At this year’s annual PromaxBDA Station Summit in Las Vegas at the Mirage Resort, the sessions are broken down into three categories; leadership, digital and essentials. In designing the ‘essentials’ category, Rick Swanson, the man charged with programming and marketing the 2018 Station Summit, cautions that while “you might be thinking that the emergence of […]
At this year’s annual PromaxBDA Station Summit in Las Vegas at the Mirage Resort, the sessions are broken down into three categories; leadership, digital and essentials.
In designing the ‘essentials’ category, Rick Swanson, the man charged with programming and marketing the 2018 Station Summit, cautions that while “you might be thinking that the emergence of social media and digital advertising has made promoting the news topically on TV passé, we still live in a world where a lot of viewers are watching television in real-time. The pendulum has swung so far in the other direction now where people just think topicals are irrelevant. How many rating points are you willing to leave on the cutting room floor because the PR of a topical promo can’t compare to the PR of a Facebook post.”
Topicals. The mere mention of the word is enough to drive creative services directors and their staff to nod their heads in unison and say, “We hate writing them.”
That’s what Greg Derkowski, the audience retention specialist for 602 Communications, and the presenter of the essential session, Topical Promos That Kick Butt! says many feel about news topicals.
Think of the investment, yes, actual revenue the station could generate by selling the time it has given to marketing every day to topically promote the various newscasts. Added up over a year’s time, it’s a ton of money.
But this is an opportunity to raise the news ratings, which is still the currency that matters in broadcasting.
Derkowski started out his session by listing the 10 mistakes most often found in topicals, which elicited groans from the crowd, many of whom were guilty of making these same mistakes.
The mistakes most often made include given away the story in the tease, confusing copy, the obvious tease (heroin is hard to quit), using video that gives away the story, use of cliches that become crutches, like “we’ll have the latest,” “we’ll have more on that story,” and my favorite, “we’ll have the details.”
Instead, crisp writing, sound and visual selections are all key, says Derkowski.
Here are just a few of the many examples Derkowski showed during the presentation that followed his successful formula for a good topical.
Here are some Market Share columns with lots of topical examples I recommend:
Creativity, Flexibility Drive Best News Topicals
What It Takes To Create Quality News Topicals
Building Viewership With News Topicals, Part 1
http://tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/2017/02/10/best-platform-for-topicals-broadcast-or-facebook/
http://tvnewscheck.com/marketshare/2017/12/11/how-stations-use-news-topicals-on-facebook/
Or you might consider having Greg Derkowski comes to your station to help your staff improve your topicals. Remember the investment your station is making for these, and the ratings points that are available when done right.
For other PromaxBDA Station Summit stories, click here.
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