Move over Entertainment Tonight - Proving your value in the digital world
Posted by Jennifer on June 17, 2009
No, I’m not picking on ET but I am warning all TV magazine giants and all the big players in general that they better bring their digital A-game or the upstarts will get all the juicy interviews. And by upstart I mean sites like TubeFilter who create great content for their audience on the web AND can drive traffic. Let me repeat – sites with a well defined audience who also effectively drive traffic and awareness ie. help marketing & PR do their job.
Yes, I realize this isn’t happening tomorrow but it’s coming soon. Results! It’s the new mantra. Ad budgets are shrinking, departments are streamlining and people are multitasking. Social media has not only enabled direct to consumer interaction, it’s made everyone accountable to deliver the goods. And no, securing a list of critic reviews is not delivering the goods because I’ll bet $1000 that the demo reading that paper isn’t going to watch or care about your show or project. I’m talking about strategic execution of a campaign to deliver traffic and results in a rapidly shrinking world of resources ie. money, man power.
Here’s the scenario. I was on set last week when PR brought some crews to interview cast and crew for a new web series. In the mix were the usual TV news magazines and one upstart website. It got me to thinking. The PR guy had to justify why this relatively small, unknown site was getting time with the cast but the reality was that this little site consistently delivered traffic to his projects through linkable stories, sharable video, etc. So my PR friend went to bat and got a slot for the little guy – who is actually a heavy hitter for the PR and marketing teams. When the rest of Hollywood gets over its love of “placement” in the trades, there’ll be a few more outlets fighting for first place on the red carpet.
Think about it PR friends. What do your efforts really deliver? Do you know how much traffic that each outlet can & does deliver to your project? Do you know if the outlet imbeds links, makes their story sharable so fans can put it on their Facebook page and reach additional potential fans? You should know because it’s your job.
TV Newsmagazines this is your wake up call that relying on eyeballs & share doesn’t count if the viewers don’t click. This is the unteathered generation. Who is your audience? Choosing stories based on Neilson ratings is over – you can reach wider audiences by thinking about tapping into smaller but fervent fan bases online. Cover shows and stories that aren’t “winning the night” but who have loyal audiences that could be turned into your loyal audience. Cover shows like Chuck or Breaking Bad. It may not make sense or be justified to air the segment on broadcast but post it online, use the fans to help syndicate that content. When online engagement is counted equal as broadcast reach you’ll be glad you invested the time. So implement smart syndication, consumer engagement and results for those who pitch you stories.
