If you're a PR exec or professional who's been wedded to the use of video news releases and satellite media tours, here's another electronic bride you shouldn't be forgetting: the Public Service Announcement.
PSAs, the 30- to 60-second blips that can touch on topics as diverse as AIDS and automobile industry recalls, are a communications channel that's been used for decades. But West Glen Communications, a New-York based producer and distributor of audio, video and multimedia for PR and ad agencies, is giving communicators something to hang their hats on: Among TV PSA directors, 61 percent expect their needs for PSAs to increase or stay the same during 1997 and 79 percent of radio PSA directors share that same expectation.
The finding is part of West Glen's "1997 Annual Survey of Public Affairs Directors on the Use of PSAs" and points to the trend of airing localized messages presented by national organizations.
One finding, specifically, shows that: Of the 263 PSA TV directors and 162 PSA radio directors who responded, 83 percent indicated they want to run specifically tweaked messages, or those that are relevant to their local viewers' needs.
Based on West Glen's analysis of SIGMA data (SIGMA is the electronic tracking service from Nielsen Media Research that records TV air time), here are some additional survey findings:
- 63 percent of TV PSAs air between 5 a.m. and midnight, with only 37 percent airing in the overnight hours;
- 45 percent of recently distributed PSAs stay in rotation for three months;
- 40 percent of directors said that of the PSAs they receive, more than half of them will be used;
- 61 percent will air the spot within four weeks of receiving it; and
- Only 5 percent said a celebrity spokesperson is a determining factor in airing the PSA.
(West Glen, 212/921-2800)