CPR Promotional Check-Up

Great Moments In Radio Advertising

Growing up in the Twin Cities, there was a chain of stores called Hurrah! that catered to young women. I think they in all the malls.

For all the years they were around they only ever had one Radio spot. It was a woman singing with piano accompaniment at a dance recital. The donut portion of the commercial was usually filled by a guy who parodied all the "big voice" ads that were in the marketplace.

A local radio geek had taped this off KDWB 33 years ago and shared it with me. The first few seconds were clipped off. The spot started with "This is a slightly irregular radio commercial for a slight irregular store, three, four".

So I'm at an ALS bike thing and chatting with a Class of '80 friend named Linda. I asked, "Do you remember a clothes place called Hurrah! ?" and before I even got to "I snagged one of their old spots" she, unprompted, sang, "And the name of the store is Hurrah (two beat pause) three, four."

That is huge. Email me at nwcpromo@earthlink.net and I'll send you the snagged spot.

I (Insert Other Things That Begin With "M")

The "In 30 Minutes Or Less" contest was created at the Beasley station in Atlantic City when an AE brought in 25 pairs of Janet Jackson tickets and wanted to do "Win It Before You Can Buy It." Knowing that at least two other stations in town were going to be doing identical contests, we decided to have the street team deliver the tickets. It was large and the other stations sounded like fools.

Q in Philly was the first station to deliver trees at Christmas time. 92.3 NOW in NYC regularly delivers their weekend prizes.

Following up on the IM (Instant Mom) contest from WKRQ, what else can you bring or deliver?

• Instant Matrimony. Has been done as The Cold Feet Wedding at 98PXY and "Marry Me Now!" at KUBE in Seattle. I can walk you through it. But the basic concept is you find a guy who keeps creating excuses to delay the ceremony, you coordinate in secret with his girlfriend and the families, and you ambush him at work with a minister, rings, the whole shebang.
• Instant Movies. Could be done with delivering movie tickets (if anything it's an excuse to get the vehicles out of the lot) or on a Saturday night, going to a park, setting up a screen and showing a movie for everyone in the neighborhood. Jamz in Orlando is among the stations that have done these outdoor screenings.
• Instant Massage. A spin on Alice/Denver's Day Spa bit where they went to offices and gave women spa treatments on-the-spot in their cubicles. Not that we want to be out marketing to nesters in a PPM World(tm)
• Instant Mash Up. You present it as taking several CD's, putting them in a blender and then playing back the collage of hooks. First to ID the five or six clips in order wins.
• Instant Music. You have the new (and much overdue) song from Boy Meets Girl? Email it to the database.

Or you can do a Free Music Weekend. That's pretty large too.