Ways to work key messages and branding into a radio or TV interview

Knowing a little bit about the radio and television stations you’re speaking to is crucial and can help you judge how many brand mentions and key messages you can get away with. For example, some smaller commercial stations will often allow you to plug away to your heart’s content. You may get to explain every little detail about your campaign and brand/product, accompanied by a website mention – heaven for most clients! However, you need to be realistic about the likelihood of that happening, and also remember stations that allow this kind of interview may have a have a smaller audience reach.

At the other end of the spectrum is the BBC. Now, BBC interviews are often the ultimate goal for any client, however it is important to keep in mind the strict guidelines BBC journalists must adhere to, meaning you will sometimes be lucky to get one brand mention, let alone two. With regional BBC radio stations it seems to go in waves; sometimes they are in a strict lockdown when it comes to PR-generated content, and at other times they seem to love it. Often it can be down to a new station manager wanting their journalists to create original, local audio. The important part is respecting their rules throughout the interview, never try and ‘pull a fast one’ and to be content with one brand mention as this is usually agreed with the producers beforehand.

So often it’s down to recognising what happiness means for your client. Do they want a packed schedule of smaller commercial stations where they can brand as much as they like, or would they like to focus on a smaller number of quality interviews? These are all important to establish beforehand, and we usually do so in our ‘onboarding form’ so we can manage expectations from the word go.

I think sometimes clients can become so obsessed with brand mentions and key messages that they forget the actual aim of their campaign. You don’t need to say a brand name five times for a listener to go out and buy your product, and in fact it can have the opposite effect with consumers now savvier than ever! PR isn’t the same as advertising – it needs to be smarter than that. Blatant plugging of any brand will turn listeners off. It’s far more impactful to be subtle in your key messages and direct consumers to a topic or type of product where you know that if they search online or went to the supermarket, they would be led to your product. If your aim is simply raising awareness, then keep it simple and do just that.