Bring Attention to Your Brand with Little or No Cost

Over the years I would routinely host weekly calls with themes focused on doing more with less by collecting examples from across our fleet of stations. This encouraged team building with PD’s contributing their ideas to the group.

KBER101 in Salt Lake City got creative with “Best Of” plaques. They got 400 for less than 3k in trade.  Vinyl with suction cup for windows, hangers and stand options.  Awards created on color printer in the office, no cost. Engage the staff and go nuts with categories.  Business are PROUD of their awards, and for the most part, hang ‘em up.

Clever idea from Doug Hamand, our Tampa based VP. We’ve all seen those roadside commuter message boards. It takes planning to acquire one, but imagine traffic leaving a big concert in your city. “Bob Seger Concert Replay right now on WXXX” or “Win $500 on WXXX tomorrow at 7:20am.” Trade out with mentions or concert tickets.

We talk nearly every week on our calls about the importance of engaging twists and special packaging of Classic Rock to keep “gold-based music fresh”. At KLOS, Keith Cunningham creates interesting, fan-friendly themes and specials.

Consider executing “The Day”, simply promote that (date) is “The Day” at WXXX. It has a feel that something will change, or a big announcement is coming, when in fact you launch a day of songs with “Day” in the title. This and other “music stunts” create talk and drive social. It’s a perfect example of keeping Classic Rock relevant. “Last Letter Game”, “Barrel of Monkeys” and other themes are available to programmers.

I love this idea from Dave Frisina at Rebel Radio in Syracuse, NY. For a small investment, he created station license plates that mimic New York plates. Local bars and restaurants display them for terrific exposure in the right places.

You know the old marketing adage, “You can’t lose with kids or pets”. It’s true, if you have kids you’re well aware of the passion surrounding their activities- football, baseball, dance, soccer- anything. When I was in Atlanta with CBS, we took advantage of the huge crowds of parents attending games.

We produced  low cost banners giving us “naming rights” at middle school and youth sports fields. We approached local sports anchors as guest announcers and parents would take photos driving traffic to our Facebook page.

Youth Sports + Parent Pride = Potential Listeners

  • Budgets are tight, resources scarce, we must do more with less
  • Creative programming ideas and client solutions are currency
  • Today’s PD’s and Ops Managers need transferable skills that go beyond traditional roles
  • Competition is fierce, we need to fight for every advantage
  • We won’t outspend our competition, so we need to be smarter, nimble and more creative
  • Sharing successes and best practices will build a collaborative toolbox for the benefit of the entire team