Well, look at the calendar. We’re halfway through 2025, and in just two short months, we will begin the budgeting process for 2026.
This piece could be about revisiting goals, challenges you’ve conquered, or a reflection on where your relationships lie. You know – a motivational missive.
That’s not what we do here, and you can find plenty of that on the Internet.
The Adult Contemporary brands we partner with tend to be a bit sleepy during the summer months. However, now is the time to cobble the rest of the year together.
Opportunities are creeping up on you.
- In the next four to six weeks, teachers will report for the 2025-2026 school year.
- Labor Day is exactly two months from today.
- Halloween is in three months. Home Depot and Lowe’s announced they will have their decorations in stores early this month.
- Christmas is 274 days away, and big box stores will have their Christmas goods in-store in four weeks.
If you’re not busy now, developing promotional and selling opportunities, you’re fumbling the balance of the year.
Every quarter (and occasionally, monthly), we meet with station promotional creatives and local sellers to brainstorm upcoming events.
Here’s a sample of notes from client ideation sessions:
Back – To – School Ideation
Back-To-School is coming like a locomotive and nationally is a $38(b) billion event. Ageless promotions include Adopt-A-Classroom (Teacher), Stuff-A-Bus with school supplies, talent sleeps on a rooftop until XX number of backpacks are collected
*NOTE: When working with schools, start by reaching out to local Parent-Teacher Organizations to gain access. PTO’s not only gain you entry but are an army to get a promotion underway.
School Spirit Contests
Update from the ’80s-’90s: contests with bottle caps or penny promotions. Collect the most texts on your text lines to win a prize for your school, sponsored by a local hardware or sporting goods store. Consider organizing a Back-to-School Scavenger Hunt where students take selfies in front of listed businesses all over town. Submit photos for B2S prizes from those businesses, such as haircuts, shoes, clothing, keepers, and backpacks.
High School Newspapers
Develop digital or physical press releases for station events. Send it to High School newspapers. High School newspapers are hungry for content and will most likely print your release content. Also, consider sending a PR to the newspaper if one of their students wins a prize or is featured in an article at an event.
Free Kids Back-To-School Hair Cuts
Enlist a local barber or chain like Great Clips to offer free kids’ haircuts before they go back to school. Hold the free cuts in their ‘downtime’ like mid-afternoon or close to closing time at night.
Dad’s Class On Hair
Most Dads do not have a clue about manipulating their daughters’ hair into something acceptable. Approach a salon to host a Saturday morning event where Dads can sign up to learn this skill, and leave behind hair essentials as a take-home gift for those who attend. This could have a Back-To-School theme or later in the fall, in front of Daddy/Daughter Dances.
Back To School Splash
Work with local swimming pools to have a FREE week, the first full week of school, for students. Enlist a local big-box store to give away packed backpacks at certain pools for students. Also, contact local pools to arrange a free swim day for dogs on the last day they are open.
Best School Bracket
People LOVE brackets. NCAA, Best Pop Band, Best Kids Candy, etc. Create a Best School Bracket and have listeners vote on the best school in your area. The winning school receives a $500 gift card ‘grant’ for school supplies or to host a party. Work with the school PTO to have your talent HOST the party.
Weather Kid
Get a local elementary school class to provide a ‘Weather Kid’ (the kids doing the announcements that week) to report the weather on your morning show. Every elementary school has weather in its announcements. BONUS – get a Pledge of Allegiance from local schools and run it at the top of the 7 am hour on both stations. Parents LOVE this stuff. So do local insurance agents and lawyers. GREAT targets for sponsorships.
Evergreen Ideation
Listen, Win & Grin
Ask listeners to register for a free teeth whitening from a local dentist. You COULD ask to submit their smile, but you would likely not get as many entries. Draw one winner for the whitening process (anywhere from $300 – $1000 value). Offer dentists to do spots about keeping teeth white and healthy. Give the database to the dentist (with listener permission) for marketing purposes.
Social Media Sponsor
We have local sponsors for parts of our social media. Identify a local business to be the ‘ umbrella ‘sponsor of your social media. The sponsor would be featured on all social media platforms with a ‘bug’ in the corner or a pre-roll. Great visual real estate for the business that bites.
Furry Fridays
People in America invest $136 billion annually on their pets, and the average American spends $2,500 on their dog every year. Dog adoption is a HUGE category—lots of sponsor categories for pets. Bring in a dog and feature on your morning show. Adopters receive a gift card from PetSmart or Pet Supplies Plus (or a Walmart or local store). Take the pics to your social media properties.
Vet Tips for Dogs
Have a veterinarian come to the morning show and offer tips to keep dogs safe during fireworks (NOT just July 4th). Sell your local pet store. Or, if appropriate, a local CBD store that offers doses for dogs.
QR Codes – Everywhere
QR Codes were nearly dead a decade ago. They are back and they are everywhere. Develop and place QR codes (most are free to design) at events like local baseball, football, basketball games that lead the scanner to a station promotion or a local sponsor. Or create engrossing interest by placing a sign near the code with a message like “Don’t Scan Me” or “You Don’t Want This”. Perhaps take the scanner to your app in the App Store. Marketer Tim Burt has made a living out of these codes. Look – here.
Station/Client Sponsored Charging Station
MOST phone charging stations are expensive. Your charging station would be a couple of portable, multiple-outlet USB plugs, under $15. Plug them and put them on a table with a staffers to greet the listeners. There are a ton of different kinds—click here for an example—presenting a great sales opportunity for insurance, title, or electric companies. Most electric providers are non-profit and have a local budget for this sort of community engagement.
Election 2025
The election this fall is MOSTLY local. And – most politics are local. Run PSAs for dates related to voter registration in your state. Including the dates when mail-in ballots are due and early voting locations are available. Also, run PSAs for poll workers needed by the county. Some counties have funds to buy time to solicit poll workers.
Additionally, we compiled a list of special days and months using The National Days Calendar, available here. Or encourage them to stay current with Chase’s Calendar of Events – here—plenty of partnership ideas on the website(s) and inside the book.
Later in the 2025 3rd Quarter, we’ll share a tickler file of 4th Quarter creative for Adult Contemporary Brands.
Until then – get busy!
*Special thanks to client stations for ideation and the creative minds behind the promotional efforts of Midwest Communications, Federated Media, Leighton Media, Midwest Family of Companies, Saga Communications and CPR Promotions Paige Nienaber (among others).
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Kevin Robinson is a passionate award-winning programmer, consultant and coach – with multi-formats success all over the country. He has advised numerous companies including Audacy (formerly Entercom Communications), Beasley Broadcast Group, Westwood One, Midwest Communications, Townsquare Media, Midwest Family Broadcasting Group, EG Media Group, Federated Media, Kensington Media, mediaBrew Communications, Starved Rock Media, and more. He specializes in strategic radio cluster alignment, building lean-forward tactics and talent coaching – legacy and entry-level – personalities.
Known largely as a trusted talent coach, Kevin is the only personality mentor who’s coached three different morning shows on three different brands in the same major market to the #1 position. His efforts have been recognized by The World Wide Radio Summit, Radio & Records, NAB’s Marconi, and he has coached CMA, ACM and Marconi Award-winning talent. He is also in The Zionsville High School Hall of Fame as part of the 2008 inaugural class. Kevin is an Indiana native – living near Zionsville with his wife of 39 years, Monica and can be reached at kevin@robinsonmedia.fm.
