Next month, local TV station creative services directors make their annual pilgrimage to the desert in Las Vegas for the PromaxBDA Station Summit. Aaah, there’s nothing quite like the weather in late June in Southern Nevada, where daily temps regularly go into triple digits. What did they do before air-conditioning? In its sixth year, the […]
Next month, local TV station creative services directors make their annual pilgrimage to the desert in Las Vegas for the PromaxBDA Station Summit. Aaah, there’s nothing quite like the weather in late June in Southern Nevada, where daily temps regularly go into triple digits.
What did they do before air-conditioning?
In its sixth year, the Station Summit brings together TV station marketing executives and their counterparts from network affiliates and syndicated programming distributors to meet and discuss future marketing plans.
Earlier this year, PromaxBDA appointed long-time local station marketing and programming executive, Rick Swanson, to take over leadership of the Station Summit. His official title at Promax is VP of marketing and programming. Swanson says it took him all of about 2 seconds to say yes when the organization approached him about the role.
Swanson provides exactly what Promax needs. “At this point, what I bring to Promax is some perspective about broadcasting.”
The PromaxBDA Station Summit takes place at The Mirage and runs from Tuesday, June 21 through Friday, the 24th.
And while each day is dedicated to meetings with the stations’ networks, syndicators and broadcast ownership groups, one day, Thursday, is set aside for sessions, speakers and presentations “tailored specifically for the unique needs of station marketing professionals.”
And this is the day where Swanson’s influence and leadership will be most evident.
I caught up with Swanson to find out about his new role, what plans he has and how his role as leader of the station summit will play under his guidance.
Right now, PromaxBDA and Swanson are not ready to reveal specifics about the sessions, speakers and presentations, but Swanson did promise there would be “more content than was at any other Station Summit.”
It’s important to recognize how Swanson’s background and experience will contribute and add to future Station Summits. He’s been VP of marketing, creative services and programming at stations in Seattle, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles, including ABC, NBC and CBS affiliates.
“I’ve worked in television stations all my life,” he said. “I’ve spent 20 years buying syndication programming and producing local programming. I’ve launched television shows in a local market, I’ve been the marketing director and creative services director. I’ve been hired and fired, laid off, gotten raises and bonuses, and gotten my salary cut. I’ve won six Promax Golds, a Cleo award, but I’ve also spent a ton of money on promos that totally sucked and never saw the light of air.”
In other words, he’s just like many of us who’ve spent our careers marketing TV stations.
Here are some examples of Swanson’s work through the years.
KRON, circa 1998
KING5 Circa 2013
KING5 Circa 2014
In addition, and perhaps most importantly, Swanson has a deep history with PromaxBDA and its annual conference.
“I attended my first Promax meeting when it was BPME in 1987 in Atlanta.” Prior to the name change, PromaxBDA was known as Broadcast Promotion and Marketing Executives or BPME.
“And all through those years,’ said Swanson, “I would look forward to stuffing my cares and woes into the overhead bin, and taking off for some city somewhere, where I had a chance to mingle with colleagues, and rethink my job.”
Before Las Vegas was selected as the regular location of the Station Summit, the annual conference would take place in a different city each year, from L.A. to Toronto, from Orlando to Detroit, from New Orleans to New York City.
2015 Promax Gold Winner, General Branding/Image, WGNO, New Orleans
“I always found attending Promax to be a completely refreshing experience. And some of the most profound relationships and moments have all taken place at a Promax meeting. This is an organization that has given so much to me, that the opportunity to give back is irresistible.”
The annual Proamx conference had some bumps in the road, where attendance dropped off due to the economy and budget restraints. But Swanson is quick to credit the organization for revamping the conference into its current Station Summit format, which included having the networks, syndication companies and broadcast groups devote time to meet with the station CSDs.
“So my hat’s off to the people who filled that opening with the Station Summit. You had to convince broadcasters that this was going to be a worthy conference, you had to get all of the networks to support it, and convince them to attend, to convince all the programmers that the more informed affiliate body they were the better the outcome, the better the ratings. That was a heavy lift from zero. That was not an easy thing to do.”
Swanson said his goal this year is to be “more focused in terms of our content.”
He said he’s been working with the VPs of marketing at all of the different ownership groups. “And in getting to know them, we identified some needs. We came up with three distinct categories for content we’re going to address at the Station Summit.”
2014 PromaxBDA Awards Finalist, Funniest Promo, Driveway Guy, WPTA, Ft Wayne
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao0UqgYwZAk
The first track is craft, what we all expect to see at the annual confab, lots of spots and how to make them better.
But Swanson said that the conference has to address the 800-pound gorilla in the room, so another track will be dedicated to social media.
“There are social media departments in local TV stations,” said Swanson. “In some cases, it’s part of news or marketing, or individual stand-alone groups. But these people are playing a growing role at the station level. Where do they go to learn about the context of social media? I maintain that place is at the Station Summit.”
Swanson says social media is a huge opportunity for local broadcasters and marketing directors going forward.
“Everyone from broadcasters to Fortune 500 companies are trying to find the sweet spot where their brand intersects with social media, how it drives brand and sells product, and convinces viewers to watch television. It’s complicated, people don’t understand it, and good ideas are beginning to emerge, but better ideas are needed. So we’re going to take a deep dive in the social media track.”
2014 PromaxBDA Awards Finalist, General Branding/Image, WTNH, New Haven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xApbD_PYug
The third area that the Station Summit will focus on is leadership.
“So many of us in the industry started out as great writer/producers. We could cut a really good spot. And then one day, the GM came to us and said: ‘We’d like for you to run the department and for a while, that was good enough. But in this changing complex media world we live in, marketing directors are now being asked to be leaders in their organization. What does it take to build consensus in the organization? What does it take to develop a marketing plan? And convince the organization to follow your lead?”
“These are MBA level skill-sets, and so many people are craving this information in local broadcasting. So we’re going to begin to address the leadership quotient for marketing directors.”
I asked Swanson about the fact that the early Station Summits encouraged attendance and participation by station general managers and news directors. Is this something Promax still supports?
“When station managers, general managers, news directors, broadcast ownership group execs, VPs of news, that level of person comes, there is an opportunity to benefit from having a deeper knowledge about what marketing at a local station is all about. I think this is a powerful movement here, and one I going to do everything I can to encourage. A TV station is all about teamwork, and consensus building, so the deeper understanding everyone has of each others’ role, the better the teamwork.”
Swanson says once he has the schedule, times and subjects of sessions, speakers and presentations nailed down, he’ll let us know.
NOTE: Market Share has covered both the 2014 and 2015 Station Summits onsite and extensively with more than 15 articles on the sessions, speakers and presentations. As we get close to this year’s Station Summit, I’ll review and look back at some of the more memorable events from those years.
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