On-air talent is the face of your newscast and one of its most important components. In years past, we saw a lot of promos that specifically featured on-air talent. The promos would profile everything from personal hobbies to professional ethics. These days, content is king. When faced with the choice between promoting specific content in the show or the anchors, most stations choose the former.
Research tells us that talent continue to be a big draw. This is especially true with veteran talent. Many viewers couldn’t tell you the name of NBC’s nightly newscast is “NBC Nightly News,” but most could tell that NBC’s evening news is hosted by Brian Williams. In the industry many of us simply refer to this newscast as “Williams.” “Last night on Williams I saw….” When a trusted newscaster tells the audience about a story, viewers are much more inclined to watch. The networks use their famous faces in most all their promotions.
In these days of ubiquitous news coverage, talent promotion remains one of the best ways to differentiate your newscast. It is important to realize that you don’t need to choose between promoting content or talent. You can kill two birds with one stone by wrapping the content around your talent. Better utilization of your on-air talent as the face of your news can exponentially increase their familiarity with viewers.
The magic formula: face time = fame. Start by taking a hard look at your on-air promotion. Is your talent in ALL your topicals, special reports and image promotion? Special report promos play in your most valuable prime slots. They often get scores of GRPs each week. Why not sell the report AND the talent at the same time? These promos can accomplish numerous branding goals simultaneously. Make sure anchor talent are featured prominently in all high-production special report promos. It isn’t necessary that they track the entire VO. Start with track from your slick-sounding announcer, then add little copy pops from your anchor. Give your top talent a major role in promos.
Graeme Newell is a broadcast and web marketing specialist who serves as the president and founder of 602 communications. You can reach Graeme at gnewell@602communications.com.