How To Boost Revenue In Just 5 Seconds

The NAB’s annual Small Market Television Exchange kicked off at a Hyatt Regency Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Thursday highlighted with a spirited 90-minute idea swap of non-traditional revenue sales campaigns undertaken by stations in smaller cities, where it’s not always easy to hook a new advertiser.

Seated around large banquet tables in a ballroom in one of two concurrent “Huddle Sessions,” teams of broadcasters competed to come up with the best ideas.

One sales exec from a town near the Mexico border, explained that law enforcement personnel can keep confiscated loot from drug busts to use in their own department. This station convinced the local sheriff that the station could present a weekly award to students who were drug-free role models for the community. They got $60,000 to help promote that anti-drug message.

Other sales managers said they have been able to partner with local civic groups and successfully apply for government grants. They said some stations are now hiring people versed in grant writing to help them attain such money.

Kristopher Lake, general sales manager for KXLT, the Fox affiliate in Rochester, Minn., teamed with that city’s chamber of commerce on quasi-commercial effort to “explain why buying local is so important.” The “Buy Rochester” campaign featured an ad to explain why supporting the local economy was crucial with a “donut ad” inserted from an advertiser who otherwise couldn’t afford local ad time. That effort gained the station goodwill and an extra $25,000 in revenue.

But it seems the biggest trend is selling time in five- and 10-second bursts. One sales manager talked about the profit derived from selling five-second spots just before the larger commercial pods in syndicated shows or newscasts. In Charleston, S.C., a station makes $2,000 a week selling 10-second crawls at the bottom of the screen during the “beauty shot” segment of the news when viewers are otherwise seeing a pretty view of their hometown.

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The conference, which draws about 400 attendees from markets 76 and below, also features a sales promotion exchange and, eventually, organizers will pick the best of show based not just on profit, but ingenuity.

The NAB brags that attendees will more than pay for their trip just with the ideas they come across while here at the conference.

Thomas Conway, EVP of Jim Doyle and Associates, a sales consulting firm, says, “The reason for these things is just to watch the ideas bubbling up. I shouldn’t say it, but sometimes I think the ideas from the small markets are better than in the big markets because they know their communities better.”

Comments (10)

Vasilescu Nicolai says:

September 24, 2010 at 8:59 am

Good comment by Mr. Conway. Small markets aren’t getting the tonnage of larger one, so they have to be more innovative in garnering revenue.

Maybe they also realize that their main job (and the basis of their license) is to serve their communities.

gerri shaftel says:

September 24, 2010 at 9:17 am

Most of the Ideas that come from local tv are born out of a need for the path of least resistence. 5 sec spots, lets have consultants come in and sell your “unsold” inventory for dirt cheap. What’s next 1 second spots? The tv industry has turned their sales staffs in to desk clerks and traffic assistants. TV sales people today spend less time in front of actual decision makers than ever before. their trafficing their own spots, creating their own ads, selling the web, mobile apps etc….most of the managers supposedly leading these staffs have never sold a local spot in their lives. It’s sad.

John McElfresh says:

September 24, 2010 at 10:23 am

Now that most stations are part of giant corp. with leaders at the top that have never sold a spot, it is easy for the expert from out of town with a breifcase to sell them on some lame idea on how to make their stations more money than those idiots at the local level. It’s an easy sell for those “experts” . Then the stations get the word from on high, “Hey guys, look what we have done for you, we hired this super sales guy to show you how to drop your rates so low that no one could say no, and they only take about half of the revenue!” ” What a deal!” ” Why didn’t you think of dirt ball rate packages?”
All of us know a few of these outfits don’t we?

Darin Hall says:

September 24, 2010 at 9:49 am

these are all old ideas with a twist. Provide good content and train good sales people and you will make sales. Small market station have always sold every second of the station that’s availalbe…. how bout swapping a small market manager with a large market manager… I promise the large market guy will quit after a week.

September 24, 2010 at 10:09 am

Well said! And try hiring a sales rep from a large market to a small market, He’ll whine about all the stuff he used have at his old station and how the clients in the small maekets don’t have a clue, then he’ll quit because, “This market sucks!”

Patricia Logan-Olson says:

September 24, 2010 at 10:34 am

Lots of fun ideas that can help raise community awareness but contributing to the economy of a small market still involves getting Mom and Pop to part with dollars for renovating homes, updating personal transportation and enjoying a little entertainment. Stations still don’t know how to convince advertisers to create value that consumers will recognize and respond. Or, just do 50% discounts on services in the morning new or on Groupon.com….that’ll add long-term value to the brand (Oh, no, someone will think I am serious). Forget the last part.

Al Ming says:

September 24, 2010 at 12:43 pm

Simply a re-hash of old ideas. Stations have been selling :05’s for years & the “beauty shot” idea is a new spin (although I’ve seen it before) on an old idea. Think website, think interactive or do something else for living.

Rachel Martin says:

September 24, 2010 at 12:55 pm

Another week of increasing your expense budget to hear ideas that could have been discussed on a web call. SERIOUSLY…The best ideas for increasing revenue are never shared outside your station…or outside your station group. Why give your competition the blue print to success.
After seeing who attended the conference, it’s amazing to me how many of these stations placed employees on furlough due to expenses. Thank God they could find the funds to fly to Scottsdale, stay in the hotel, and increase their expense budget with food, golf, and drink. I will keep my dollars and ownership happy by creating ideas others copy…not repurposing 1990 concepts

September 24, 2010 at 2:30 pm

The sad fact is, almost all of the folks that come back next week from this shindig, when asked by their corporate uppers “How was the shindig?” will say “Wow, that was a great shindig, I learned so much, can’t wait to put some of those ideas in action.” To bad they can’t afford to be honest and say it was a waste of their time and they could have spent last week actually selling.

Lee Laughlin says:

September 29, 2010 at 11:58 am

Wow! I am truly amazed at all the negative comments. I guess all of you, who by the way, won’t identify yourselves, are just really great at TV sales. Good for you. Sorry that some of us enjoy interaction with others in our industry and like to gather in a positive way to help each other and support the business.