Category: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

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REACHING OUT – WHO AND WHERE IS THE AUDIENCE?

Working on the opening of the Louvre Abu Dhabi reminded us again of some of the key questions raised by the changing news environment.

 

Where is the audience?

This was an event that got the global media excited as one of the world’s greatest museums allowed its legendary name and reputation to extend into the Middle East. Getting live video of the inauguration – which involved many VIPs including both the President of France and the Ruler of the UAE – out to news channels on traditional and new media around the world was a vital part of the launch plan.

By reaching out to the international broadcast news agencies as well as to key target stations we were able to ensure that the story was distributed by satellite as it happened, making it available to both TV and web channels on an equal basis.

How do you reach the world’s broadcasters?

It may not be obvious, but individual broadcasters are not always well equipped to distribute stories – even those they are covering exclusively – to other broadcasters around the world. Any channel can make a production technically usable by other broadcasters but their normal focus is on producing and delivering content to their own audience. This means they may not have the contacts and experience required to communicate with the world’s media and organize the necessary satellite feeds.

For this story, our relationships with broadcasters and news agencies, together with our experience of arranging satellite paths that can reach around the world, allowed us to maximise live access to the story as it unfolded.

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FIVE MYTHS ABOUT INTERVIEWS ON BUSINESS TV

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Some of the most common reasons companies give for NOT getting coverage on business and financial news programmes:

Broadcast interviews are too time-consuming.
Having broadcasters’ crews at an event can be demanding, disruptive and time-consuming. It’s equally true that a CEO’s busy schedule can’t always accommodate a tour of broadcasters’ studios. Our solution – used over many years by clients as varied as Gold Fields, Standard Bank, WPP and Zurich Financial Services – is to set up outside broadcast facilities at the announcement venue. With our own producer and crew on site we can deliver live satellite-linked interviews with major broadcasters time-efficiently from almost anywhere in the world. As a bonus, an unusual and interesting location can enhance the story.

Our CEO is too busy on an important day.
On the day of any major announcement a CEO’s time is pressured. As financial professionals, investors and commentators increasingly rely on broadcast and on-line media for news and up-to-date information, many companies believe that broadcast interviews are just too important to miss out. We make the broadcast process as calm, controlled and convenient as possible and can deliver as many as five international interviews in an hour on channels such as CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC World and CNN without a CEO leaving his or her chair.

Broadcasters aren’t interested in our company.
This may be true, but sometimes broadcasters simply don’t know enough about a company to decide whether or not they are interested. A fresh objective eye on a business and how it tells its story may help to raise its profile with broadcasters.

Broadcasters will send a reporter if they are interested.
Newsrooms face many demands on limited resources and stories tend to fall into ‘must have’, ‘nice to have’ or ‘not interested’ categories. For any company that knows major broadcasters don’t follow its announcements regularly it can be a lottery to rely on crews attending an announcement.

We don’t need broadcast coverage.
Today few companies can afford to ignore the importance of broadcast coverage. Business and financial professionals world-wide use broadcast and web channels as primary sources because editorial output is specifically targeted to their needs, selected on merit by trusted gatekeepers and augmented with constantly updated market information. Convergence of broadcast and on-line media allows viewers to access and share broadcast content conveniently across time zones.

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WHAT CAN TV NEWS CHANNELS DO FOR AN EVENT?

The answer may seem obvious, but there are circumstances in which it’s also useful to ask what they CAN’T do.

Outside of major sports events, not all TV channels around the world are set up to service the needs of broadcasters in other countries. TV news-gathering operations are great at producing timely coverage of news relevant to their viewers, but some of them don’t have the staff, systems and experience needed to meet the potential requirements of broadcasters in other countries.

Even experienced PR professionals are sometimes surprised to find that having a local ‘host’ broadcaster for an event such as an international conference or exhibition secures coverage on local channels, but won’t necessarily go further. It’s much more challenging to get live feeds, recorded material and satellite-linked interviews to overseas and international broadcasters and agencies. Unfortunately some event organizers only discover this when the coverage they expected has failed to happen.

When we undertake projects such as Dubai’s New Year’s Eve Fireworks, the World Petroleum Conference or UNCTAD XIII, there’s a lot of work involved – research, media relations, satellite bookings, transmission schedules – which means that we can be most effective when we get involved at an early stage. Even at the last minute we may be able to help but, sadly, after the event is just too late.