I’d been at the station that was soon-to-become Wild 107.7 in San Francisco for about a month when Halloween rolled around and the consensus was “We need to find a way into the Exotic Erotic Ball”. I asked what that was and they rolled their eyes and said “Sneak us in there and find out.”
That was intriguing enough for me, so with a little subterfuge and creativity we Rambo’ed the biggest Halloween party in the US.
To paraphrase Cotton McKnight, I’ve seen the Great Pyramids of Egypt. I’ve seen a grown man satisfy a camel. But I’ve never seen anything as improbable as 50,000 mostly naked people partying in SOMA.
The Exotic Erotic Ball ran for 3 decades and was the confluence, the result of a fundraiser for some nudist movement and the annual holiday bash thrown by/for the sex industry employees of the Bay Area.
You’re asking yourself, “But how does this relate to Radio promotions?”
It doesn’t. It was clickbait and thanks to Dashboard Mailchimp I can tell the name and email of every single person who read this piece. And like J. Edgar Hoover, it’s info that I’ll hold close until such time as I need to use it.
In addition to the proliferation of skin, the hook that the Ball had was huge, ginormous cash prizes and themed activities. It was a spectacle.
Promotions is the Art of Standing Out. And with Halloween that can be hard since every bar, legion hall or other establishment with a liquor license, on the planet, will have a party. And most will be as exciting as their regular Tuesday night “2 for 1 PBR Tallboys!” special with a $50 costume prize thrown in.
What you need to do, to win, is to get the Professional Costume Crowd. Like my friend Bob, who is literally Clark Griswold: he’s a genius with food additives. And since I’ve known Bob, the ONE night of the year that he can act a tiny bit crazy, is Halloween. Every year his costume is better than anyone elses. I go just to see what Bob is wearing. If you get Bob? You’ll get the normal people who are there to watch.
So Carmy Ferrari imported the idea (and name) of the Exotic Erotic Ball to KZZO in Sacramento and it was so successful that it basically put every other radio event in the market for Halloween out of business. His hooks were: Naughty costumes, naughty activities and big cash prizes. $5000 for the best. And then some $1000 prizes for categories. Boom. The last one I attended drew 8000 people.
“Naughty” is subjective. For Magic in Colorado Springs, it was cage dancers as part of the accoutrement. In Tampa? The Human Petting Zoo.
It’s all about vibe. In Minneapolis, KDWB did it at a very very cool old brick slaughterhouse which was a thousand times better than just doing it at a club. And apparently “naughty costumes” work because their recap got 1.4 million views in the 72 hours after the Ball.
There was this Mensa candidate who Cox had in Houston and when Halloween was brought up he said “We’re not some damn kiddy station”. Dude, it’s the #2 adult party holiday of the year. My neighbor who drives a snow plow for the county has a bash in his barn that is better than 90% of station events for Halloween.
Some stations have tried to overthink the Exotic Erotic Ball and add something like an artist only to discover that no one cared. They were there for the boudoir photography, the dancing, the games and the costumes.
So it’s a really good exercise in problem solving: how are we going to do something, like a food drive or a toy drive or a Valentines wedding or a Halloween party, that will crush everything else? Because why would you ever want to do something that wasn’t remarkable?
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