Technology is wonderful. It allows PR pros to be completely connected. It allows the media to broadcast their reports from nearly every corner of the Earth. But depending on technology too much to sell your client can get your email deleted faster than a satellite signal.
Take the email someone with a New York area code sent a reporter here in Arizona. The top of the email reads “SATELLITE INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY.” In line six of the email: “SATELLITE INTERVIEWS” … this time in bold.
Satellite interviews allow your clients to get on TV in markets far, far away. The national cable news channels would have few talking heads without a satellite linking those experts to an anchor on set and the viewers in TV land. Local news morning shows often use satellite interviews to hear from celebrities in Hollywood promoting their latest on-screen projects.
But in most cases for local TV stations, satellite interviews are like reporting with your hands tied behind your back. Unless you’re talking live television, reporters often want people looking off to the side during an interview as if they are addressing a reporter sitting directly in front of them. During satellite interviews, people often look directly into the camera. To combat this, my husband, Keith, has sometimes asked the person via satellite to look off to the side at the invisible man or his or her PR pro who tagged along for the experience. This can work, but if the goal is for everyone involved to feel natural and be themselves, you failed at “Hello.”
Another glitch: Where’s the video? Good video makes good TV and one straight-on head shot of the person being interviewed, other than those buzz worthy soundbites, is not good TV. Where’s the video of that person doing something … anything? And journalists typically don’t want the company’s video stuffed in a media kit. Even modern technology has its visual limitations.
Don’t get me wrong. Satellite interviews play a role in local media. There are creative ways to make them better. But I don’t think their role is so significant that you should shout out “SATELLITE INTERVIEW” at the top of your pitch. That may signal to the media more trouble than it’s worth. Satellites are not great selling points. And for goodness’ sake, if you’re bent on beaming your client around, understand satellite is so 1990s. It’s now all about Skype baby!
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