Corporateinklings

Saying "No" to Colbert

 
This week, we found ourselves counseling our clients to turn down national media. The first was The Colbert Report – a venue most of our clients can only dream about being on. The second was 60 Minutes.

Are we crazy for not wanting to reach a national audience – of influencers, no less? Are we nuts for saying no?

Actually, it didn’t even take much deliberation. We suspected from the outset that neither show would do right by our clients.  If you’re Steven Colbert – the point is to be funny. Our client is already finding that not all publicity is good publicity – and the risk of being the target of humor in an emotionally charged debate was too high. Sometimes – quite often, actually – saying no is the smarter approach.  How do you know? Consider the audience – is it a match? Consider the media contact – where does your story fit with theirs? Now consider your own agenda: Why do you want to say yes? How much of it is the pure, personal thrill of being able to say you were there?

That last point is at least 50% of what these producers count on. It’s why people say yes when the bookers call – and fly to New York to sit  in the green room of the Today Show, or the Tonight Show, for hours,  waiting for their 90 seconds in the limelight, even if it does nothing for their story, or their message, or their life.

So we said no, nicely. Because some day, we might want to be swapping laughs with Colbert.  For 90 seconds, anyhow.

(The 60 Minutes story is still in play.)

 - By Amy Bermar

Lost? Not Really.

Last night, I watched Lost’s 5^th season premier, with its 100 or so plotlines. The Nielsens – now known as TVbythenumbers.com – clocked in at 10 million viewers, most of them 18-49.

The catalyst: My teenager, who, at 18, is on the cusp of this target demographic. Because she’s a few years late coming to this party, she spent a good part of the last 10 days catching up on the first 72 episodes, with occasional forays into the non-Lost world for food or oxygen.

But last night, she was in the living room, consuming media the old fashioned way: on a big screen. But that’s only because the real thing was only available on ABC.

The plot is so complicated, that an eyeball tracker would have noticed that she was, in fact, watching the screen, at least most of the time. (Facebook was the #2 position, followed by texting.) Live talk was #4.

And not a single commercial was noticed or listened to.  So of the 10 million ‘watching’ – how many were worth the CPM for the 30 second spots? My guess? Not many.

So the broadcast model continues to limp along. And lose relevance in a world where consumers are rarely watching.

  - Posted by Amy Bermar

You Underestimate the Power of the Dark Side

As a former TV Producer, PR folks were once the bane of my existence. They‘d offer up bad information, flood my inbox with mindless press releases and would always call 5 minutes before deadline. But to be honest, the biggest reason they drove me nuts was that I just didn’t see the value in what they did.

Today, I blog before you a changed man. I’ve converted to “the dark side”, as the self righteous media elite like to call it. For the past year, I’ve been slinging press releases, burning up the phones and helping clients use new mediums to build communities.

If I could say one thing to my former self, it would be “PR works, period.” The right message delivered to the right audience at the right time is what drives business.

Want Proof?

A client just sent over an “A” lead generation they received for one of their target customers- a major creditor.  The lead came as a direct result of feature coverage we landed in a key industry rag.

There’s tremendous gratification when your hard work translates into something tangible.  As a producer, I loved watching our live coverage and daily news stories broadcast to the masses. And today, I take great satisfaction in seeing a piece of coverage appear in print, knowing full well that it could bring in the next big customer.

- Posted by Michael Italiano