THE JEREMY KYLE CONUNDRUM

Who sits at home watching Jeremy Kyle? I’m sure we all have a stereotype in mind or maybe it’s a programme some of us would admit to having as our own guilty viewing pleasure on days off work.

“Knowing” a TV audience, might make for a nifty guess work, but it’s a fine art when it comes to securing coverage for your brand. Television is often seen as the jewel in the crown – yet it remains the most elusive platform for many adept PRs to conquer.  And, while this is partly down to not having the right assets to have cut through, half the battle is not knowing who it is that programmes are speaking to… and when.

Let’s take a look at Sky News.  Over half of the audience are men and 62% of viewers are aged 45 and over, however the channel has a ‘turn up for the books’ when the highest number of females tune in at 9pm to catch up on the day’s events.

Daybreak is another story altogether.  The audience between 6am -7am has more males aged 35+ watching and accordingly this hour contains more news and sports content. For instance, when working alongside Nectar Small Business Awards with TV and business champion, Karren Brady, we landed a slot in the 6 O’clock hour to raise a number of issues on behalf of SME’s, ranging from Government policy to support currently on offer.

The output changes as Housewives with Children start to tune in from 7am – shifting to more news, features and entertainment led content. The final hour changes yet again as the output becomes much more light-hearted for audiences preparing to pack the kids off to school.

With more speech output than their commercial counterparts and large audiences tuning in, BBC Local Radio is usually top of the ‘most wanted’ list for many Radio Media Tours (RMT’s).  However, the remit for BBC Local Radio is to provide content geared towards listeners aged 50 and over who aren’t well served elsewhere.   Stories about busy mums on the school run or even a national story sans a doorstep local angle aren’t going to resonate with BBC planners, producers and audiences alike. But a news or features story geared towards a more mature audience will.

Broadcast PR 101 is a half hour workshop for PR and Marketing teams, covering what assets need to be developed to reach different broadcast platforms, the basic fundamentals of broadcast PR and to learn more about programmes and their audiences. If you’d like to arrange for ON to present  your team… get in touch!

Ellen Ockey, Co-Director at ON
Published 7th January 2013