SCHWARTZ HEALTHCARE-IT BLOG

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A Guide to TV Coverage

Part Ten in a Continuing Series on PR Strategy and Tactics for Healthcare IT Marketers

Departing from the usual healthcare issue-oriented discussion, here is some advice on broadcast pitching from a Schwartz Communique Newsletter. Annoyed that television news always covers the raging house fire instead of your cool hospital technology? It's because house fires touch on what every producer wants: a visually appealing story.

Television news segments are a great way to target a broad consumer audience, but to land TV coverage your story needs to meet vastly different criteria than for print stories.

The TV news landscape is rapidly changing. With choices ranging from 24-hour news stations to local, national and morning news shows, to online video outlets, competition for viewers and stories that attract them is stiff. While this competition offers some expanded coverage opportunities, it also forces PR professionals to fit their story to the niche criteria that producers of a particular show crave.

Think your story may have an appealing angle to garner television coverage? Here are some tips from  assignment editors and producers on how to package a compelling, visual story.

- Keep it Short and Simple-An average segment lasts less then two minutes and is getting shorter. The constraints of a two-minute story make in-depth, thoughtful coverage nearly impossible for television producers. To help, provide a simple, high-level message and story line.

- Save Producers Time-Producers have limited resources and are always crunched for time. Anything you can provide to save a producer time, thereby making their day easier, will get more attention.

- Visual, Visual, Visual-Be very clear why your story is visual¬; vagueness is the enemy. Help producers visualize how the story will play out. They want to avoid a constant "talking head" at all costs.

- Human Element Required-Your story must appeal to a broad consumer audience. Most television segments have a human interest angle. If you have a compelling technology, approach the story from a consumer's perspective and not that of your company. For example, focus on ideas that convey concepts such as "this will help me save time" or "this will reduce mistakes" not "this is a milestone for the company."

Some tools you can use to help achieve your goal:

- Video News Releases (VNR)-These videos mimic the style of the evening news while telling your story. Typically, VNRs include product images, expert interviews and extra footage. While many producers will shy away from running a full, pre-packaged segment in their newscasts, the VNRs provide much-needed extra footage to fill their story and they are often the catalyst that gets a producer thinking seriously about your story.

- Local news feeds national news-National news stations frequently get their stories from local affiliates. Typically, it's easier to get a local station to cover your story, provided you can give the local station a local angle. If the timing is right, and national stations need segments to fill time, they will re-use local affiliates' stories.

- Animation-Developing an explanatory animation package can be a useful tool to further visualize the story line for television. It's also a quick and convenient tool for time-pressed producers.

- Tie your pitch into a hot network show-The local affiliates need to keep their respective national networks happy by doing segments based on hit shows. For example, if something happens on Grey's Anatomy that's somehow relevant to your technology, pitch the local ABC affiliate with an idea based on the episode's developments.

- Know your newsroom-If you have a story that you know will be relevant in a few days or weeks, pitch the Planning Editor. Only pitch the assignment editor or news desk with an angle tied to breaking news.

For more PR strategy and tactical advice, please click on the "PR Strategy and Tactics" category to the right.

Posted by Shawn Whalen on April 2, 2007 at 2:52 PM
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