An overview of what broadcast pr is
Broadcast PR is media relations designed to secure a company, product, brand or spokesperson coverage on TV and radio. In a nutshell, broadcast PR is media relations specifically and carefully planned to secure coverage on TV and radio, whether that be for a brand, a product or any other type of entity too. It is now big business and there are more and more brands now making this investment. To add to this, there are also a great number of firms out there offering services for this to businesses in their own ways.
Measuring effectiveness
While business executives long have asked their marketing teams to provide quantifiable results of campaigns, they’ve demanded considerably less proof from their PR teams. Often, this is because PR is viewed as a “soft” discipline. Executives know intuitively that media coverage of a launch or announcement provides much-needed “air cover”. It helps marketing efforts score higher. But with data driving more and more business decisions, PR is getting greater scrutiny. This too is how a broadcast pr agency is now so vital and key.
In turn and in detail, executives are demanding that PR professionals show how their campaigns contribute to the business’s success. Because broadcast pr coverage is highly influential – more than 95% of U.S. homes have a television and 71% of Americans watch local TV news – capturing and sharing metrics about PR placements on radio and TV is essential to providing a complete picture of PR efforts.
You can join this all up to your business
Broadcast monitoring can be used to show that PR is helping to achieve your business objectives. When the CEO appears on a talk show, a qualitative measurement of the talking points can demonstrate how well your message is being delivered and what improvements might be needed. While it’s tempting to simply supply viewership numbers, it’s far more valuable to provide an analysis of the messages that were delivered during the broadcast and how they align with business objectives. You can also provide an assessment of the reporter’s reaction to the message, providing an indication of whether it was positively received.
This is a very visual type of media
In broadcast news, there is no story without visuals. If someone agrees to an interview, but doesn’t feel comfortable going on camera, you find someone else to interview. While the standard isn’t as strict for print and digital, it still applies because media is a visual medium. Almost every story you read has a picture to accompany it. Also, every reporter or editor would welcome an original photo over stock imagery.
Overall
In local broadcast news, reporters work on a daily deadline. It is very typical for a news director tp decide what story I was going to do around 10am. Also that that story would air in its entirety as soon as 4pm. So, between 10am and 4pm, there could be a schedule to drive to interviews. Also to conduct those interviews. From here there will then be the need to then write and edit the story. And while that timeline isn’t as strict in print and digital news, reporters are still coming up against it, all the time.
With that in mind, speed is key. The end-of-day or weekend concept doesn’t necessarily exist in a journalist’s world, since many are working odd shifts outside of the Monday-Friday, 9-to-5 standard. So, if a reporter responds with interest, get back to them immediately, if possible. With breaking news, deadlines, and fierce competition, reporters’ attention spans are often brief. So take advantage of the rare moments when they have time to engage. And when they don’t engage, try to have empathy for the stress. This is what often coincides with nonstop deadlines, odd schedules and small pay cheques.
