You’ve spent months developing your campaign, have perfected the key messages and completed the final touches. So how do you now make sure it reaches as many people as possible? At Shout! Communications we believe broadcast PR is an integral part of a campaign and one that will ensure you reach maximum coverage.
Clients measure success in different ways, but we find almost all of them consider radio and TV coverage to be the icing on the cake. Broadcast PR can take your campaign to the next level, here’s why:
By nature, broadcast audiences are broad. TV and radio opportunities are a chance to reach millions of people. Whilst print has suffered a decline in sales due to the rise of social and digital media, TV and radio are still huge platforms that have retained their audiences.
Not only does broadcast ensure your campaign reaches people, it can ultimately reach the right people. For example, if you’re trying to reach decision makers, politicians and influencers are known to be amongst the audience of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme; but if you’re trying to target women it may be more appropriate to target ITV’s Loose Women or GMB. Arguably, focusing on specific programmes that your target audience will be consuming is far more effective than having your campaign in print for mass circulation.
People react far better to a human voice or presence than a piece of copy they read in a newspaper. Broadcast brings a campaign or story to life: images, sound effects and interaction all engage the audience and make them want to stay tuned in. A spokesperson or case study also brings a human-interest element to the campaign and makes the audience connect and listen.
Top tips for the perfect case study that’ll give your campaign the best chance of securing coverage?
Make sure they’re comfortable with both live or pre-recorded interviews. Whilst live opportunities can seem more intimidating, they offer the best chance to really get your key messages out there, so never shy away from them! They should also be comfortable being in a studio or another location. Saying that, sometimes it’s appropriate for them to be filmed at home, so they must be willing for a film crew to go to their house.
Willing and available case studies are worth their weight in gold, get a good case study and you’re far more likely to engage the audience on a deeper level!
Finally, broadcast PR is extremely cost-effective for the number of opportunities and the final reach it achieves. It can also come guaranteed: with our radio days we guarantee a minimum of at least 10-12 opportunities with a total reach of one million for most stories.
We’ll also sell in to TV on a results basis if it’s done alongside a radio day or B-roll production. TV B-roll, which starts from a couple of thousand pounds, really boosts your chances of getting TV coverage. If you follow our two golden rules for producing B-roll your chances of coverage become even better- read about our rules here.
We recently worked with Chris Packham on a campaign which reached 49 million people in one day from the prime-time national TV and radio opportunities we secured. You can read about what we did here.
In summary, broadcast is fast-paced, something you can have fun with and ultimately extremely rewarding. Agencies should not shy away from broadcast because it can be intimidating or expensive, it opens up a whole new audience and can make people connect to the campaign more than through other media channels. Who wouldn’t want that?
For more information on broadcast PR, you can download our e-book on glossary terms here.
If you’d like help in getting broadcast coverage for your campaign, get in touch! Give us a call on 0207 240 7373 or email hello@shoutcommunications.co.uk
