Corporate Television Networks
Contents
case study
- Client: Birds Eye Wall's
- Agency: Burson-Marsteller
- VNR company: Corporate Television News
- Distribution: Media Link
- Cost: pounds 7,000
- At two o'clock one afternoon earlier this year, Birds Eye Wall's learned that the Office of Fair Trading had decided to refer the issue of ice cream cabinet agreements to the MMC. It was crucial for Wall's to respond immediately and defend the agreements system, under which ice cream manufacturers supply retail-ers with freezers free of charge in return for the exclusive sale of their products.
- The company felt particularly under pressure because it was being accused of using unfair trading practices by other ice cream manufacturers, including Mars. Wall's PR agency, Burson-Marsteller, recommended that it produced a VNR for that evening's national news bulletins, providing a rapid response and letting it control the messages. We needed to put Wall's posi-tion quickly to the media,' says John Brown, deputy chief executive at B-M. We had filmed, edited and distributed the VNR by 5pm.'
- The footage included an interview with Birds Eye Wall's chairman John Sharp along with pictures of cabinets in store. It was used by the BBC's Six O'Clock and Nine O'Clock News and ITN's News at Ten. Mars' response, by comparison, was low key and the firm was not directly quoted in any of the broadcasts.
- To anyone considering a VNR for the first time in this type of situation, Brown stresses that it is crucial to decide immediately whether the story really is newsworthy and to establish how the company wants to play it. Is it better to hide under the table and let someone else speak on your behalf or are you going to come out and state your case yourself?' he asks. In this instance a VNR assured us of three things: speed - to make sure we met all the news deadlines - accuracy and control.'[1]
People
- Corporate Television News has appointed Nick Mawer as its head of video news release production.[2]
In and out of VNR's
- When CTN was launched in 1992, it was with considerable fanfare. Press releases on the company have been issued frequently since. While ITN owns 50 per cent of CTN, the two companies operate as completely separate units. ITN's written guidelines on the use of video news releases " including those made by CTN " were tight-ened earlier this year. ITN uses them as seldom as possible. When extracts are used they are clearly la-belled as to the source of the footage. In approximately 1,000 hours of news broadcast by ITN during the last year, only one minute of CTN material has been used and was sourced to whoever had commissioned the original material.[3]
- Corporate Television News, the joint venture between ITN and Burson Marsteller, has abandoned VNR production. The announcement follows the suspension of the deal between BBC Resources and Medialink which aimed to give that VNR producer exclusive access to key BBC production and distribution facilities. But Stephen Watson, managing director at CTN, said the decision was purely commercial and was not related to wider controversy surrounding VNR use. According to Watson: We haven't produced VNRs for some time, and they now represent two per cent of CTN's turnover. So in 1996, we won't be producing VNRs.'[4]
Notes
- ↑ PR Week September 30, 1993 Special Report on Video News Releases: Sailing into unknown wa-ters - Cool response in a cold war
- ↑ PR Week July 15, 1994 Carousel: Caroline Randle is snapped up by Fox Parrack Fox, Laura Oliphant makes a splash at the NRA, and Tracey Matthews bonds with Fusion Communications SECTION: Pg. 13
- ↑ Stewart Purvis, chief executive, ITN, London, WC1 LETTER: LIES AND VIDEOTAPE SECTION: THE OBSERVER September 17, 1995, Sunday REVIEW PAGE; Pg. 6
- ↑ MICHAEL KAVANAGH CTN pulls the plug on production of VNRs PR Week January 19, 1996
