The Power of TV

By Charlotte Cheek

Television is powerful, but what about television is so powerful? It gets you in front of a large audience quickly and engages them visually. Television gets people to focus on one screen and absorb everything on it. At the same time, less and less people pay attention to advertisements. With Netflix, Hulu, and DVRs, skipping over commercials is normal, so how does television remain so powerful? How can a business reach people on television without advertising?

Get into the Content People Watch

First, move away from paid advertisements into the content people are paying to see. People pay for Netflix, Hulu, Cable, etc. so that they can watch television shows, sports, and the news. Most businesses cannot afford product placements in viewer’s favorite shows or to sponsor sports teams, but businesses can afford publicity in the news (especially the local news). Anyways, advertising is expensive and it lacks third party validation that local cable stations have. People trust their favorite news stations and reporters to tell them the truth more than they trust a business’s 30-second commercial to tell them the gritty truth. Publicity is free and television is a powerful tool for business. The trick is finding the story and pitching it to the right news station in your area. 

Power of Placement

Being placed in a local news segment is just the beginning. It places you in front of a large audience and uses televisions strengths: sight, sound, and motion to make a lasting impression on the audience. More specifically, cable stations can reach local markets extremely fast. Speed is extremely important in today’s competitive market and one good segment on a local news station can lead to more opportunities for free placement on television, in newspapers, or on the radio by others interested in your story. So, if you want to captivate a large part of your target market visually, then remember how powerful television is.

The Type of "Middle Man" You Want.

By Charlotte Cheek

If someone came up to you and said “I’m awesome,” would you believe them? Or would you have an easier time believing someone who said, “So and so is really great, because they did this.”

It’s easier to believe someone giving someone else a compliment than someone giving themselves a pat on the back.

That’s the power of third party validation.

Third party validation means having the media talk about you in a favorable way. The media is the middle man you want. They are not biased to you or your organization; so, their positive words hold more substance.

The media has the power to trash someone’s image or product, but when they don’t it means they mean what they say. Writing positive things about you or your organization does not directly increase their bottom line like it does yours. The public is more willing to take the media’s word for a great new product or service more so than believe an advertisement, because the media is not being self-serving by speaking well about you or your company.

Advertising will get the word out about your product, but a media outlet publishing an article or news channel talking about your company in a positive light will grab more peoples’ attention.

People trust their favorite media outlets as a reliable source to tell them what is going on in their world. So, getting the media to talk about you and your company is worth your time and money. So, go out and get a stamp of approval from the media, I promise it will help.