How can you ensure your story or message reaches as many people as possible?
Despite an evolving landscape, broadcast media continues to offer the opportunity to reach mass audiences.
While the reach of print media has declined, broadcast audiences remain intact.
Ofcom figures show TV continues to be the most important news platform in the UK.
Adults watched an average of 113 hours of TV news in 2021. Those over 65 watched 233 hours.
And four in ten adults get their news from radio.
So, how can you make the most of this opportunity to spread your message and get the word out about your products and services?
And how can you capture the interest of broadcast journalists?
These were some of the questions answered in our latest masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy - you can watch the session here.
James White, our managing director, was joined by Victoria Smith, one of our expert tutors, who has worked as a journalist for around 30 years for the likes of BBC, ITV London, and Good Morning Britain.
And they began by looking in a little more detail at the benefits of broadcast media.
Free publicity
Broadcast media offers the opportunity for your views and opinions to be seen and heard by millions, helping you reach new customers and supporters and engage existing ones.
“I’m not keen on the word free,” said James. “It takes a huge amount of work to create media opportunities and secure those media slots. And it is a team effort, so it’s not free.
“But we say free publicity to differentiate it from advertising as a way of promoting awareness.”
Victoria added: “Journalists are keen not to be seen to give free publicity. But if it's a strong story with a great call to action - and you've got a brilliant spokesperson - inevitably, your name will get mentioned as part of the interview.
“And of course, when you prepare with your spokesperson, you'll know the importance of emphasising the name of your brand or your company as many times as they can in the interview.”
Perhaps, ‘cost-effective’ would be a better description.
Brand building
Broadcast interviews are a major way of getting your brand out there and creating awareness.
Shape the debate
Putting your company in the spotlight can help customers recognise you as leading the way in your field. If you don’t take part, someone else will. And they may not share your views.
Influence
If you are campaigning or lobbying, you need your voice to be heard. Interviews can help build a groundswell of opinion that can change policies and minds.
Builds credibility
If the media are interested in what you say, you must be offering something valuable.
Encourages discussion
Broadcast interviews encourage debate and can raise awareness of both sides of an issue.
Controlling a crisis
Broadcast interviews enable you to control the narrative. Silence is often perceived as guilt. And others will fill the void, allowing gossip and speculation to shape the story.
Shorter
Broadcast interviews are typically much shorter. A radio interview could be as little as two minutes. TV might be a few minutes longer. A print interview could take much longer.
There are also benefits for spokespeople, including a raised profile, being seen as a ‘go to’ expert, improved knowledge and career development – in our experience, people who take on the spokesperson role tend to climb the corporate ladder faster.
Intimidating?
But media interviews can also be scary.
Many comms professionals will relate to the scenario where spokespeople are more hesitant to take part in broadcast media interviews than print ones.
“TV, in particular, can feel super scary,” Victoria said. “And the studio can feel intimidating with the lights and cameras.
“But media training, practice and preparation help people get over that anxiety.”
Live or pre-recorded interviews?
But that fear can raise its head again when spokespeople face a choice of live or pre-recorded interviews.
Pre-recorded ones can feel safer. But Victoria says live interviews are often the better option.
“This is something we often discuss during our media training, and there tends to be a split,” she said.
“Some people prefer pre-recorded interviews because they can do it again if they make a mistake. They feel more relaxed.
“But the great advantage of going live is nobody can edit what you say - you have the floor for two or three minutes.
“Having said that, the same rule applies to live and pre-recorded interviews - you must get to the most important content at the start.
“Why? Because if you do a pre-recorded interview, it will be edited. That usually means the first 20 seconds is taken out of your lovely long interview, and it is the bit that people will hear throughout the rest of the day on news bulletins, or as part of a longer feature or package.
“And you don't have control of that.”
James added: “We call this front-loading during our training. It is about getting that sound bite out quickly rather than saving it until the end.”
Spokesperson
While on the subject of spokespeople, what do journalists want from them?
“If we are doing a straightforward news piece, we want opinion and someone who can move the story forwards,” Victoria said.
“And we want a strong message and call to action.
“From the organisation’s perspective, you want someone who doesn’t get diverted to other subjects, particularly politics and their views on the government.”
TRUTH
But how can comms professionals create more PR opportunities for spokespeople?
Well, you need to deliver the TRUTH.
It is an acronym we use during our media training courses to explore what makes something newsworthy.
Topical /Timely
You need to think about what is on the news agenda and the issues impacting your brand or industry.
Victoria said: “This is about being aware of what people are talking about, what they're reading, what might be on their social media feeds, so your story and your message is a topical one.”
Relevant
Does what you are announcing tackle a particular problem or resolve a source of conflict and frustration? Does it challenge conventional thinking?
Victoria said: “Who is your audience? What language and examples would be relevant to them? If you are talking to a local TV or radio station, you want local examples.
“When people look at an article, listen to something, or watch something, they think, ‘what's in it for me?’.”
Unusual
The unusual element can be the difference between having something important to your organisation and something newsworthy that captures media interest. It is also often missing in story ideas.
“This is the facts, figures, statistics and stories your organisation has that no one else has,” Victoria said.
“You might be the first at something, the fastest, the longest, the widest. All these things that make you special and unique.
“It could be a great little human-interest story. Maybe a rags-to-riches one or a colleague who has done something interesting. We love that because we all love stories about people, and, more importantly, the audience responds to unusual and unique.”
As the old saying goes, ‘the best stories are the ones you couldn’t possibly make up’.
Trouble
“Journalists sniff out trouble,” Victoria said.
“If there is a bit of trouble connected to your industry, we will ask those troublesome questions.
“But you can anticipate them and prepare how you will respond. We teach a technique to help with that as well, called bridging. But use the troublesome questions as a chance to explain your message and what you will do about that particular bit of trouble.”
But trouble can also be the solution to a problem.
Does what you are announcing tackle a particular problem or resolve a source of conflict and frustration? Does it challenge conventional thinking?
Human
People like people - most of the time. And journalists know this. So, stories must have a human-interest element.
Victoria said: “Every time you come to us with a story, a journalist will always ask, do you have a case study to go with that?
“And if you've got one, fantastic, your story, message or agenda will get on air.
“Alternatives to case studies are your stories or a spokesperson's interesting backgrounds and stories. There is always something. There is always some little anecdote, something that has happened along the way that is worth broadcasting.”
Victoria also recommends spokespeople use ‘you’ and ‘yours’ to create a more personal-sounding conversation.
AMEN
Once you have secured a broadcast media opportunity, it is time to say AMEN.
A plea for a little divine help?
Not quite. It is another one of our training acronyms and focuses on getting the message right.
And it starts by carefully considering the audience.
Audience
“The audience is crucial,” Victoria said.
“It's not the journalist that matters. You could kind of move us out of the way and imagine who is behind us, and that is the audience.
“So, knowing who your audience is, and briefing your spokesperson on that will help them understand who they are speaking to in terms of age, gender, what they do for a living, and where they might live.
“And then they can use the right language and examples.”
To better understand the target audience, you can use demographics and psychographics to build a persona of the person your spokesperson will be talking to.
“Psychographics is a great way to drill into your audience, so you visualise one person,” Victoria said.
“Then you can speak to this person when interviewed on TV or radio. For example, it could be someone who loves crocheting while listening to podcasts in the evening, runs 5k every morning and enjoys travelling solo.”
James added: “This is something journalists have done for years, and every show you listen to or watch will have been boiled down to that psychographic profile right to the point where they know the audience is Jenny, who is between 30 and 35, and drives this type of car, and has a child and one dog – whatever it might be.
“As comms professionals, we should be doing that all the time for our audience, and also making sure we understand this audience profiling.”
Message
Once you are clear on the audience, you can refine what you want your spokesperson to tell them.
Victoria said: “Getting the message across is the spokesperson's main job.
“Get that message across loud and clear, concise, strong and understandable right at the start of your interview.”
Example
And that message will need examples. Otherwise, it is rhetoric.
Victoria said: “Ideally, we want a human example. People love stories about other people.
“It could be your personal story if it is relevant.”
Negatives
What difficult questions could your spokesperson face?
Even if your subject is heart-warming, it may not be the only thing the journalist wants to discuss.
There may be something happening in your industry they want to explore, for example. They might want your views on a new government policy.
This tends to happen at the end of the interview as a ‘while you are here’ question.
The good news is these questions can be anticipated, and spokespeople can consider how to answer them without sounding defensive or saying something that becomes a distraction.
As well as access to masterclasses like this, you will also benefit from 'ask the expert' surgery sessions with our brillinat tutors. There's also a wide range of online courses and a dedicated resource hub packed with handy guides and templates. Click here to learn more.
What else do you need to know?
Location
Well, interview location can often be overlooked.
But giving it careful thought can add to the brand-building opportunity media interviews create.
Victoria said: “You should always think about the visuals and what could make good audio for radio.
“If you can take the journalist behind the scenes, perhaps to look at your factory, for example, that can help.
“You could also think about wearing a sweatshirt with the company's logo – that won’t hurt.”
Zoom
We mentioned earlier that the media landscape evolves.
One of the most significant changes in broadcast media in recent years has been the use of Zoom, and other videoconferencing software, in media interviews.
This change was driven by the pandemic. But it remains popular as it allows broadcast media to get spokespeople on air quickly.
Victoria said: “The remote interviews can make things easier. We are more likely to get guests if they don’t have to trek into the studio at 4am.
“It offers the chance for organisations and spokespeople to get to journalists directly and quickly and works for print, radio and TV.
“Some offices now have studios for this. And people are getting better at doing it from home.”
But there is still plenty of room for improvement.
“You still see a lot of mistakes,” Victoria said.
“Some people have amazing messaging but horrible backgrounds, cameras looking up their nose or are poorly lit, and it is distracting.”
Beyond TV and radio
The other crucial learning from the webinar was to adapt how we think about broadcast media.
The way people consume news changes.
Ofcom says younger people are much more likely to get their news from the internet and social media.
And those channels regularly include videos of interviews.
Victoria said: “It is easy to think broadcast interviews are all about TV and radio. But even something like this webinar is a form of broadcast media.
“We all have our news feeds. We make our news, read our own news, and all have different ideas about what the news is.
“Many people will now get their news from YouTube videos and may not use traditional news sources.
“And, again, it is crucial to think about the audience and make sure we are using the same channels as them.”
One area of broadcast media which has seen huge growth is podcasts.
There are now more than 19.1 million podcast listeners in the UK. And there are estimates that figures will exceed 28 million listeners by 2026.
Ofcom news consumption figures show 19 per cent of respondents listen to podcasts for news.
The News Agents podcast, presented by three former BBC journalists - Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall – exceeded 10 million downloads three months after its launch in 2022.
And its explainer videos shared on TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter gained 23 million views during the same period.
James said: “We're seeing real growth in podcasting.
“And an important consideration with this format is the people that listen to them tend to have more disposable income and are more willing to spend that money.
“They also present comms teams and spokespeople with the opportunity to share stories and ideas in more depth and position themselves as thought leaders.”
Future webinar topics include ‘Getting started with podcasting’, ‘How to turn data into compelling visual stories’, and ‘How humour can improve your brand’s social media’. If you want to be part of sessions like these, you must be a member of The Media Team Academy.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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