CPR Promotional Check-Up - Aug 4, 2017

The Thrill Of Concert Ownership

I was at a station a couple of years ago and we were talking about great, amazing nights when you went home and just laid in bed and thought "That was fun. That was outstanding. I could make more money at Hardees but I wouldn't get that (bad term) jazzed about a day on the job". And it became clear that the person I was talking with had never ever once experienced that kind of glee. The glee you get from delivering a severe ass kicking to the competition.

It's self-perpetuating. It feels so good that you immediately want to go out and do it again. Greg Strassell was explaining to me the stages of heroin addiction and it sounds kind of similar.

There have been maybe a dozen of these nights in my career and they all involved event theft. In fact, usually the worst thing that could ever happen to a station is to become the "official" anything. It makes you lazy.

So missing an opportunity to market yourself to 18,000 potential listeners (and also blast music at them under the assumption that there's GOT to be a meter out amongst them)(as done by KLUC in Las Vegas and Power 96.1 in Atlanta) would be pretty silly.

Bodies

Whoever has the most wins. You just need to be creative. The first concert that Kevin Callahan went to when he transitioned to KSON in San Diego was a Jason Aldean show at Cricket Amphitheater. The two employee iHeart competitor had 63 people there.

For Katy Perry, Hot 89.9 in Ottawa used highschool cheerleaders that lined the entire boundary of the plaza so that, to get to the doors, you had to walk through a phalanx of them who greeted you and thanked you for "coming to our concert".

"But They Won't Let Us Do Anything On The Plaza"

Please see below.

Signage

You want to be the first thing they see and the last thing they see when they leave. In the case of Hot 89.9, they do a highway pedestrian bridge with banners about two miles away. Wild in SFO? The 880 exits coming from the north and the south to the Oakland Coliseum. And the BART station. Power 96 in Miami? They had a strategic map of all the roads leading in, exits off the freeway and transit stations leading into American Airlines Arena.

You can use banners. You can do what Hot in DC did and spray chalk all of the walking paths from parking garages. And let us not forget the highway message boards.

Leaving? In Ottawa the airstaff and vehicles relocated to an onramp to the highway so they could literally greet each car as it slowly crawled past on the way home. In Phoenix? Exiting the amphitheater out in the desert the cars left the parking lot, turned left and then drove a mile to the freeway. Party Radio would banner the cyclone fence across from the exit so as cars slowly came out and turned left, their headlights caught one last barrage of logos.

Before Before The Show

Giveaways We're desensitized to free tickets. For the average person, these are amazing prizes. Don't waste them with stuff like the VIP Club and Click & Register.

Trips Obviously, if you can get a concert flyaway to see the tour before the stop in your market, that's great. For Katy Perry, Kiss in Boise sent a winner to see the show in Anaheim and cover it on social media from the moment they arrived at the airport. She even got a photo IN the cockpit with the pilots.

No Trips? Fine. Wild in the Bay Area has used this network or stations and other iHeart stations to get nightly reports from the road in the weeks leading up to the local concerts. Someone at Kiss in Chicago doing a break from the United Center, talking about how great the show was and reminding people that "Just eleven days until The Little River Band Cover Band hits the Cow Palace". It's all about owning it before it gets to town.

Before The Show

Signage and bodies aside...

Fake Backstage Broadcasts If you haven't done one of these you haven't lived. It paints a spectacular image of what's happening inside the venue in the hours leading up to the show. Starting at about 10:30 in the morning, you start getting check-ins from your person on-site. Orlando at WiLD in Tampa put together this journey of exploring the bowels of the Ice Palace before a Prince show. It was all staged. Ditto with KDWB in the Twin Cities where AE's and other people at the station were people like Justin Bieber's tutor and Lady Gaga's personal chef.

Real Broadcasts Most have the excitement level of a broadcast at Rite Aid. In SFO, Jo Jo Wright and I went exploring, found a woman with a neckload of laminates and a dog on a leash. We put her on the air: it was Janet Jackson's dog walker. In Jacksonville, me and a guy from iHeart went exploring and found this dude out behind the loading dock, just tuning up: Jimmy Buffett's sax player. The break sounded just bleeping amazing. He'd been playing with Buffett for twenty years and true Parrot Heads, driving to the show, must have thought that it was phenomenal. Great stories. In Indianapolis, me and a promo person found Taylor Swifts road caterer washing pots out back and got him on the air.

Ticket Giveaways On-Site Ask yourself, "Who would battle traffic and pay $15 to park for a shot at winning tickets?" Not a ton of people. Very few people go to a show without tickets. Upgrades? Grip 'N Grin experiences? Absolutely.

Build A Crowd Ask yourself: what do I have to do to get people to stop in front of our set up? In the case of Hot 95.5 in DC, it was music and a minute to minute game plan of activities to build and keep a crowd for Taylor Swift that they started planning 90 days ahead of time. Please note the absence of people at the competition's booths. That tells people "Wow, they must be unbelievably awful if no one wants to hang around them." And no one wants to be associated with anything that no one else wants to be associated with.

Conversely, the Mensa Candidate that Power 96 in Miami hired from CBS in St. Louis declared "We have a lot going on. I know you would like us to do something 'big' at Taylor Swift but it's simply not a priority." They did a pre-party at a place two blocks away. It was very very exciting. I think ten people showed up.

Charging Station Z-95.3 in Vancouver merged that and a place for women to tweek their hair.

Chalk Board They've also used this for people to graffiti as they head into events.

Snapchat Zone Goes without saying.

Photo Opps In 2017 that's all people want. Something that people can get their photos with. Think outside the "cut out".

The Mensa Candidate in Miami, his first week, popped maybe the best promo assistant in Radio. Gino made all his own stuff. Like these bra dealies for Katy Perry

Z-95.3 in Vancouver made mike stands for a Back Street Boys show photo set-up.

Y-94 in Fargo got a Taylor look-alike instead of a cut out. Please note the TV crew.

WIL in St. Louis has made different set-ups for all their shows, like, "Drinks On A Plane" for Dierks.

During The Show

Punch Balls Sneak them in and blow them up and bounce them around during the show. (Me and Mrs. Jo Jo Wright introducing Boyz II Men because the morning show had to split)

Tweet From Your Seat One of a thousand hashtag things you can do to grab people from their seats and move them down front.

Wear The Logo The iHeart Country station in the Twin Cities has done a pretty phenomenal job over the years of training the audience to market them at the show and they might get snagged and moved out of the nosebleeds.

FYI If you don't do it at a pre-event and instead do it by finding people in the venue, do it kind of stealth like. Because you might piss other people off. I almost got stabbed by someone at a Billy Idol show who thought they deserved the meet and greets more than the person I chose. Whoops.

Lights Extreme in Honolulu did logo'ed xyalume light sticks at an N'Sync show. KOB-FM in Albuquerque handed out a thousand little clicky lights as a No Doubt show. Stick in on your shirt, turn it on and maybe get spotted for passes.

Kiss and Mix in Phoenix have used light systems provided by clients to create a "club" on the plaza after the shows.

94/9 in San Diego ventured into the land of battery-powered strings of lights that they wrapped street teamers in and had them dance on the plaza after the show. Alpha in Savannah stole the concept for their St. Patricks Day festival which is the 2nd largest in the US. It b cray.

After The Show

Don't leave.

Oh, and...

Move Bodies & Vehicles

Play Music

Take Photos Either share straight from on-site or give them bounceback cards where they can go and get their photos the next day. And it has to be the next day. Because their digital people didn't work weekends and it wasn't a priority, the "other" CHR in Phoenix took four days to get Gaga photos up. I like this "You've Been Snapped" idea.

You have two goals:

• Meet a ton of people and maybe make a few fans. Great stations have fans.
• Have it be so ugly that the competition goes back to work feeling like they got punched in the gut.

To Do List

This is a moderately outstanding checklist that Chris and Ciro have used at Entercom in San Diego.

• Stencils - Water soluble paint should be used to logo X-walks and anywhere foot traffic exists. Marking paint can be used on Grass and dirt in the parking areas that are not paved
• Banners - Line the fence - leave only room for the other station to hang 2, pay special attention the fence that is angled to face the road. Occupy all space on angled fence as that is most likely to be seen Someone will need to be assigned as "Banner Fixer" and should drive using another station vehicle or unmarked car to drive the banner route and go through site to keep banners looking acceptable for the duration of the promotion.
• Vehicles - strategically placed for maximum visibility
• Exit strategy - Make sure we are equally as visible on the way out of the show as we were on the way in. Change sign directions, vehicle locations as necessary to have it covered
• Logo light - When the sun goes down, it comes on. Shine it on a wall or walkway that get seen
• Games - Use your imagination - Giant Dice? Anything that will get noticed and have a point of engagement.
• Prizes - Have something to put in their hands as a point of engagement. What it is isn't as important as the point of engagement. However, you need to have something.
• Tents - Like banners, location is important! The tent should be manned or womaned at ALL times with a FRIENDLY logo'd station representative. Have something going on and make that point of engagement
• Jobs - Just to name a few - Live broadcast (Jock), banner fixer, flesh presser, photographer, audio gatherer, electronic social director (posting, tweeting, uploading etc.) , back stage correspondent
• ALL station reps should have a logo'd shirt and nametag lanyard on all the time UNLESS you have been assigned a stealth job (although that would be the exception to the rule). It might be best not to list positions at the station on the lanyard passes.
• There should be a log for the ambulance and JJ truck that gets filled out every time it moves so that we can show where it has been.
• Inflatables - Like having another van. Get them is a highly visible spot near the set-up
• Always have extra of everything. Especially at concerts where most of the venues are NO WHERE NEAR ANYWHERE we need to be prepared with tape, scissors, helium, zip ties, prizes, games, banners etc.
• Bring ALL assets even if we've been told we can't use them. For example balloons are not allowed everywhere, but you should bring them at all times in case an opportunity presents itself, same for stickers etc.There should be no logo'd assets that don't go to a concert event and we should explore opportunities to use everything (without getting into trouble of course)
• Make or have made signs that say "Win ticket upgrades", "Win your way back stage",