When Doug Simon received the results of a survey co-sponsored by his company, DS Simon Productions, and PR News, there was one set of numbers that bothered him.
When asked, "Have you ever received an audience number for a media outlet on a usage report that you felt might have been higher than it should have been?", 35% of the 400 PR
professionals polled said yes, while 41% said no and 24% did not know.
What bothered Simon, whose New York-based company produces and distributes video and audio via satellite and hard copy to the broadcast media, was the 35% who felt their usage
reports were padded. The problem, he feels, is not with the PR professionals receiving the usage reports, but with the often and unverifiable numbers these reports frequently
contain.
"It would be ideal if the industry could agree on standards for reporting so every vendor, including the agencies, recorded audience numbers the same way," says Simon. "That
would be a huge step forward for the public relations industry. Clearly identifying what type of station it is would be important, but sticking with the Nielsen
methodology, which very clearly states the limits on the numbers you can claim for a station when Nielsen doesn't report an audience. And that is clearly what the core of the
problem comes down to. If Nielsen doesn't report an audience, what should we put down? Everyone's putting different things across the board when in actuality they're entitled to
put a very small number when Nielsen doesn't provide. One of the reasons we found such a high level of people stating they're receiving inflated numbers in their reports."
But what about the nearly one-quarter of polled PR practitioners who didn't know if their usage report numbers were over-inflated? Simon acknowledges many people view the
reading of audience numbers as a mathematical science, but he adds there is no reason to be scared or confused by this numerical onslaught. "Nielsen has taken great steps to make
things simple, with tools like their PeopleMeter," he says. "But not everyone is using that."
Indeed, Simon produced a usage report from a vendor trumpeting B-roll placement on a New York market independent TV station with a 110,000 audience. But the station's call
letters might provoke confusion from anyone familiar with New York-area television: WVVH.
"It's a low power station out on South Hampton," explains Simon. "If you turn your TV sideways and tilt your TV antenna somewhat to the right, you might get it." Simon then
adds PR practitioners who receive this kind of information need to ask hard questions about such reporting. "When you look at a usage report, check the familiarity with the
programming and the station. Make sure your vendor provides you information with the affiliate and whether they are a broadcast, cable or low-power station. Check the individual
audience total for the station and make sure it is not ending in multiples of a hundred or a thousand because that is very unlikely using Nielsen methodology. You can ask your
vendor to provide proof, and Nielsen provides letters to all companies that they do work directly with Nielsen and have a contract and agreement."
The question of guaranteed placements generates a fair amount of passion from PR professionals. Referring to the aforementioned D.S. Simon-PR News survey question,
David Patti, vice president of the health practice at the New York agency Makovsky + Company, notes: "It all depends on the source you're getting your numbers from. Some
vendors are more truthful on numbers presented. I'm not a big fan of audience figures. By and large, I've had a hard time believing audience numbers from vendors. In one case,
a vendor took a figure from a market of similar size and 'guestimates' this is the audience number."
The VNR in 2006
But as a PR tool, how effective are VNRs today? Patti believes they still possess some value, but time has not been their ally.
"They've certainly lost some of their cachet in the past few years," he says. "For the right products, setting and timing, they can be effective. But overall, they have less
value as a PR tool now than two or three years ago."
Patti states the rise of the 24-hour news channels offered an excellent opportunity for VNRs to fill the considerable amounts of broadcast time that was initially available.
"But now content providers have filled that gap," he adds. "There are a plethora of choices for newsrooms. Besides, newsooms have scaled back on their operations. So it's a
case of the boat and the dock missing each other."
Taking the maritime analogy one step further is Shoba Purushothaman, president and CEO of The News Market, a broadcast news distribution service based in New York, who
feels VNRs should literally be thrown overboard. "I am not a proponent of VNRs," she says. "I think they fly in the face of logic. No credible journalist wants to use a VNR -
they want to do their own work."
Purushothaman is equally critical about guaranteed placements. "You don't get guaranteed placements on top networks," she states. "On cable, guaranteed placements are not
seen as PR; it's advertising."
Purushothaman continues that she's seen usage reports packed with obscure stations - "Cable companies I've never heard of, Channels 900 and above" - but she acknowledges some
VNRs do get grand slam placement. "Sometime you get a rock star-tye of VNR that can fly due to the nature of who's in it," he says.
Or perhaps it is a matter who's pitching it? Brooks Christol, corporate communications specialist at Healthways, Nashville, has registered VNR placements on CBS
News, CNBC and MSNBC. For Christol's success, high-profile hits came from understanding his mission and not leaving the pitching to a third party.
"You need to establish contact with the reporter or producer so they know when it is on the satellite for pick-up," he explains. "Distribution services are a great way to get
in front of the market, but they often lack personal relationships with targeted reporters and editors. Not all broadcast distribution companies hire telemarketers to pitch a
story. When considering hiring these types of vendors, scrutinize the pitching strategies. I've worked with companies that take time to learn the story and will be effective at
pitching. These companies have proven results without guaranteed placement. These are the vendors I recommend again and again."
The personal touch helped Cheryl Kelly in her first VNR endeavor last August. Kelly, the public affairs specialist with the Washington, DC-based union AFSCME,
coordinated a VNR of an AFSCME event honoring a slain Tennessee corrections officer. The ceremony took place at the union's annual conference in Albuquerque, NM, but Kelly wanted
to see coverage in the slain officer's home state.
"I had to do a lot of calling and a little begging," she recalls regarding her contact to the Tennessee television news stations. Kelly's efforts paid off, with coverage
throughout Tennessee and seven other states. "This was my first time doing it and it turned out to be really successful."
Kelly credits her tenacity for getting the VNR shown so widely. "You have to be aggressive enough to call stations, dial continuously, and stay on it to get the story across,"
she advises. "And after the story was on the air, we got a lot of print requests. Newspapers wanted to get photographs and talk to our president about the story."
So perhaps, to steal from Mark Twain, the reports of the VNR's death is greatly exaggerated? Or maybe it is a case of knowing where they fit into today's PR scheme of
things?
"We, as well as broadcasters, must understand the role of the VNR in the marketing mix," says Christol. "It is a tool to help reporters tell their story. PR should not expect
the print media to run a press release verbatim, nor should we expect the broadcast media to run a VNR unedited. In our efforts to pitch these stories we should continuously offer
other resources beyond the video and audio sent by satellite. Making the extra effort can help keep the valuable VNR in our toolbox and will also keep the broadcast media coming
back."
Indeed, maybe the VNR is just getting bad PR. "The audience inflation problem could be contributing to the perception that VNRs aren't as effective," says Doug Simon. "The
client may not work as hard to develop a story with strong news value because they may assume they are assured of reaching millions of viewers."
Contacts: Doug Simon, [email protected]; David Patti, 212.508.9623; Shoba Purushothaman, 212.497.9022; Brooks Christol, [email protected]; Cheryl Kelly, [email protected].
A Slice of VNR Practices
The recent DS Simon-PR News survey of 400 public relations professionals yielded additional insight regarding VNR usage and perceptions. Some of the data harvested from the
survey included the following:
Q: Are you planning to include more public relations video in your campaigns for 2006 than you did in 2005?
| Yes | 8% |
| Less | 12% |
| The Same | 46% |
| Don't Know | 34% |
Q: Given the more competitive media environment, have you changed your approach to try and offer more compelling, less commercial PR video stories to the media?
| Yes | 40% |
| Not necessary | 46% |
| Don't know | 14% |
Q: If you work in corporate PR, how do you coordinate your VNR programs?
| Work directly with the VNR firm | 27% |
| Have agency handle the entire process | 23% |
| Work with both the agency and vendor | 50% |