(Left to right) Tommy Crudup from Rachel Ray, Rebecca Jarvis from CBS This Morning Saturday, Heleigh Raff from Piers Morgan Tonight, and Vanessa Weber from ABC News.
Rachel Ray, CBS This Morning Saturday, Piers Morgan Tonight, and ABC News. You have a book, movie, or guest that would be perfect for each of those shows. How do you go about getting them on? To find out I attended the New York Chapter of the Public Relations Society “Meet the Media” panel that featured:
- Tommy Crudup, Senior Talent Executive, Rachael Ray
- Rebecca Jarvis, Co-Host, CBS This Morning: Saturday
- Haleigh Raff, Senior Editorial Producer, Piers Morgan Tonight
- Vanessa Weber, Consumer/Investigative Producer, ABC News
With 2.5 million viewers every day Rachel Ray provides a huge audience and Tommy Crudup is the man to pitch. Tommy prefers to receive pitches through email but please do not send two page emails with a followup call ten minutes after you hit send. Include any links you may have for previous television appearances even if it may only be local clips. A great way to be a resource to Tommy is to send him a client list to keep on file and refer to when needed. Tommy Crudup can be reached via email: tcrudup@kingworld.com, and follow him on Twitter @TommyTomTom22.
Even though CBS This Morning Saturday may be heavy on politics and politicians it is business people and entrepeneurs (someone with an interesting personality and story) that interests Rebecca Jarvis most with the ability to talk about trends. Rebecca prefers to receive pitches via Twitter as well as email but remember that Rebecca also has to pitch to the CBS This Morning Saturday producers as well to get the story covered. To help her (since she covers business) be sure to provide the size and total dollar amount of the market, the players, and a story line that would make viewers get excited about the story. Rebecca suggests to think how your person best fits into the story. Rebecca Jarvis can be reached via email: jarvisr@cbsnews.com and you can follow her on Twitter @RebeccaJarvis.
Haleigh Raff books celebrities on Piers Morgan Tonight as well as newsmakers and authors. Haleigh advised it is best to know the show you are pitching (the type of guests that are on and the types of segments) it will make her job easier. What would be a bad pitch? A long pitch that ends with…”this would be great for Rachel Ray.” Haleigh also suggested to be clear and upfront if your potential guest is a paid spokesperson and how many mentions would be allowed/needed for the segment. She also felt it is best to build relationships by reaching out to someone by taking them out or meeting for coffee, or visiting their office to make a connection with the person. Be persistant but not annoying. You can email Haleigh Raff at haleigh.raff@cnn.com and follow her on Twitter: @Haleighraff.
As a producer for ABC News Vanessa Weber prefers to receive pitches via email and due to her demanding schedule has no time to return phone calls. When pitching or thinking of a guest/topic that may be ideal for ABC News Vanessa advises to think in the mindset of: Why would this make compelling television? As with Tommy Vanessa would like to see images/clips or links to clips so she has an idea how your person appears on television. Other tips include: Do your homework – are there similar stories? What human interest stories work? Help me do my job better and faster. You can email Vanessa: vanessa.weber@abc.com.
You may also be interested in these posts:
How to Get the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Businessweek to Cover Your Story, Book, or Guest
How to Get Your Story or Event on New York News Shows
How to Get the Associated Press to Cover Your Story, Book, or Client
How to Get Your Client or Book on CNBC, Huffington Post Live, The Chew, and Better TV
How to Get Your Story or Event On Television and Radio Shows
How to Reach and Foster Relationships with Mommy Bloggers
How to Get Your Story, Event or Client on Bloomberg TV
Get Your Products and Stories Featured in Mainstream Magazines
eMarketer released a May 2011 report on QR codes and followed up this past July with another report, QR Codes: Marketers Keep Hitting ‘Go,’ but Slow Consumer Adoption Still Slow to see where QR Codes currently stand, and the news is not good even with the continued growth of smartphones. eMarketer concludes that there is no mass audience and those users that do only scan once and do nothing with the information.
Highlights include:
– A May 2012 Business Insider article notes 42% of Teen Vogue’s teen readers of the magazine scanned QR Codes.
– Marketers strive forward with 33% using QR Codes to drive web traffic with half of the QR Codes appearing in printed materials such as flyers, brochures, and magazines.
– Customizing the look of QR Codes in various colors and brand logos may improve the use rather than the generic black and white appearance of QR Codes.
– May be a disconnect between consumers and brands: consumers want deals and discounts while brands want to deliver information but are now changing their view.
– Some think the added step of opening an app to snap a photo or make a scan keeps consumers from taking advantage of scanning QR Codes.
Executive quotes:
– “QR Codes are very effective and useful for a lot of these campaigns, but creative people do not like using them, especially the luxury brands,” said Roger Matus, EVP of Nellymoser.
– “When we send out a mobile promotion or a mobile coupon, redemption rates can be as high as 30%,” said Red Fish Media president Matt McKenna.
When I was a teen back in 1982 where did I turn to discover new music? College radio. Where do teens under eighteen turn to discover new music in 2012? According to the August 15 Wall Street Journal article, “Forget CDs. Teens Are Tuning In to YouTube,” well, as the headline states, YouTube.
According to a Neilsen survey of three thousand people revealed:
– Two-thirds of US teenagers under the age of eighteen use YouTube to listen to music more than any other medium and are less inclined than those eighteen and older to listen to cds or the radio.
– Among adults (eighteen and older) most popular ways to listen to music were radio, cds, and YouTube.
Interesting fact: Nine percent of adults said they listen to cassettes.
You can read the article here.
With an email length of just four to fifteen characters getting a fifteen percent open rate compared to the twenty-eight to thirty-nine length getting a higher click rate I am not sure which is best especially after reading this Adestra report.
As of July 2012 eMarketer reveals the top ten tablet and smartphone activities of US college students:
1. Access the internet
2. Use social networks
3. Check email
4. Play games
5. Download/use apps
6. Listen to music
7. Watch video
8. Read books
9. Get the weather
10. Get the local news
The Mike Johnson Blog 