REICH COMMUNICATIONS

What We Do: Virtual Media Tour Gets Results

The quarantine during the pandemic has put up some tough new challenges to get PR clients into the news.

It's also opened some new opportunities, as shown by a virtual media tour we've been doing for The National Road Safety Foundation (NRSF). 

With Bob Thomas Productions, we've arranged virtual interviews via Skype and Zoom with 19 TV stations in markets ranging from smaller places like Joplin, Missouri to top markets including Washington, D.C., New Orleans, Cleveland, Nashville and Jacksonville... with more to come.

Here are two typical news segments -- Click to see spots from the CBS station in Cleveland and the CBS outlet in Bakersfield, Calif.

In normal times, Skype interviews would rarely be acceptable for most TV stations because of picture and sound quality and reliability.  But now we're accustomed to seeing interview guests and even reporters and anchors broadcasting from their living rooms and kitchens. 

Hopefully, whenever things get back to "normal," stations will continue to take interviews via the internet rather than the more costly and time-consuming traditional methods -- traveling cross-country for in-studio interviews or doing spots via costly satellite feeds.

For now, it's working nicely for us.

 

 

 

 

 

Have a safe Fourth

A Legend

Everybody wants to laugh - you know that. They need to laugh... people need to laugh.  --  Carl Reiner

There still remains an awful lot to be done...

What We Do: Virtual Media Tour

 

Producing a TV media tour is usually a time-consuming and costly PR tool.

Traditionally, a media tour requires that a spokeseperson either travel to multiple cities to do interviews in-studio at each TV station or else sit in a studio to do a series of back-to-back interviews with stations by satellite. The city-by-city tour requires a good amount of time and travel, and a satellite tour is quite expensive to produce because of satellite time charges and studio rental.  And few major market stations normally take satellite interviews unless the guest is an extremely high-profile or in-demand person.

But during this pandemic, we've become accustomed to seeing TV anchors, reporters and interview guests appear via Skype from their homes, without the usual top-quality studio cameras, lighting and backdrops. 

So we thought perhaps this could work for our client, The National Road Safety Foundation, which wouldn't normally use one of the traditional media tour methods. 

We're in the process now of producing a ten-market TV media tour, to talk about teen summer driving, which always sees a spike in crashes and fatalities during the summer months. In fact, the traffic safety community refers to the period between Memorial Day and Labor Day as "the 100 deadliest days."

With an assist Bob Thomas Productions, we have NRSF spokesperson Michelle Anderson virtually "visiting" at least ten markets to do live or taped interviews, getting across important messages about teen driver safety and the role parents can play in keeping their young people safe behind the wheel.

The first spot will air live Monday morning on "The Morning Show" on WXIX-TV, FOX 19 in Cincinnati, followed on Tuesday by a taped interview with the ABC station in Johnson City/Knoxville in Tennessee, with several more in the works throughout the nation.

Will this become a "new normal" even after the pandemic has passed or will we go back to the high broadcast-quality standards of TV interviews?  Time will tell, but some creativity and flexibility is working for us and our client at the moment. 

100,000 and Counting...

More than 100,000 of our fellow Americans have died from this virus.   Millions more are suffering economic hardship. 

And as we hit this horrible milestone, our president golfs and tweets insults.

What has happened to this country?  We as a people still have a great soul and open hearts, I believe.  But our leadership?  Not so anymore.

 

Remember and Honor

WhatWe Do: Drive2Life

For The National Road Safety Foundation, we promote the annual Drive2Life PSA Contest, which invites teens to give us their ideas for public service messages on safe driving issues.

This was the tenth year of the contest, which we developed, bringing in media partners Scholastic and Teen Kids News. The theme this year was seat belt safety.

Out of nearly 1,200 entries, we selected a concept by Florida teen Madison Henry.  She won $1,000.

Normally, in addition to the cash prize, the NRSF brings the winner to New York to work for 3 days with the Emmy-winning producers of nationally-syndicated "Teen Kids News" -- Alan Weiss Productions -- to script, shoot and edit the concept into a finished 30-second spot that airs on some 200 TV stations nationwide.

This year, the coronavirus pandemic made travel to New York impossible so the resourceful TKN team, led by director Alan Weiss and producer Marilou Yacoub, worked with Madision to produce the spot virtually.  Through countless zoom calls, Madison, Alan and Marilou worked with actors and crew in six locations in four states - New York, Connecticut, Florida and Texas.

After we saw the finished spot Tuesday morning, we arranged for Madison to show it live on "Good Morning Orlando" on FOX35, serving her hometown of Melbourne, Fla.  She also got a shout-out on a popular morning radio show and the local newspaper will be doing a story on her soon.

Great work, Madison.

 

What We Do: Even During Pandemic, Traffic Safety Matters

 

While our focus these days is on personal and community health, safety on the road remains an important issue.

Here's the latest newsletter from our client, The National Road Safety Foundation.  Even as we're staying safe at home, many of us still drive for essential shopping.  And once things begin opening up again, we'll be back on the roads and highways.

So... it's always time to be thinking of safety when we do get behind the wheel.

Click here to see the latest Road Buzz newsletter.

 

Nurses = Angels

In my thankfully limited experience with hospitals, I've always felt nurses were truly special people -- angels, guided by some inner force of mercy and caring. 

These past several week have proven that true a hundredfold.

Thank you to all the nurses and caregivers, today and every day.

... Jazz ...

Today is International Jazz Day. 

Jazz...America's classical music.