Part of my chat with Johnnie Moore surrounded yesterday’s episode of Good Morning, where I was a bit quieter than usual on the topic of finances. As readers of this blog know, finances are not where the beginning and the end of life are. Secondly, it was way more fun listening to twice-divorced Barry Soper go on about his experiences with carving up matrimonial property.
   The finance topic was too easy, because the partner who should be in charge should be the more numerically inclined of the two, and this is not dependent on gender. I came to the conclusion early as we led up to the 10 o’clock news.
   It was also interesting to hear Johnnie’s viewpoints on the Good Morning advertorials, which he described as ‘quaint’ to a Brit, and which I described with a word that I probably should not use here. Having said it, they keep the programme financed, and the King of Shaves product range sold on it is really good (that was not a paid endorsement), if I did not get so many smellies and shaving foam from L’Oréal in my thank-you basket for presenting and judging Colour Trophy this year.
   But do advertorials work? They are everywhere, and here in New Zealand, the related infomercials usually come on at night when hardly anyone is watching. I know air time is cheap then, but their prevalence suggests that some people do buy as a result. As for me, I am way too cynical because the endorsements are elicited via payment and, therefore, are as trustworthy as Winston Peters in a high-level meeting.
   Johnnie noticed these, as well as the New Zealand fascination for having advertising on buses touting the bright-smile anchormen and women as semi-celebrities. He is right that these are about networks putting fake glosses on programmes which people care less and less about.
   Not long ago, I noticed that the news was no longer the most-viewed programme here on TV; 20 years ago, the News (or whatever it was called) had all seven of six o’clock shows in the top 10, along with Coronation Street. The Network News was revamped with new, youthful presenters in 1988, when now-departed Richard Long and Judy Bailey were hired in the 1980s. Long and Bailey eventually disappeared for younger clones of themselves in the mould of Simon Dallow and Wendy Petrie, who have done their time as journalists, but Walter Cronkites they are not.
   But youth cannot save the news as more of us surf for it, and make up our own minds. Television news needs a rethink, in an age when news is rather commodified, and the same stories seem to do the rounds.
   Differentiation is as important with content as it is in branding, certainly for supporting stories. Kick up an investigation into corruption and don’t chicken out this time. See who is behind the globalization forces forcing closures of Kiwi businesses. Do stuff. Even John Campbell disses Telecom (grilling its CEO), and that is his primary sponsor.
   TV One’s campaign about getting the vox populi the drinking age, showing Dallow and Petrie among the public and shot with a hand-held camera, seems contrived: do the story already, or at least try to inject some unscripted improvisation on a pressing issue into the bulletin. You really cannot put a sheen on to gutsy news reporting—you just have to do it.

Del.icio.us tags: news media TV marketing advertising branding differentiation Posted by Jack Yan, 06:04  permalink

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