Relatability and Case Studies Is The Key To Nationwide Coverage
How can the amplification of regional news outlets in your broadcast PR strategy deliver amazing nationwide exposure? National news programmes may set the news agenda, but it’s the regionals that tell us how it will affect us in our daily lives - and when taken together, represent a means of reaching people across the nation through a source they know and trust. In this article, Camila Holden-Ayala explores the power of regional case studies and production hubs like ITV Shared Content in telling your brand’s story in a way that will not only reach viewers, but resonate with them.
When thinking of a campaign, I always try to encourage clients to ask the question ‘why or how does this affect Sarah, who lives down the road?’. It’s easy to get swept away in the creative genius of a campaign and forget that listeners and viewers are real people and they want their news to reflect their daily lives.
Clients can often miss out on coverage by focusing too much on securing national outlets. While the nationals dictate the news agenda, it’s regional media that translates how those stories affect local communities. Looking at your campaign through a regional lens opens a world of opportunities that don’t only have reach, but also make an impact.
ITV Shared Content is a top-tier source of coverage that tells your story to ‘Sarah down the road’ by identifying stories which affect the nation but have regional nuances. And how do they do this? By the power of case studies and local data.
With an audience of approximately 4 million a night, the ITV Shared team cover 11 key regions, each with their own local focus. ‘Relatable’ is at the forefront of their planning strategy. The goal for the team is to find people with lived experiences and give them a platform.
They will typically plan a story over the course of 2 to 3 weeks. The editor will choose to focus their piece on parts of your story that resonate across the regions and send out a brief to their local teams to start pulling the interviews together.
It’s then our job to match up 11 case studies with the relevant production teams who will capture bespoke content which slots into the brief by an agreed deadline. Once all 11 regions have completed their interviews the central team align, and the piece is good to air.
Each region will watch the same story with their own regional perspective played out simultaneously across the nation. Depending on the strength of the story, you can sometimes even get multiple playouts during the day.
Your pitch to ITV Content needs to be a clear and colourful offer. You need to have voices that remind viewers of their daughter, colleague, friend, partner and a filming opportunity that paints an authentic narrative, a plain zoom background just won’t cut it. It’s about telling a story that makes the viewer feel connected to deliver impactful broadcast coverage.
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Tapping into regional broadcast media can bring a campaign to life. If you would like to discuss the opportunities presented by regional case studies and production hubs like ITV Shared Content in more depth, please speak to our team today.
