A television station’s most valuable commodity is its own air. The brand manager has a tremendous responsibility to use this tool effectively to get the best results. However, in order for any good brand manager to know how to originate, build, or extend the brand, he or she must experience the brand. In other words, they must watch the program(s). Know what they are; know how and for what audience they’re produced. In doing so, professionals must put themselves into the mind-set of their viewers. Their eyes and minds must not reflect the attitude of a journalism or broadcasting professional but must instead reflect the so-called average attitude of someone who makes their living outside the broadcast arena. They must discover (and research) these problems, attitudes, goals, and lifestyles of their potential audience.

14.1          NINE QUESTIONS TO ASK ABOUT YOUR PRODUCT’S VIABILITY

1.  What is going on in the brains behind the eyeballs of the audience?

2.  How will that affect the audience’s perception of the product?

3.  How can we appeal to those eyeballs with the station’s product?

4.  Is there a feature segment, such as a health report, that will appeal to the target demographic?

5.  Aside from the obligatory news and weather reports, what potentially “brandable” elements exist in the proposed news program?

6.  What inside the show will appeal to the brand’s target audience?

7.  What could drive away that target audience?

8.  How can individual elements–the interstitials–be tailored to fit the branding message?

9.  What elements can stand by themselves as a individual branding element?

All these questions (and more) must have accurate answers if the broadcaster is to do an effective job of branding the product.

14.2          PROMOTION SPOTS: TYPES, LENGTHS, AND WHERE TO SCHEDULE

One of the major keys to effective branding and promotion is knowing how and where to place those messages on the daily program log. Before we get more specific, let’s cover a few basic terms.

Gross rating points (GRP) are a total of all the household rating points a spot will garner in a day, week, month, or any given period.

Fixed schedule is a contracted run assigned to a client (the marketing department). It is a contract you sign with your own station to run the station’s promos. It guarantees placement in specific shows or in specific blocks of time, such as your afternoon or early news block. The contract provides fixed schedules for each program, for a contest, or for your entire promotion inventory. The products covered by this contract must be in concert with the mission statement. Your promo spot will be placed in a certain manner and won’t be shunted aside for another spot. A fixed schedule spot is printed out automatically by the traffic computer.

Avail is a shorthand term for availability, an open or unsold spot on the log in which a spot can be scheduled.

Demos are demographics. What is the sex and age of the person who’s watching?

Flow is the ability to move an audience from one show into the following show and beyond on your channel.

ROS is short for run of schedule, which allows the placement of spots on the log for a specific period of time (generally 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.), not necessarily in specific shows.

VOC is voice-over-credit-audio played at the end of a program over the credits. The VOC is an excellent promo opportunity to keep the audience from changing channels and to tell them about something specific, either the upcoming program, news headlines, or a contest.

14.3          DAILY GOALS

What do you want to achieve? Every marketing or promotion department has goals. So should a brand manager. Your daily goals should be a part of your overall goals, as discussed in the previous chapter. Be specific in what you want to achieve and what your priorities are. Your goals will hinge on your branding focus and your marketing plan.

Setting these goals will involve the general manager, sales manager, and program director, who will all agree on the program priority list. In other words, what shows get the most air time and marketing efforts, and in what order do the shows receive your attention? (See the previous section’s references to the mission statement.)

Focus all efforts on these shows and dayparts. Make sure your whole department is on the same page. Then post the priorities. Posting this focus in your department is a good way to communicate and remind the busy creative people in the department.

Make a list of the spots that have required GRPs due to sales, syndication, or network requirements. Then sign a contract with the sales department for these spots to have a fixed position. The contract will ensure you hit the GRP levels. There will be several contracts all going at once to achieve all your promo goals. A fixed contract ensures correct placement on the log, ensures placement of your on-air work, and also keeps correct topical spots from running at the wrong days or times, an error that can be costly when positioning a new brand. This will also save you time on a daily basis.

Checking the log daily to make sure it’s accurate and the spots are all running in positions needed is one of the most important jobs of the brand manager. Know the inventory of available spots. Keep a list of all spots, their numbers, their ending (or kill) dates, what type of spot it is, and, after checking with the station research expert, the demographic appeal of the spot.

Despite the widespread use of computerization in the traffic process, it is advisable to have a printout of the promo spot inventory. This printout will save you grief in the event of a computer problem. It also allows you to get a real feel for the daily flow of your on-air spots.

14.4          TYPES OF SPOTS

Daily topicals run the day of a program from midnight until the time it airs and is usually tagged “today,” “tonight,” “next,” or “tomorrow”. A topical has a short shelf life but is extremely effective. It alerts the viewer to a show that is coming up and will include an enticement for the viewer to watch it.

Daily topicals are particularly useful in news promotion. There is no other way to tell viewers what will be covered in the next upcoming newscast without a topical promo spot. These news topicals can be edited or done live from the news set.

Have a plan for promo replacement and have a plan for topical spot replacement. If you have newscasts, make sure that the news producers have a plan in place for promo preemptions in the event they need to extend their news time.

Expand on the plan. Make sure master control operators know the appropriate replacement spots in the event a topical needs to be pulled. Who determines this replacement and signs the log as such? Make sure the operators know where the replacements are located. Developing a good advance plan will save a major headache later. When determining replacement spots, always use a spot that underscores your overall branding plan.

A date-specific spot is an advancer, giving the date and time of a program in the future. It can be used for movie promos or a contest promo. Date-specific spots are usually logged no more than a week in advance and use a day and time tag, such as “Tuesday at 8.” Advancers have a shelf life of a week or less.

Generic or image spots address the whole show or daypart in general. These spots are particularly useful in any branding effort. Generics have a longer shelf life and are excellent to use as plug-in spots for times when the scheduled promo can’t run or for a topical that isn’t produced for some reason. Keep them fresh! Generics need to be freshened, especially for shows that are no longer in production.

VOCs are little audio reminders that can be very powerful in keeping audience flow and, when cleverly written, keeping people from punching their remote control. VOCs are easy to write and produce in advance and can have enormous flexibility, including contest tinglers or news topical benefits.

14.5          BASIC SPOT INFORMATION

Most spots the brand manager will use are 30 seconds in length. However, other lengths will be needed for the broadcast day to be flawless: 20 seconds, 15 seconds, 10 seconds, animated logo “bugs,” and the identification (ID) length of your network or traffic system–all will find a place on the log. The traffic department knows in advance whether or not specific lengths are going to be cropping up, so ask them at least weekly, particularly before writing and producing spots, if the lengths are going to be needed.

14.6          THE TRAFFIC COMPUTER

Traffic systems are highly computerized. They have to be. And, like all computers and software programs, each has strengths and weaknesses. The best way to deal with the traffic computer system is to learn it: not the specific programming commands, but the system’s capabilities and limitations. Get to know the traffic manager and everyone who works for her or him. Ask if they can offer you “classes” so you can fully understand the system’s workings. In the long run, it will help to understand the limits of the system. You won’t expect the computer to do something it can’t. The traffic staff can be the brand manager’s new best friends with a little care and cultivation.

14.7          ASK QUESTIONS

Ask questions if you don’t understand something about the computer system. Somebody will know the answer (and be happy to show you that they do). Just because it’s a computer doesn’t mean it’s flawless. A check every now and then of the part of the system that handles the promos might save you an error on-air.

14.8          THE ART AND SCIENCE OF LOGGING

What spot goes where best? Placing the spot on the log to its best advantage requires a little thought.

The most expensive branding tool you have is your own on-air slots. The marketing and promotion department is the station’s number one client, getting the most air time of any client. Time really is money in the television industry, and time should be viewed as such, particularly when placing spots on the log. When you’re ready to actually do the log, you need to ask yourself questions such as: “Does it make sense to place this promo in this slot?” “Why is it appropriate?”

Spend time with the research expert to really develop an understanding of a specific time period’s demographic appeal. Do you want to promote a relatively adult movie showing in a children’s animated program? No, because there aren’t matching demographics. Know the audience for each show and think about which of the shows you are promoting would be of interest to this demo. Write down each show’s demo and keep it handy. Eventually, you’ll know without looking, but have it written down when you begin. Match the demos or plug the promo into a spot that reaches the demo you want to attract.

14.9          IS THERE A BETTER WAY TO USE THIS SPOT?

For example, taking a 30-second spot and plugging a 20-second promo for your prime lineup and adding a 10-second spot for a news special report keyed to one of the prime programs is one way to effectively use the inventory.

Is this promo going to conflict with the content of the show you are putting the promo in? Talk shows need extra attention, owing to the varied and sometimes controversial nature of their topics. Viewers may object to a raw discussion of teen sexuality in the morning kid block.

Will this spot run up against a station ID that is promoting the same program or news story? A 30-second topical line-up followed by an ID is overkill and makes the station look unprofessional. The same thing can be said for entertainment spots. It is not effective to run a news ID immediately following a news 30-second spot.

Plug in the promos that are needed and that make sense, no matter what your own feelings are. And remember that just when you are sick and tired of seeing a spot, the audience is just beginning to catch on to it. So get behind it and log it.

Finally, remember two vital tips to make the on-air presentation effective and more professional. First thing each morning, right after coffee, check the log to make sure everything is in working order. This is especially true if you rely on overnight spot feeds or production tagging sessions for your fresh inventory. At the end of the day, before you head out the door, one more quick look-over will save you from wasting precious air time and will make the whole station look better.