The Broadcast Evolution:
The UK’s new media
landscape
Understanding the breadth and potential of modern broadcast
Howard Kosky, CEO of markettiers
I’ve witnessed many changes in the broadcast industry over 25 years of markettiers, yet there is still one constant that ensures effective coverage. Listening to media wants and needs and aligning content exactly. Broadcast has not only stood the test of time, but has continued to adapt to the changing tastes of the audience. Not only has it adapted, it has thrived, with total hours consumed across broadcast media still growing.
The industry has always welcomed good PR. Story creation that demonstrates an understanding of different audiences and formats. The key to success for all is to ensure we keep our eyes and ears open to planners, news editors and production companies. Invest time in getting to know them; recognise it’s not a one size fits all and ensure our collective knowledge base remains current.
As someone who launched the ‘radio day’ as soon as technology allowed, I’m intrigued to see how it continues to be the often default route for a broadcast strategy. Granted, a radio interview can be effective when highly targeted and delivered in the right way, but across TV, radio, online and mobile, I’d suggest televisual is probably a more apt lens to observe and craft a brand’s broadcast strategy.
I hope this report provides a gentle reminder on the opportunities out there and how we can get it right. Whilst also celebrating the role that broadcast has within effective communications strategies.
What journalists want.
Q&A with Dan Simmons,
presenter and senior producer, BBC
Ben Smith: What are the attributes of a good PRO for broadcast journalists?
Dan Simmons: “I think that good PROs understand great storytelling. When it comes to television they’re thinking in pictures and of the human angle of every story. Of how the human angle affects our emotions because the story is rarely the brand. The brand is just part of the story.” “What is that wider story and why should we (the audience) care? And I think PROs are getting that more and more right and closer to hitting the target as the years go by. When it comes to television, great storytelling means great pictures. The best PROs are also really onto the human angle of every story and how it affects our emotions.”
BS: What do PR people get wrong for broadcast journalists?
DS: “The ones that get things wrong more often: Have one press release for everybody – you can see it. It’s designed typically for press newspapers or blogs. It’s text based. There’s no effort gone in to seeing if the company has any assets to offer as far as video is concerned. There’s no treatment to the story that help it work visually. And it’s not just TV anymore. It’s useful for video bloggers. It’s useful for social media. There’s so many things that video now can be used for. I am amazed that at least half the pictures that I get have no video connected to them and have no ideas for video connected to them.”
BS: To what extent do you at BBC Click slice and dice the video content that you create for different channels?
DS: “For any big story that we do, we aim to be out on three or four social media networks with video with our story.”
BS: What form do those stories tend to take?
DS: “We aim to have a text piece which is for news and possibly a text piece which is feature based as well. “Even for stories that are lower down the pecking order – those will also receive social media treatment in video and pictures.”
BS: What about video content supporting stories, what does that editing process look like?
DS: “Most of our stories are re-edited down to about a minute to a minute and a half of video – with text on the video specifically targeted at social media and web use. “We see that it is absolutely crucial to complementing what we put out on broadcast so that we capture both audiences, and the audiences are not mutually exclusive, but we want to capture as much of our audience to the BBC as possible.”
“I am amazed that at least half the pictures that I get have no video connected to them”
Introduction
The definition of broadcast PR has changed beyond recognition from five years ago.
Broadcast PR used to be restricted to TV and radio coverage and whilst they are still powerful and crucial channels for video and audio lead campaigns, the spectrum of media that has a thirst for video and audio content has widened, diversified and democratised.
PR people now need a greater range of skills when putting together great audio and video content – they need brilliant creativity to be able to understand the needs of broadcast media, outstanding production skills and to be able to distribute the content in a timely and relevant way.
By talking to journalists, senior in-house communication directors and channel experts, this report aims to shine a light on how audio and video content is most effectively created, produced and distributed across social media, TV, radio and podcast channels.
The broadcast game has changed, the potential for brands is greater, but the stakes are higher.
How technology has disrupted the structure of the broadcast media
Media Case Study 1: Cheddar
Cheddar was founded by Jon Steinberg in 2016. He previously worked for the Daily Mail (as North America CEO) and at BuzzFeed as COO.
Cheddar is a video only channel producing modern, slightly edgy news and feature based content. The concept behind Cheddar was pretty simple, young people are no longer watching much prime time TV.
The consumer uptake of streaming services meant that TV was increasingly “on demand” and with Facebook controlling short form video, Cheddar aimed to fill the gap between the two with live news.
Steinberg’s original concept was to be the “CNBC for millennials” as he believed that young people do care about news – it’s just that the established media were not engaging millennials in the right way, or through the right channels.
With a focus on younger, business and tech savvy viewers, the original Cheddar show broadcast financial news live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
Cheddar’s content has evolved to include news, technology, politics, science and sport. So it competes with a broad range of broadcast channels including CNN and, from a UK perspective, BBC and Sky News.
Cheddar has two feeds - a paid-for and a free version. The paid-for feed broadcasts eight hours of programming a day, six of them live, and is available via Amazon Prime, Sling TV, YouTube TV and the Cheddar app. The free feed broadcasts three hours of new content daily and archived content is available through Facebook and over the air via its affiliated stations.
Cheddar has revenues of circa $11m, most of which comes from advertising.
According to Steinberg, Cheddar is getting 200 million views per month across all platforms.
Why some publishers are getting broadcast content right and why some are getting it wrong
Ex-Telegraph publisher and now MD of Blue Magpie Books Richard Ellis points out that the challenge the internet set for established media brands was not an easy one: “It’s a difficult juggling act because you’re trying to maintain the legacy side of the business that’s still providing probably 70-75% of the revenue, albeit that this will be declining.”
Ellis believes “Many of the established media brands have lacked the ambition and innovation to embrace the full potential of video”. From his time at The Telegraph, Ellis adds: “Our journalists had a print mindset, our advertising people had a print advertising mindset. So when it came to selling a different form of advertising they weren’t any good at it. And so you had this sort of double whammy that caused it to fail."
Currently, media brands often use third-party videos that users can access anywhere. They are often top and tailed with adverts and backed up by a 600 word article. But Ellis asks “Where is the customer value in that? But it allows the management to put a revenue stream next to the video. They’re too frightened about actual, real innovation.”
Markettiers CEO Howard Kosky believes that “As a commercial media owner, if someone is offering you for free, good quality B roll content that enables you, the media owner, to sell pre roll advertising that is relevant to your audience and allows you to monetise inventory, why wouldn’t you take that? Because that’s the current revenue model. Media owners are being prudent to work within their finances”.
That said, Kosky points to the future by identifying that “Bloomberg TicToc, Cheddar and The Insider Group (the publishers of Business Insider and Tech Insider) have targeted a very senior C-suite, exec audience, and they’ve done this without dumbing down the brand. They’ve created content that’s digestible on mobile - on the go.”
When brands have embraced video and audio, to produce highly shareable content, it can have rapid impact. For example Cheddar and Bloomberg TicToc have grown quickly over the past couple of years.
Media Case Study 2: Bloomberg TicToc
Bloomberg TicToc is the self-styled global newsroom on Twitter. The idea is that news and feature-led video content is curated on its Twitter timeline by Bloomberg’s editorial staff. According to Bloomberg TicToc it has around 2.2 million average daily views and 1.5 million average daily viewers on Twitter.
Launched in December 2017, TicToc’s content is created by Bloomberg’s 2,700 journalists and analysts across 120 countries.
In a sense TicToc is a hybrid media platform – combining Bloomberg’s journalistic insight and scale and the immediacy of Twitter. Justin B Smith, chief executive of Bloomberg Media said: “We’re seeing a shift in the media landscape today: more content companies are partnering with platforms to create hybrid businesses that better serve consumers and society. With TicToc by Bloomberg we’re fusing the best of Bloomberg and Twitter to build a fast and credible modern news experience.”
TicToc creates news video on 30-60 second clips, so they are in a visual format ripe for the mobile, social world. It currently has over 500,000 followers on Twitter, a TicToc podcast and a daily email alert.
How, when, and where journalists need broadcast content
Stories work differently in the broadcast media – be that online video, TV, radio or social channels. PR people need to be aware that the same stories are often covered differently in video and audio media than they are in text. Good stories require a mix of content, as Wale Azeez, freelance news producer at Sky News points out “No one type of content is, on its own, sufficient for a story”.
But the potential for PR people to make a positive and useful contribution is clear, as Azeez points out “Good content is labour intensive, this is particularly a challenge for video”.
When asked whether there are patterns to the type of content he needs for BBC Click, producer Dan Simmons says: “It’s more random [than that] and it’s down to the story around what the brand has to offer. And it’s a story that needs pictures. Some ready made pictures are always useful. But you need an idea as to why people should care about the subject first, and then the brand. And if you can sell the subject as a story then we’ve got something that can fly.”
“No one type of content is, on its own, sufficient for a story.”
Ideally PROs should supply video, potentially B roll, but Simmons points out that “nowadays anyone who works in PR has a phone that can shoot decent HD video. And so it is possible for them to create content and send it as an idea or suggestion, not as a finished product. Just as a visual suggestion as to how we might approach this subject.”
Markettiers’ Kosky believes that: “You have to define the word content – which in this context means the story. If you look at the RNLI campaign (see case study on page 8) we did a live outside broadcast from the beach in Bournemouth, where we had TV crews (from BBC Breakfast, Sky) interviewing a child whose life was saved because he followed the lifesaving advice from the previous year’s campaign.”
“If you create a successful story like this you can not only get three to four minutes four times across Breakfast, but there’s then a 12 minute piece on Facebook Live by Sky and the BBC. So what PR people need to think about is the story, whether that lands itself in video, audio, pre-recorded, or live interview format.” “If you want to land that on Sky News Sunrise you need to be offering a TV interview opportunity that could be an outside broadcast. If you want to land on Sky News Radio again it’s an interview clip. But if you want Sky News Twitter feed it’s a slightly different format of the video.”
Why video and audio content drive more emotion than text
All forms of content are complementary, not mutually exclusive, but text content and televisual content (audio and video) play different roles in the minds of consumers. Video and audio media create a different audience reaction. As Simmons argues: “The difference between the two (text and televisual content) is that one appeals to the emotion. And the other is much more cerebral. Text appeals much more to our mind and our understanding. As humans the first thing we do in a business environment is to focus on survival so we are drawn to the cerebral. We focus on the sensible, on getting a message across to somebody else so they understand it.
“What video does, and to some extent radio too, is to get a message across so that the end user feels it. And that’s the difference between the two. If you want your brand to be felt as well as understood then you need to use (televisual) media."
Broadcast Case Study 1: How RNLI saved lives through broadcast media
Background to the RNLI campaign:
The RNLI developed and launched ‘float to live’ in 2017, a series of floating techniques, which saved seven lives. In 2018, RNLI created a second phase of the initiative focused on the 99 young men who died at the coast in 2017 compared with 10 women and how they can effectively get life-saving advice to those young men.
The campaign objectives:
To reignite the discussion around the dangers of the water, particularly for young men, and continue educating on the importance of floating techniques. To raise awareness around how young men can support each other and the importance, and impact, sharing safety advice can have.
The campaign strategy:
- To create a new focus on the existing story narrative that focused on the sharing of advice, not just the dangers of the water. This was achieved through consumer research that looked at how young men support each other in different ways e.g. by offering relationship advice but not readily sharing safety advice.
- To create shareable video content that appealed to the 16-34 age range, the age bracket heavily affected by water deaths, would act as a vehicle to help drive the sharing of advice amongst the target audience.
The campaign activity:
- On 7 August, markettiers managed several hours of TV and radio interviews with multiple spokespeople in multiple locations, including Fistral Beach, Newquay and in studio. Spokespeople included RNLI lifeguard supervisor, Lewis Timson, surfer Luke Dillon and mother, Mel Goodship, whose son had died from cold water shock.
Results:
- BBC Breakfast live crosses, BBC News channel, Six O’Clock news, ITV News.
- 26 radio interviews - 22 taking place from Fistral Beach, Newquay.
A Q&A with the RNLI’s
public relations manager
Lucy Parker on its recent
Float to Live campaign.
Ben Smith: What was the aim of this campaign?
Lucy Parker: “It was a campaign across marketing and PR and broadcast was the central PR strategy. The aim is to get to young men and all their influences and broadcast is one of the best routes into that.”
BS: Young men are a tricky group to influence. How did you go about trying to get the message over to them about “float to live”?
LP: “Our key target audience was young men, so while we can do that really specifically through a marketing campaign, we also knew that it was really important to talk to their mums and dads and anybody who had an influence on their behaviour to try and target them directly and also indirectly.
“Broadcast was the channel that would speak to most people and get the message out far and wide.
“The relationship with Evan and his dad really brought our message to life. Having somebody that has used this key survival skill and put that into practice and helped save their life. “And with his dad as a part of that we added an emotional element to our campaign. “It also emphasises that this is such an easy technique, so it really helped endorse the message and showed people that it really does work. “Rather than coming from just the RNLI, having it spoken through Evan’s words really added weight to the campaign.”
BS: What did markettiers do?
LP: “They helped us to create video packages that could be used across online titles that encompassed soundbites from our key spokespeople. Some of our footage was being used across the marketing campaign and some new creative that we made just for social media. “We incorporated that into a B-roll package that could be used across all of those platforms. “Markettiers really helped to pull that broadcast and media package together and facilitate all of those interviews on a day that we specified as our media moment. Markettiers were there to tap into their broadcast contacts, manage the interview list on the day and make sure all the key steps were taken in delivering the key messages. “Post campaign analysis is showing that awareness is increasing, but there’s still more to do.”
The new wave of televisual content
How to create great podcasts
Podcasts are an owned media channel that enable brands to communicate and engage with their customers and potential customers.
“There’s creating great podcasts and distributing and getting people to listen to great podcasts – both of which are a process,” says Audioboom CEO Robert Proctor.
Podcasting as a channel is rapidly increasing. In the UK, according to Ofcom, 5.9m UK adults listen to a podcast each week.
Peter Mitchell, group MD of specialist podcast consultancy 4DC, believes that “2019 will be the year where brands attempt to work through the value of podcast as part of the mainstream marketing mix.”
“Listener numbers are at record levels all over the world, 12% in the UK according to Rajar and 27% in the US, according to Edison Research.”
Mitchell adds that “2019 will see consumers continue ask for more and more audio content. The potential therefore for a brand that does podcasting in the right way will be irresistible. Expect changes to the distribution model as podcast aggregators attempt to understand how to monetise inventory against other mainstream media.”
“Podcasting is a channel where brands can become publishers and compared to social media channels, it is a very reliable, very repeatable channel which the brand can own.”
Proctor points out that: “Podcasting is an amazing way for brands to relatively cheaply (compared to video) build an audience that they own forever. If Facebook changes its algorithm it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a podcast with an audience that people subscribe to by the RSS feed. You’re going to own that communications channel forever.”
That said, there are significant challenges for brands in developing a podcast strategy. Proctor says brands must “really understand what their objective is in creating a podcast.”
He talks to a lot of brands who say they want to make a podcast: “Audioboom’s opening question always is ‘Why do they (the brand) want to produce a podcast?’ And more often than not we don’t really get too much of a cogent answer.
“And then we ask them ‘What they are trying to achieve in producing a podcast?’ To which we normally get an even less cogent answer.”
Proctor adds: “Once you know what the objective is and you know what success looks like… you can step back and then look at all of the processes involved on the creative side and the narrative side.”
The podcast market is developing rapidly says 4DC’s Mitchell:
“Brands are now seeking to understand the true value of podcasting and how to convert a highly engaged listenership into customers and advocates. For example, Nielsen’s Podcast Insights 2018 US Report, suggests that podcasting may become a necessity for brands – with avid podcast listeners claiming to be 14% more likely to purchase from a brand that communicates within a business podcast.”
“Podcasting is a channel where brands can become publishers and compared to social media channels, it is a very reliable, very repeatable channel which the brand can own.”
Understanding your podcast story
Brands need to understand whether their podcast is purely about the audience size, or is it actually about targeting a very tight niche? Or is it actually to sell product?
According to Proctor, it’s only once a brand has decided on these parameters that: “You can then work out what the creative is and in terms of the business and commercialisation, you can look at the stepping stones to achieving the ultimate goal.” At this stage brands need to have conversations around what it is that will drive those success factors.
Brands should also look at all of their existing channels and have a plan in place as to how they are going to leverage those.
Proctor suggests this may include “newsletters, their social channels, wherever they’ve already got a touchpoint to end users that will allow the promotion and the marketing of that podcast to be really effective.”
Finally, brands should consider paid channels for the promotion of the podcast. These include paid search, paid social and advertising on existing relevant podcasts.
“You might look at paid social, paid search or maybe the brand could do sponsorship or spot advertising on other podcasts to try and convert existing podcasts listeners over to the brand’s podcast. And lastly, brands might consider fullblown “in-read” adverts (where the existing podcast presenter promotes your podcast) because that’s where the best conversion rates are. It’s the most expensive form of advertising that you can do within podcasting, but it’s truly effective.”
Rob recommends podcast brands who are doing a great podcasting job:
Just a great listen:
How does the distribution and organic promotion of podcasting work?
One of the attractions, from a building an audience perspective of podcasting, is that it just takes one click for people to subscribe. That said, it remains a challenge to quickly build an audience and a long-term play.
Proctor states: “You need to work out how you’re taking it to market in order to drive audience if you want to quickly grow your podcast listenership. We see a lot of really good podcasts, but you need to get the distribution right, you need to get the PR and marketing right, and use a platform like Audioboom.
“By using a distribution partner you will be able to leverage the relationships and the distribution partners that the platform has built with the likes of itunes, Spotify, stitcher and Google Play. “There is very little automated programmatic algorithmic discovery within podcasting, but there are 20 million podcasts on iTunes.
“So it’s very hard unless you can get those podcasts onto the front page of iTunes, or get them into New and Noteworthy. Unless you can get more prominent on Spotify and other platforms."
Want to know more?
Listen to a recent PRmoment podcast on podcasting with Howard Kosky, ceo of markettiers. Published in January 2019.
Live stream video
The range of social networks where organisations have communities has increased applications of video live streaming and on demand video opportunities for brands.
The fact that many organisations have significant audiences on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter means that live streaming and on demand video are multifaceted opportunities for brands.
Markettiers’ Howard Kosky says: “Brands have now got the opportunity to be the broadcaster. Whether it’s B2B or B2C, audiences are consuming live content from brands on tablets, PC and mobile. You’ve got brands creating a lot of owned channel content.”
“The impact of live broadcast in creating an event, in creating an opportunity to view and in creating high engagement levels is phenomenal. You can drive through CRM mechanisms and DM mechanisms. “10 to 15 years ago if you wanted to do a live broadcast you would need satellite feeds, which was cost prohibitive for many.
“And just having a satellite feed didn’t mean you’d have an audience – whereas now if you’ve got an audience on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or Facebook, why would you not use the opportunity or simplicity of that technology?”
“Live streaming and on demand video are multifaceted opportunities for brands”.
Live Stream Video
Case
Study 1: DMCC
Client: DMCC
Agency: markettiers Objective: Support the launch of DMCC’s international roadshow event, Made for Trade Live, and further promote DMCC in both the UK and in-region.
Strategy: Conducted insightful research amongst UK business owners and decisionmakers and pinpointed that UK businesses have an appetite for overseas expansion, with 75% of those considering expanding overseas interested in Dubai. Through this we were able to position DMCC as a strong option and support for trade and business expansion in Dubai and the UAE, amidst uncertainty and turbulence in more established markets, post Brexit and Trump administration.
Activation: Using multiple tactics to maximise coverage potential, we ensured the CEO of the DMCC Gautam Sashittal was busy throughout the day:
- Dominating the news agenda: the CEO of DMCC conducted interviews on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme, Jazz FM’s Business Breakfast, Sky News Radio, BBC World Service, Bloomberg, Reuters and LBC
- Live Stream to LinkedIn: the live streamed panel session with Gautam Sashittal was so successful it overran by 15 mins due to the volume of questions received
- B-Roll / Video News Release: packaged content was captured, edited overnight and placed with extensive online news channels in the UK and in-region
Result:
- Over 800 businesses viewed the live stream, with the UK, US and UAE beingthe top countries to watch – meaning that every single person watching the stream was on target
- On-demand: In the first 24 hours of going live over 6,000 people had watched the stream. The total audience reach is now >1.4m resulting in 38k interactions with DMCC
- Capturing our audience’s interest: the average viewing time was 21 minutes on a 30 minute stream proving that the topic and discussion was compelling
- Compelling data: over 120 questions were submitted, with the CEO answering those questions that could not be answered during the live broadcast afterwards
- Third party influence: a major Londonbased international recruiter also streamed the content live to their 800,000+ followers on LinkedIn, over 80,000 businesses were also reached via DMCC’s database
- Coverage: Key interviews secured on 50+ broadcast outlets with Reuters also issuing the B-Roll to its 600 major global newsrooms
- Commercial metrics: 200 quality enquires from UK businesses to DMCC post the stream, exceeding the KPI set by markettiers by four times
Live stream Video Case Study 2: BACB
Client: BACB
Agency: markettiers
Objective: Educate investors and business partners on trade opportunities in Africa and the advantages BACB’s niche placement has to offer importers and exporters.
Strategy: Create an international discussion around the current global business climate and its impact on businesses trading with African partners, as well as the challenges and opportunities of trading across the continent of Africa and the crucial role that Trade Finance plays.
Activation: markettiers curated BACB’s first ever live interactive webcast - Trade With Africa. The lives stream programme, hosted by business journalist Michael Wilson, included three distinguished panellists, Patrick Gutmann (BACB), James Cantamantu Koomson (BACB) and Peter Millett, Former British Ambassador to Libya.
The webcast was broadcast live on both BACB’s website and across LinkedIn, where current and potential new clients were invited to submit their questions whilst watching.
Result: The programme was also simulcast across a further nine third party websites, reaching potential new investors and business partners, and another four Africa focussed business websites. Viewers from nine countries, including France, Spain and UAE, tuned in to watch the discussion and 30 questions were submitted from members of the public.
Broadcast Case Study 2: How Oracle helped bees using broadcast
The Strategy:
Leveraging World Food Day (16 October 2018) and the partnership announcement, markettiers crafted a news advisory outlining the importance and potential scientific breakthroughs that the World Hive Network Launch might be able to achieve, enabled by Oracle Cloud technology.
The Activation:
- Working collaboratively, markettiers wrote tech and business feature advisories and a broadcast news advisory and offered broadcasters the opportunity to film the beekeepers in Reading and interview on-site
- Produced B-Roll with multiple spokespeople in two locations (London and Reading) and a cut news package
- The cut news video feature told the story and outlined the importance of the relationship and an online advisory was created to sit alongside the video feature on third party websites and via social channels
- Markettiers recommended capitalising on the partnership and strategised editorially balanced tactics designed to keep Oracle Cloud central to the story
The Results:
- The bespoke and indexed sell-in secured three television opportunities (Euronews, BBC South (key region for stakeholders), BBC London) reaching a global audience of more than eight million to date
- Three radio interviews with BBC Berkshire and BBC5Live Up All Night which syndicated across all the local BBCs in the UK as well securing the Naked Scientist and BBC World Service Science in Action podcasts syndicating out to further 40 BBC regionals and BBC World Service radio
A Q&A about Oracle’s use of broadcast media for the World Bee Project.
PRmoment founder Ben Smith caught up with Oracle’s Chris Talago to talk about the importance of broadcast media in this campaign.
Ben Smith: What’s the campaign all about?
Chris Talago: ”This campaign is part of something that we call Your Tomorrow Today and it’s the way in which companies and organisations are using cloud technology to transform their business and transform the problems that they face.
“So with the World Bee Project we wanted to make sure that people become aware of and understand why bees are dying out. Roughly 90% of the world’s food production is dependent upon pollinators and the world’s most important pollinators are bees and they’re dying at a pretty alarming rate. The problem at the moment is we don’t have enough data to understand why they’re dying out.”
BS: How does Oracle software help to solve that?
CT: “We put sensors in the hive – so we measure everything from the sound, to the temperature and humidity.
“The data helps us to begin to work out some of the conditions that might be leading to the bees dying out, whether that’s in the hive, predators or the ecological conditions. And from that we do a whole bunch of data analytics and data visualisation and we were able to help provide them with some of the data potentially on why bees might be dying out, and from there we’ll be able to work out a broader problem.“
BS: What role did video and the broadcast media play in this campaign?
CT: “Video played a huge role. It was central to the broadcast strategy and broadcast played a huge role in getting the message out there to the wider public. “Prior to the campaign we talked a lot about which audiences we needed to address and some of that obviously is the broader public, but at the end of the day you know we are interested in telling a story that relates to Oracle’s role not just the broader position around what’s happening with the bees. “So we needed to interpret the story in a way that allowed us to tell the Oracle story. not just a story about bees. As compelling as that may be, it’s not necessarily going to sell any more cloud products!
“So we have to be able to turn what is a general news story into a commercial benefit for Oracle.
“The role broadcast played was first to be very specific geographically, we got a whole bunch of shows across TV and radio in the Thames corridor and a lot of our customer base is in that corridor and they’re able to hear what we had to say about data visualisation and the huge amounts of data that we’re generating.”
BS: Is a different approach needed for the televisual media, than text based channels?
CT: “I think the programming (in broadcast media) is very different. The way in which they commission content, the way in which the news programmes are decided, editorially the way in which you tell the stories is very different. So there’s a lot of stuff there that if you didn’t have specialist insight, might lead you to a different way of telling that story. It’s just a completely different way of pitching media.”
Conclusion
I can’t say I’ll be running an agency in the broadcast marketing industry for another 25 years. Yet, I am confident that broadcast, and its global impact, will continue to grow and further adapt to its audiences. Ensuring it remains relevant and a core part of people’s daily media consumption.
My call-to-arms for the PR and communications industry that I’ve championed and loved for nearly 30 years, is to ensure that it stays current. Recognise the enormous opportunity we have to own one of the most effective, and trusted, series of channels and platforms available for delivering brand communications.
Let us not lose the ground or momentum to other disciplines and ensure we remain excited, challenged and leaders on behalf of brands.
Howard Kosky, CEO of markettiers
Report written by Ben Smith.
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