Satelitte Media Tours and the role of PR

This afternoon I attended my first WWPR brown bag lunch session. We went to Belo’s Capital Bureau and were educated on satellite media tours by the Assistant Director of Production Services. I don't have much experience with broadcast outlets, so seeing and learning about how a national satellite media tour is pulled off logistically was very informative.

We went through the process of a media tour, from start to beginning. The most important aspect of pulling off a successful satellite media tour is actually having a story that would generate interest from stations in nationwide markets (large and small). It's easy, as a PR person working heavily on a project or client, to see the story you want your pitch to become, not the story it actually is. And sometimes, your pitch just isn't a story.

Once you have a stellar story and you're getting some good media feedback, PR agencies usually bring in a booking agency to take care of the logistics with each station. This frees up the flack to focus on training their spokesperson on the topic, questions to prepare for and what to expect from each station. The studio usually takes care of booking a hair and makeup artist and setting up the backdrop, video logistics and production.

Our tour guide showed us around the control rooms and I got to act as Producer of a segment our group came up with. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera. We were briefed on what happens in the studio the day of the tour and apparently many PR folks come into the studio and try to media coach on the day of the interview- which is a mistake because it is an extra distraction to the spokesperson. If the client has no media experience, the PR Agency should conduct a media training in the studio the week before the interviews. If they do have experience- they should brief the spokesperson at least a day in advance.

Hopefully I'll get to do a satellite media tour in the future for a client- now that I'm a pro :)