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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
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Graeme Newell
602 Communications
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In This Issue
Promo of the Day
Be Indispensable
Summer Doldrums for Net's Scripted Series
World Cup Final Most Watched Soccer Match in US History
Oil Spill, LeBron & Spies Make for Top News Stories
Piers Nears Deal to Fill King's Slot
'Today' Wedding Contest Open to Same-Sex Couples
PBS to Edit Out Sir Paul's Bush Jab
TV Ad Moves That Makes You Go 'Huh?'
NAB Calls on FCC to Reform TV Duopoly Rule
Court Shoots Down FCC Indecency Policy
Murphy's Laws for the Workplace
Quotes
"Today, and every day, deliver more than you are getting paid to do. The victory of success will be half won when you learn the secret of putting out more than is expected in all that you do. Make yourself so valuable in your work that eventually you will become indispensable. Exercise your privilege to go the extra mile, and enjoy all the rewards you receive. You deserve them!”
- Og Mandino, American Essayist and Psychologist (1923-1996)
"Most leaders are indispensable, but to produce a major social change, many ordinary people must also be involved."
- Anne Firor Scott
“In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
- Dwight David Eisenhower
Promo of the Day
Promo of the Day
2 KPIX San Francisco promos demonstrate how a message can come through loud and clear without any narration and a compilation of promos from WTVJ NBC 6:
1. Orange Juice - Today in South Florida
2. Kevin Corke
3. Eggs - Today in South Florida
4. Home - NBC Miami News @ 11
5. Jackie Nespral
6. Ryan Phillips and Trina Robinson - Morning Weather
7. NBC Healthy Week
8. John Morales - Weeknight Weather
602communications.com/VideoExamples
Share your creative work with your promo peers on the 602communications.com site. Just email it to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Flash (.flv) or QuickTime (.mov) files, size 320 x 240, are preferred, but WindowsMedia (.wmv) files will also be accepted. Large files may be sent via http://www.yousendit.com. You can also mail your clip a DVD to Graeme Newell at 1011 Lyndhurst Falls Lane, Knightdale, NC 27545.
Be Indispensable
By Paul Greeley
They create advertising for the most ubiquitous programming on television.
They are responsible for millions perhaps billions of dollars of advertising time.
They didn’t graduate from college with a degree in this field as no university really offers one. Yet, in spite of the fact that their work is seen by millions of Americans, little is known about them.
And while much has been written about local TV news and how the sagging economy caused many to lose their jobs, (according to the findings of the RTDNA/Hofstra University Annual Survey, in 2008, 4.3% or 1200 members of the local TV news workforce lost their jobs. In 2009, that number dropped to 400 people or 1.5% of the workforce), almost nothing has been public about what the economy has done to those who market it.
Until now.
I interviewed local TV broadcasters from CEOs to consultants, from network VPs to local station creative services directors to find out what impact the recession had on creative services staffing. I’ll reveal who lost jobs, where and why. You’ll learn why some think hubbing and centralization could be the new norm. And if everyone agrees that creative services and marketing are vital to broadcasting, see why it
won’t return to what it once was.
Who are they?
They are alternately known as promo people, marketing gurus, preditors, promo writer/producers or members of creative services. And they practice their craft at the hundreds of local TV stations around the country that broadcast local news. But how many people there are in the field is hard to determine.
According to PROMAX, the only organization that represents broadcast creative services, there are no finite numbers as to how many people work in broadcasting creative services in the US. Some industry experts estimate the number to be between 6,000-10,000 people.
Jobs were eliminated:
Certainly, there were creative services jobs eliminated over the past couple years.
Scot Chastain, SVP/Affiliate Marketing & Development at NBC, said “marketing in general is seeing cutbacks due to the economy.”
The most surprising and deepest cuts were made by NBC which eliminated nearly all of the creative services staffs at many of its O&O stations like in Dallas, leaving only the CSD.
Brad Soroca, SVP of Marketing for NBC said they looked at the day-to-day function of how to build brand awareness and made some adjustments.
“We put the newsroom in charge of doing the news topicals. We’ve found great success on that. The news directors are saying that the topicals are better than they’ve even been because the people creating them know the story better than the creative services director ever would or could. In addition, we’ve brought in a world-class creative agency called Mother. We felt that bringing in a very creative partner with a different view was key to our future and our ability to innovate.”
When asked how the success of having an outside agency like Mother doing the news image creative is being measured, he said, “The business of creative is somewhat subjective. But the viewer feedback has been positive.”
An NBC O&O creative services director who asked not to be identified agreed that the creativity of the messages from Mother is subjective and that in general, the agency was doing a good job. But the challenge of using an outside agency to do the creative is “speed to market”.
(To see some examples of the creative used to promote the NBC O&O web sites, go to www.mothernewyork.com You can see how easy it is to customize this creative for each market.)
Larry Rickel, president and CEO of the Broadcast Image Group, had this to say about NBC’s move to outsource their local TV stations’ creative.
“I think we always have to step back and look at different models. And evaluate those models based on what works in different situations, and for them, if the quality is there, it’s working for them.” But he was also cautious about the decision.
“I’m still a believer that localism is important, and that the kind of advertising you do is going to resonate with the local customer. I don’t think you can afford to outsource your news image without having a really strong sense of what your brand is at the local station level.”
Colleen Brown, the CEO of Fisher Communications, admits her company “may have adjusted positions within creative services, but we didn’t do away with the dept.”
Consolidation and re-structuring:
At the Journal Broadcasting Group, according to Jim Thomas, VP of Marketing, Programming and Interactive Media, there was some “job consolidation as some creative services people who left just weren’t replaced. But none were moved into news.”
Larry Rickel, president and CEO of the Broadcast Image Group, a company that does consulting, research, recruiting and training for broadcast companies, said, “I have not seen even in the most difficult of time, with the stations that we work with, did we see stations eliminating the marketing director. If anything has happened, there may be less people in the marketing dept than there may have been a year ago or two years ago.”
That observation was echoed by Tom Dolan, president of Dolan Media Management, one of the few companies which recruits for creative services. “Companies that got rid of marketing staffing went from a 5 person dept down to 3 people.”
Graeme Newell, owner of the consulting company, 602 Communications, said he sees more companies consolidating the role of news marketing by moving its function and, in some cases, its news marketing people into and under the news dept.
Perhaps not surprisingly, Jonathan Verk, the president of PROMAX/BDA, the only organization that represents broadcast creative services, is leery of the fact that some news directors are becoming the de facto marketing directors. “If so,” he says, “they need to develop marketing skills.” He goes so far as to say, and this might be music to those in creative services, that “the news dept should report to marketing. Marketers understand the audience. Marketing drives the business; if there’s no tune-in, there’s no business.”
While a few broadcast companies resorted to eliminating creative services positions, or moving them into news, some stayed the course.
Joe Rovito, President at Clemensen & Rovitto cites companies “like Belo and Hearst which have historically not done layoffs in creative services because they recognize that the future lies in strong local news and they need to commit to strong creative services.”
Hubbing:
If broadcasting companies can hub traffic, master control and graphics, can news marketing be far behind and would it work?
“Some of the companies we work with have had discussions about hubbing some marketing,” reveals Larry Rickel.
Colleen Brown says Fisher hasn’t just talked about it, but acted on it.
“Centralized writers, centralized graphics, and centralized creative have made everybody’s creative services dept a little bit better, a little bit stronger. I’m all for looking outside the company and trying to figure out who can do it better and will do that if it makes sense. To some degree, we’re doing exactly what NBC did.”
And like NBC, Brown thinks, “the quality of the creative and the quality of the teases are better than they were in the past.”
Jim Thomas says that Journal Broadcasting is, “not a company that would centralize, but that they might share the talents of an exceptional graphic artist beyond one station.”
According to Rickel, “some topical and news image promotion could get hubbed, but I don’t think it would improve the quality of the content, because you might not be able to find the qualified people who are really good writers.”
The situation now:
Today, the headline is openings rather than eliminations. Since the start of 2010, stations in St. Louis, LA, Denver, Honolulu, San Antonio, Norfolk, Myrtle Beach, West Palm Beach, Albuquerque, Jackson, Mississippi, Portland, and Lufkin, TX have advertised for creative services managers. And other creative services staffing positions have opened in Orlando, Wilkes-Barre, Huntsville, Ft Myers, Monterey, Paducah, and Winston-Salem.
But even while there are signs that the situation is improving, some creative services positions are still being eliminated. As recently as May of this year, at the FOX O&O in Atlanta, a corporate decision was made to eliminate their VP of Promotion position.
So are the recent openings a sign that as revenue’s are improving, so are creative services opportunities?
Not so, thinks Graeme Newell, whose free, weekly job posting newsletter is the go-to-site for creative services openings.
“It’s more about normal churn than anything else. Some are leaving the industry or just changing stations.”
Scot Chastain at NBC says he’s “seeing signs of it coming back. There are openings as some companies see marketing is vital and need someone to look after the brand.”
That brand management and marketing are vital to broadcasting is unanimously upheld by everyone interviewed.
“No matter what the product,” says David Hershey, CSD at the Dallas CBS O&O, “you’re always going to need someone to promote it. So the skill set is valuable.”
Oscar Welch at Welsh Creative, a consulting firm that serves smaller markets says, “as long as there’s local news, they’ll need to find someone who knows news branding.”
Tom Dolan predicts that, “they can’t continue to scalp the marketing dept; it’s more critical than ever.”
Colleen Brown offers, “In a multi-channel, multi-platform universe, it is absolutely about brand management. And the only people who think about that are the brand managers and creative services depts.”
And Jim Thomas sees, “the skill set of creative services is great for the future. No matter what the media—mobile, digital, on-air, social media—they know what the audience wants and how to talk to them.”
But like Joe Rovito warns, “while depts have stopped layoffs, it may not return to what it once was.”
Indeed, it may not return to what it once was. Those interviewed said expect more scrutiny on results- more viewers, more users, more sales. Expect more broadcast companies to explore and implement hubbing and centralization—using the creative talents of their best marketers across more than one TV station and market. Expect more responsibilities with less people. And expect more demanded of you.
Colleen Brown says, “Today, more than ever, more is expected of the creative services depts.”
So how can you prepare for the future if you want to work in creative services?
Consultant Bruce Lindgren of Lindgren and Associates says his clients expect their directors to be “good managers of individuals, and know how the creative process fits into the marketing plan.
Oscar Welsh says his stations want a “greater depth of experience with the key on the ability to write.”
“Writing is still the key,” adds Jim Thomas.
“Educate your staff,” Larry Rickel says.
“Be indispensable,” advises David Hershey, “make it so your GM can’t be without you."
Paul Greeley is a former TV station CSD and broadcast group VP of Marketing. He writes a weekly humor column for the Keller Citizen (Texas). Email him at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or call 817-578-6324
Summer Doldrums for Net's Scripted Series
Young men are watching Wipeout, young women are flocking to The Bachelorette and more people are finding that America's Got Talent. But the big networks' push into scripted series this summer has been met with shrugs from viewers. The appetite for fresh drama follows steady summer gains by USA, TNT and other cable networks; broadcasters borrowed their lower-cost production models to reduce risk. But ABC's Sunday duo of Scoundrels and The Gates are barely registering, Fox's comedic cop caper The Good Guys is struggling, and NBC's Persons Unknown has been shunted off from Mondays to Saturdays to finish its run. Fox's second-season Lie to Me and ABC's just-renewed Rookie Blue are marginal improvements by lower summer standards. But they're performing far below reality hits, and others have been eclipsed by the cable counterparts they sought to mimic. Matt Nix's USA series Burn Notice is easily eclipsing his Fox Good Guys. And TNT's long-running hit The Closer and Rizzoli & Isles, which premiered Monday, drew nearly 8 million viewers, better than any broadcast dramas. "One of the toughest things to change is viewing habits," says Sam Armando, analyst at Chicago ad firm SMGx. "People are conditioned to think of Army Wives and Rescue Me on cable and for reality and repeats (elsewhere)." In summer, "original dramas on networks is still a new concept to viewers," he says. But with cable dramas beating broadcast dramas, "we're almost entering a level playing field." Some analysts say habits are hard to break. "There's a mind-set that summer's coming, so the networks close up shop and put on reality shows and turn (viewers) over to cable," says Horizon Media analyst Brad Adgate. "They're trying to turn the tables around, but maybe it's a little too late for that."
USA Today
World Cup Final Most Watched Soccer Match in US History
The World Cup Finals between Spain and the Netherlands drew a total of 24.3 million U.S. viewers, making it the most watched soccer game in U.S. television history, according to Nielsen. The figure reflects totals from ABC and Spanish-language broadcaster Univision from 2:30-5 p.m. ET. But it does not include what is likely a significant amount of viewing done out of the home in bars, restaurants, and other communal locales. The figure surpasses the record of 19.4 million viewers that tuned in to the U.S.-Ghana match earlier in this World Cup. Prior to this World Cup, which was played in South Africa to the incessant hum of vuvuzelas, the top-rated match among U.S. viewers was the 1994 game between Brazil and Italy. That match was watched by 18.1 million viewers on ABC and Univision.
Broadcasting & Cable
Oil Spill, LeBron & Spies Make for Top News Stories
The BP oil spill continued to top the Project for Excellence in Journalism's (PEJ) weekly news coverage index, but again at levels far below the attention paid by the news media just three weeks ago. LeBron James' exit made him the second biggest newsmaker of the week. The BP story claimed 15% of the news hole across the 52 monitored media outlets in five categories, print, online, network TV, cable and radio, more than twice as much as the next biggest stories, the 2010 elections and the economy at 7% apiece. Cable gave the BP story the most attention, with 25% of its news hole. But the BP story claimed 44% of the news hole as recently as the week ending June 20. Number three was the story of Russian spies arrested in the U.S., followed by the war in Afghanistan. LeBron James' decision (to exit Cleveland for Miami) was the number nine story with 3% of the news hole, which made him the second biggest individual newsmaker of the week behind President Obama, according to PEJ, ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Queen Elizabeth, among others.
Broadcasting & Cable
Piers Nears Deal to Fill King's Slot
Piers Morgan, the bad-cop judge on the hit NBC show “America’s Got Talent,” is poised to take over Larry King’s coveted time slot on CNN, a move smoothed by an imminent deal between the two media giants that own the channels, NBC Universal and Turner Broadcasting. This week, NBC signaled that it was willing to share Mr. Morgan with CNN. That decision frees Mr. Morgan to negotiate directly with CNN, and according to three people involved in the delicate maneuvering between the companies, a contract could be signed within a few days. If completed, the deal would vault Mr. Morgan, a native of Britain, into the top tier of television interviewers, alongside people like Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters and Katie Couric. It will also demonstrate that CNN thinks there is still room in prime time for long-form interviews with public servants and starlets, a stark contrast to the partisan pundits on its higher-rated rivals, Fox News and MSNBC. But what many people in the United States might not know is that Mr. Morgan, 45, is an A-list interviewer, and he has essentially been rehearsing for CNN for the past year by hosting “Piers Morgan Life Stories,” a series of well-received and high-rated interviews with figures like Gordon Brown and Simon Cowell, on the British network ITV. Dylan Jones, the editor of the British GQ, said in an e-mail message that he hired Mr. Morgan in part because he knew that people would be intrigued to meet him. “Which they were,” he said. “Politicians, actors, singers, everyone. Piers has that amazing ability to tap you on the shoulder, and say, ‘It’s ok, you can tell me.’ Amazingly, people do.” CNN executives were clearly impressed by Mr. Morgan’s ITV interviews — and by his reputation for preparing scrupulously for them. For his part, Mr. Morgan has long told friends that Mr. King’s show was his dream job.
NY Times
'Today' Wedding Contest Open to Same-Sex Couples
NBC will change the application process for the “Today” show’s “Modern Day Wedding Contest ” so that same-sex couples are permitted to participate, the network said Thursday. The change was announced after a campaign by GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, and a meeting between the organization’s representatives and the “Today” executive producer in New York. The wedding contest is a staple of the “Today” show, the most popular morning show on television. It allows viewers to vote on every detail of a couple’s wedding, which is then broadcast live on the show. GLAAD said last week it was alerted that NBC’s application for the contest only included the options “bride” and “groom.” According to GLAAD, NBC initially argued that same-sex couples could not apply because “For the “Today” show wedding, the couple must be able to be legally married in New York, which is where the wedding will take place.” GLAAD said in a blog post that it “questioned the validity of that argument since New York State legally recognizes same-sex marriages licensed in other states,” adding, “NBC mistakenly equated the marriage license with the wedding celebration.” On Tuesday the group called on its supporters to call and send e-mail messages to NBC. In doing so, it brought the gay marriage debate to the front doorstep of an American institution, the one that used to be called “America’s first family” in commercials. On Wednesday, NBC officials asked GLAAD for a meeting, and subsequent to that meeting, the network announced that its application process would be adjusted. Even though same-sex couples will be allowed to apply, it does not guarantee an appearance on the morning show. “Today” producers sort through all the applications and pick four finalists, and then the viewers take it from there, voting for which of the four should actually win the wedding and the all-expense-paid honeymoon. The wedding will take place on “Today” in October.
Media Decoder
PBS to Edit Out Sir Paul's Bush Jab
Sir Paul McCartney may have made waves for his jab at President Bush during his special White House concert last month, but it won't be appearing in the PBS television special. The Washington Post's Reliable Source reports that McCartney's comment — "After the last eight years, it's great to have a president who knows what a library is" — is "tactfully excised from the TV version," which will air on July 28. Instead, the column reports, "the cameras cut to McCartney singing "Yesterday" at the previous night's concert at the Library." In June, the Associated Press reported that McCartney's jab occurred "after the TV cameras had left." A spokesperson for PBS Washington affiliate WETA told the Huffington Post Wednesday that the AP report is inaccurate, and that their cameras were indeed rolling when McCartney made his comment about Bush. However, the spokesperson added, McCartney's comment came "after the planned program had officially concluded" and after President Obama had left the room, so it will not be appearing in the TV version.
Huffington Post
TV Ad Moves That Makes You Go 'Huh?'
On Monday, during an airing of "Maisy," an animated show for preschoolers on qubo, the ION Media Networks kids' programming block, there was a commercial for Bosley -- the hair replacement company. Seems as though the media plan missed its intended target -- unless there are some 40- or 50-year-old men also watching the show at 9 a.m. Inappropriate to the intended preschool audience? Not really. Just wasteful. But all this makes one realize how much inefficiency is involved in TV. It gives those who are working for set-top-box addressable advertising -- as well as other new digital advertising efforts -- credit for pushing any ROI and other quantifiable metrics. Much can be made of the "indecency" of TV language and content in ads and programming. But what about "waste" and outright mistakes? This is not usually discussed much. Many TV conferences will display specific successful marketing/advertising moves, but there are fewer times when failing efforts are revealed. And as we all know, we can learn a lot from our mistakes. Forget about growing hair. A couple of years ago before the economic collapse, high gasoline prices, and a Gulf oil spill, Chevrolet wanted to tout its brands of SUVs. The car company invited fans to talk about SUVs and send off their own films to Chevy. Turns out some real directors produced some biting videos striking out against U.S. consumers' trend towards bigger cars. Probably not the message Chevy was looking for. Weird stuff happens all the time. Learning comes from asking the right questions -- even when seemingly targeting five years olds who might need to grow some hair.
MediaPost
NAB Calls on FCC to Reform TV Duopoly Rule
The National Association of Broadcasters has called on the FCC to allow TV and radio stations and newspapers to combine, eliminate the limits on radio/TV station combos and "substantially reform" the TV duopoly rule, which does not allow common ownership of TV stations in smaller markets. That came in comments filed with the FCC in its quadrennial review of its media ownership rules Monday. To continue to provide "valuable news, vital emergency information and alerts and popular entertainment" to its audience for free, broadcasters argue, "they must have the flexibility to form competitively viable ownership structures." Faced with competition from cable and satellite and the almost limitless Internet, says NAB "undue market power is not a plausible rationale for restricting ownership of local broadcasters but not their competitors." Indeed, says NAB, the big competition they face is how to survive in that environment given the audience and advertising fragmentation. In its pitch for allowing combos in smaller markets, NAB points to a study of markets 50 and below that indicated stations' pre-tax profits were down 63.7% between 1998 and 2008, with the lower performers losing money. In a separate filing, Sinclair said the suggestion that broadcasters needed some governor on their perceived dominance was just short of a joke. "The opponents of relaxing the ownership rules appear to be trapped in some sort of time warp," the broadcaster said, "where local broadcast stations dominate the market for providing news and entertainment. While this may have been the case when these rules were first promulgated, an argument that this dominance continues today clearly does not even pass the "straight-face test." Sinclair took particular aim at the eight-voices test and top-four restrictions on duopolies. Current rules prevent common ownership of any two of the four highest-rated stations in a market, and where a combination of any two stations would leave fewer than eight independently owned stations. In its comments, Hearst seconds the point about the rise in competition, and says that the audience shares of all video providers will likely continue to slide. "If the past is prologue," says Hearst, "the Commission may rest assured that ten years from now the audience shares of video providers will be smaller than they are today, and the number of video platforms will be greater than they are today."
Broadcasting & Cable
Court Shoots Down FCC Indecency Policy
For now, f-bombs from rock artists or actors on live TV are safe. A U.S. Appeals Court shot down the Federal Communications Commission's indecency enforcement policies Tuesday (July 13), ruling that the rules, adopted in 2004, violated the First Amendment. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals of the Second Circuit in Fox Television Stations v. FCC, was a big win for Fox, CBS and ABC, which had petitioned the Court, arguing that the guidelines were vague and did not give adequate guidance regarding fleeting expletives. "The FCC's policy violates the First Amendment because it is unconstitutionally vague, creating a chilling effect that goes far beyond the fleeting expletives at issue here," the court wrote. Broadcasters, along with petitioners such as The Media Access Project, expect to take the issue to the Supreme Court. "Media Access Project entered this case on behalf of writers, producers, directors and musicians because the FCC's indecency rules are irredeemably vague and interfere with the creative process. Today's decision vindicates that argument. The next stop is the Supreme Court, and we're confident that the Justices will affirm this decision," said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, svp and policy director for MAP. In a statement, the FCC Chair Julius Genachowski said the Commission was reviewing the Court's decision "in light of our commitment to protect children, empower parents and uphold the First Amendment."
MediaWeek
Murphy's Laws for the Workplace
If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong.
If there is a worse time for something to go wrong, it will happen then.
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way, unprepared for, will promptly develop.
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Nature always sides with the hidden flaw.
Whenever you set out to do something, something else must be done first.
Every solution breeds new problems.
Enough research will tend to support your theory.
Smile... tomorrow will be worse.
Left to themselves, things tend to go from bad to worse.
You never run out of things that can go wrong.
No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy.
If your advance is going well, you are walking into an ambush.
The only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire is incoming friendly fire.
An expert is one who knows more and more about less and less until he knows absolutely everything about nothing.
Technology is dominated by those who manage what they do not understand.
The first myth of management is that it exists.
All's well that ends.
A meeting is an event at which the minutes are kept and the hours are lost.
Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.
About.com
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The Marketing Ideanet is a free idea sharing newsletter published by 602 Communications. We are a TV training and consulting company that specializes in improving front-line news and marketing skills. Check out thousands of cutting edge examples at our web site. Join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Sent via TVSpy's email servers. Visit TV Spy's Marketing Matters.
Graeme Newell
602 Communications
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
(919) 217-4438
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