and choose a winner. A great prize for this contest is an autographed cassette or CD containing the song they kazoo’d to.
Remembering The King
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday (January 15th) air short bits from MLK’s famous speeches, followed by, “WXXX remembers Martin Luther King Jr.” This idea can also be used for other famous American figures like JFK and Malcolm X. Sell sponsorships to accompany these promos.
June Dates
The first drive-in theater opened on June 6th, 1933. Kick off outdoor movie season by sponsoring the first night at 1933 prices, compliments of WXXX.
Me And My Shadow
Two weeks prior to Groundhog Day ask listeners to send in their guesses as to whether the furry fellow will see his shadow or not and separate the “yes” and “no” responses in two boxes. Once the answer is known, hold a prize drawing from the box of correct answers. The prize should be appropriate to whether summer will come early or winter will be longer.
A Memorial 500
Invite listeners to call, fax or write to your station, listing their five favorite songs of all time. Tabulate the results and play them back in countdown form over Memorial Day weekend.
A Laughing Matter
On April Fool’s Day your music programming can be lighter and sillier than usual. Tie in a promotion to have your listeners submit the worst ten songs ever recorded. Tally the results and count ‘em down on April Fool’s Night! If you don’t want to break format, select songs from your regular rotation that could be related to April Fool’s: Fool (If You Think It’s Over), Fooling Yourself, I’m A Fool To Care, Fool #1, Fooled Around And Fell In Love, Fool To Cry, What A Fool Believes, and Everybody Plays The Fool.
You Look Mahvelous, Ma’am
Celebrate Canada’s Victoria Day with a Queen Victoria look-alike contest, held at a local mall. You can also hold “Victrivia” contests running hourly during the promotion, with trivia questions relating to the queen or Canadian history.
Guess the Jackpot
For President’s Day, set up a cash jackpot but don’t tell the amount; let listeners know only that it’s made up of ‘presidents’ — $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills. At regular intervals on President’s Day invite listeners to call in and guess the jackpot amount. If they guess incorrectly, have the voice of George or Abe say, “Sorry, your guess is too high (or too low)” and award a consolation prize. If the guess is right, Abe says “Congratulations, you win $125 from WXXX.”
