On first pitch, a national campaign called "Insurance Minutes" doesn't exactly scream "hot consumer news vignettes" to local TV news assignment editors who want to know the answer to "Who cares?" in 30 seconds or less. In fact, most would argue that insurance is the last thing people want to hear about on a continuous basis.
So, how do you make insurance newsy and interesting, especially to TV viewers with lightening-short attention spans? Therein lies the challenge of the Insurance Information Institute (III), the 30-year-old national, non-profit communications arm for the property/casualty insurance business.
The News Hook
Penetrating the TV news arena is a hard nut for any media relations pro to crack. Using industry vets to talk to the media, is often the way to go.
For III, that meant enlisting the collective 30-year news reporting experience of Sue Stolov, who runs Washington Independent Production company (specializing in VNR and PSA production projects) and Carolyn Gorman, director of III's Washington, D.C., office. Having been there and done that, Gorman and Stolov, who were in the trenches of TV news for 15 years each, invested their considerable news production know-how to create III's "Insurance Minutes" campaign, which launched in 1994.
Using public safety as the news hook, the series reports on a vast array of consumer-friendly safety topics from pet health insurance and yard sales to car theft and new earthquake policies, all with the aim of raising the awareness barometer on hot insurance issues.
The segments, now about a minute and 50 seconds in length, are developed the way any good news piece is, according to Stolov. Timely safety topics, compelling visuals, useful consumer tips, and high-quality video production are what this series tries to communicate in close to two minutes and at a budget of $14,000 to $16,000 for each segment.
Recently one of its segments, "How to Baby Proof Your Home," was inhaled by TV stations throughout the country, eventually grabbing industry kudos with two industry awards, from the International Television Association (award of excellence) and the America Corporate Video Awards (Shooting Star). The VNR, which used powerful footage of a toddler stumbling into potential life-threatening situations in the home, personified disturbing statistics about home fatalities from appliance and drapery cords, tablecloths, and window blinds.
Produced in 1995, the segment relied on the antics of a two-and-a-half-year-old adorable little girl to hammer home sound bite-advice, on how to prevent home dangers, from industry experts like Heather Paul, spokeswoman for the National Safety Kids Campaign, and top child psychologist Bonnie Greenberg, PhD.
"We are always thinking about what the visual should be, in this case, it had to be a child," explained Stolov of the VNR strategy. "Many VNRs rely on industry experts and statistics to tell a story, but we made the toddler central and the experts secondary, because people can relate better to a toddler shown fumbling around telephone cords and tablecloths."
The Pitch
Producing the VNR was only half the battle, selling it to TV stations was as challenging, if not more. In fact, half the budget went into packaging and pitching to 780 small-, medium- and large-market TV stations throughout the country.
Unlike most VNR pitches, since the Baby Proofing VNR (No. 12 in the series) was a part of a larger campaign pitch, a working familiarity had already been established with many of the target TV stations that used previous segments or were at least aware of them. Nonetheless, its pitch strategy was still aggressive. Stolov, who orchestrated the pitch, notified TV stations via letter several days prior to the first feed, as well as via AP Express/Medialink wire service (the same wire service that transmits directly into 756 newsroom personal computers for network and news service feeds like CNN and CBS) before each weekly feed. And, for more personal notification, more than 50 TV stations, networks and other news programs were telephoned for each feed.
Here are some tips for creating effective VNRs:
Source: Sue Stolov |
Targeting consumer reporters, assignment editors and finance reporters as well as harder to reach TV stations that featured children-oriented news programming, the pitch worked.
Chock full of customize-able slates on home fatalities and accidents, a suggested lead that hinged on "dangers that lurk in the home," and a close that included an 800 hotline and coupon for the National Safety Kids Campaign, the Baby Proofing VNR was aired on 90 different newscasts reaching over 9 million viewers nationwide.
Rolled out around the time of the April Oklahoma City bombing, the VNR was aired within the same newscasts as the bombing coverage on many news stations.
But Stolov says that timing is a touch-and-go thing that's difficult to get a firm grasp of, especially since breaking local and national news are high priorities on any TV stations news list. "You want to give stations a reason to air [your VNR] now, but sometimes it's out of your control. That's why we do feeds two days in a row."
(Washington Independent Productions, 202/638-3400; Insurance Information Institute, 202/833-1580)