TV Satellite Tours: Cost Effective Promotional Tool

Co-op satellite media tours (SMTs) represent a cost effective branding tool for achieving broad-based TV exposure.

So what's a satellite media tour?

Basically, it's a way to distribute PR information to TV stations across the country via live satellite feeds. It's as though you were touring the country and holding one-on-one interviews with TV reporters, except it's all done from one location by satellite. In a co-op satellite media tour, the costs, such as TV crews, satellite uplinks, b-roll, talent fees and the like, are shared by several participating companies.

With a co-op SMT, you can achieve broad national TV exposure for your products at a fraction of the cost of paid TV commercials. Your selling messages have instant credibility, since they appear on TV news programs, carrying an implied third-party endorsement. (Remember that "they say" is always more effective than "we say!")

Stations are booked for an SMT in advance. Each station gets an assigned timeslot for its satellite feed. The satellite feeds are live and interactive. In essence, each station is getting a private, live report from the trade show. The segments appear live on popular morning TV news programs. They are also often taped by the stations to be aired later in the day. Some stations repeat the segments on their evening news programs.

Typically, each station books a 3-4 minute segment. With no more than six participants, each company will get 30-40 seconds of coverage on each station.

In a recent satellite media tour from the Miami International Boat Show, we had a total Nielson-certified reach of over 6.4 million viewers nationwide.

A satellite media tour is not for every company, to be sure. But if your company is looking to reach a broad national market, it may be a very cost-effective promotional and branding tool. A co-op SMT can reach millions of viewers for a good deal less than what you would pay for a full-page color ad in a national magazine.