Promoting Your News During the Coronavirus Pandemic

"What are we going to do now?"

That's the question many of you are asking yourself and your marketing and promotion teams during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. I want to offer you some options that can serve as a discussion launching point.

Before reading any further, understand that I do not know the specifics of your market, your news brand's strengths and weaknesses, your competition, etc. This information is not a recommendation that you take any specific action -- it is an idea starter. I have created a section that features work your colleagues are submitting, and I will be adding content to the body of the article. My contact info is at the bottom of this page, so send me links if you'd like to share your team's work.

Start with the Basics: The Time is Now for Topicals to Shine

Content is why people come to us in the first place. And with a lot of people homebound right now due to workplace safety, closures and travel disruptions-- we've got lots of eyeballs focused on our entertainment and news programs. Because the pandemic is developing and changing so quickly, it may be tempting (or necessary) for some stations, especially with staff displacement in some locations, to punt topicals. This is our time to shine a spotlight on the important stories our news teams are working so hard to publish.

Here are some essential things to consider for topicals:

1) Avoid promoting story overviews. It's easy to say things like, "And there's breaking news with school closures. We'll have the latest so you can plan ahead." Of course we will, and so will our competitors. This approach probably isn't going to make people feel like it's a must-see story.

2) Be specific and timely. Let's take the example above and make it specific."News 2 Investigates just spoke with the state education agency, and discovered there's an underlying reason why school closures have more to do with grandparents than students." See the difference? That's much more specific and intriguing, and it showcases how things are quickly developing and your investigative brand.

3) Focus on the surprising information your story reveals. The previous example does this. You naturally think school closures are about protecting students, faculty and staff. But as our news team discovered, it runs much deeper than that. And that's the specific and surprising content that motivates people to watch.

I routinely coach news and marketing teams on a 3 step process to unlock the surprise in our stories. I shared this at the Promax Station Summit a few years back, and I'm sharing it again with you now. This is a really simple tool to use. It will help you focus your topicals, and can be used for writing digital headlines that motivate people to watch and click. Reporters will find this helpful in focusing their stories on the most relevant and impactful information.

Producing Effective Topicals for Developing Stories

With an ongoing and constantly evolving story like the Coronavirus pandemic, promo producers face a tough challenge trying to meet tease deadlines -- especially when stories are light on details. It feels even worse when we're on deadline and we reach out to a reporter to ask what they have, and their response goes something like, "I've got nothing new for you right now. The press conference hasn't even started." So in order to make slot, we end up slapping together a tease with copy like this: "...and we'll have the latest on the governor's press conference, next." That's about as generic and blah as it gets.

In these situations we can use a tactic I call process teasing. When done right, process teasing will help you showcase the relevance, immediacy and urgency in our stories even when we don't have all the facts. That doesn't mean we'll be making up stuff for the tease; we can never do that. Let me show you how this can work.

Our reporter is covering the governor's coronavirus press conference. It is scheduled to begin at 4pm, but our tease has to be written, edited and uploaded for air by 3:30pm. The governor's press office has informed media outlets that the presser will reveal changes that will affect the upcoming election primary, airport readiness, and train schedules. Without knowing any other information we could tease the story like this: "...Reporter Greg Jones is en-route to the governor's press conference and has late-breaking information affecting commuter train schedules, and two other major announcements. Live coverage at 4pm." This copy is fact-based and has a sense of immediacy and urgency. And it's much more effective than generic "we'll have the latest" copy. Some producers may feel this approach is too over-the-top or doesn't feel natural. Remember -- you can dial up or down the intensity of the copy and your talent's read to fit your station's news brand.

I'm just scratching the surface here with this one story example; there is a lot more you can do with process teasing, and in my workshops I teach an in-depth approach that focuses on the steps producers can take to pre-plan their teases. I have a long list of questions promo producers can ask reporters. I want to share three of those questions that can help you right now with your coronavirus topicals.

I encourage you to ask your reporters or news producers these three questions before you write any topical copy. Here's how these questions will help you create much more impactful topicals.

1) If you know the reporter's most important question before you write your copy, you can turn that question into a promise for your tease. "Investigator Greg Jones is asking how the new commuter train schedule will impact access to downtown hospitals for workers and patients."

2) When stories are developing quickly, you don't always have the luxury of getting video fed back to you from the field. Knowing when your reporter will get back to the station will help you decide if you have enough time to wait for the video, or if you need to rely on in-house video, or go with an anchor on cam.

3) If your reporter plans to hold information for a story airing in a later newscast, knowing that NOW can give you a major head-start on your next set of topicals. Pre-planning as much as you possibly can is a huge help with ongoing coverage.

Drive Your Customers to Digital

Consider creating "guided tour" spots where you walk people through your digital content in detail.

Let's take WWL's main news app for example. They have an interactive map that gives people detailed outbreak stats down to the parish (county) level. You could do an entire spot with an anchor or key reporter that shows your customers -- step by step -- the information that's available. Start by showing them how to find and download the app. Walk them through the app, pointing out exactly where they can find specific information ("Scroll down to the Coronavirus interactive map you see here...") then demonstrate how that feature works. That's the key -- demonstrate. You want to keep it super simple. Just talk to your viewers like they are sitting down next to you and you are showing them how it all works. Be conversational. You might want to create the spot without music which can help make it more newsy and feel less like a commercial. You can apply this process to a lot of content on your sites. Think about things that are top-of-mind right now: School meals, grocery store hours, pharmacies that offer free delivery, business hours/closures, organizations helping seniors with errands, etc. You're highlighting the things that most directly impact them.

You can update your spots as new content becomes available. That keep things fresh, and adds to the immediacy and urgency of your coverage. I wouldn't obsess over the production values. If your spots appear a little more raw than usual, that might actually be a good thing -- it gives people the sense that things are unfolding in real-time.

Station Promos

WNEM, Flint/Tri-Cities

This is what we did at our station. Got a lot of positive feedback from viewers.

-- Chris Hussey, Creative Services Director

WDRB, Louisville

We wanted to create some powerful news image promos that capture "why" we are in this as journalists and passionate media veterans. We have a long history of public service with diligence in protecting the community, so it's earned over time and not just in one moment.

We also have a very deep team of anchors & reporters, who are very passionate about what they do. It was rewarding to be able to feature more of them and allow their emotion to come out in this type of a campaign.

What I like about this approach is that the Anchors seem so much more genuine when you just let them talk it out in their own words rather than scripted promo speak!

-- Scott Brady, VP of Creative Services & Director of Marketing

WCMH, Columbus

It was a message we keep hearing over and over here in Ohio. We will get through this, but only if we work as a team. It’s an important reminder a time with a lot of uncertainty. This spot is not about NBC4 but the spirit of the Central Ohio community.

-- Sarah Haeberle, Senior Creative Services Producer

__________________________________________________________________________

About the Author: Greg is an audience retention specialist with 602 Communications who has trained over 120 forward-thinking television newsrooms across the U.S. and Canada. His audience retention and customer-focused branding workshops -- for producers, reporters, anchors, meteorologists, promotion and digital teams -- teach specific skill sets that drive audience retention, brand equity, social media click-throughs, and simplify daily workflow. Talk to Greg right now. 210.587.7000. Email [email protected]