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When a trade show involves products that interest a huge number of people, those products will attract TV crews to the show. Is your product one they ought to know about? How can you tell? Is it one they ought to cover? How do you help that happen?
What are the news crews there to shoot?
You never know if you have something a news crew may want to shoot until you get an idea of what it is that they want to shoot. Sometimes, crews have specific assignments (like developments from an industry giant, or a battle between factions on emerging standards) that preclude other coverage. Sometimes, they are dealing with something as loose as finding everything new & cool that makes for a good picture and will be intriguing to their viewers. The specifics vary show to show & year to year.
That said, we have yet to see a year when you couldn't find an impressive number of significant TV crews shooting everything new & cool they can find – not that all of it will be aired right away, or even at all.
Some of that footage goes into a special "B roll" library – B-roll video is the TV news equivalent of clip art – and relevant product shots can show up illustrating various news stories for up to a year. (There are other ways to get into those B-roll libraries even if they don't get around to shooting your goodies, but that's not a subject we'll get into right now).
Is it new? Is it cool? The 10-second "show & tell" imperative
TV doesn't want to shoot "another flavor of vanilla". If you have a new entry in a populous category that doesn't look all that different from anybody else's and you can't make it do something very, very different from the others in 10 seconds or less, make it easy on yourself and forget about TV. On the other hand, a lot of inferior products get superior coverage simply because they look different or act differently.
Novelty is nice – and sadly, it's sometimes all you need – but there are two other attributes that are a magnet for media interest. They're the answers to two fundamental (yet often-overlooked) questions:
Who cares? And why bother?
Think about it this way: on the planet of all bald people, there's no real news in reinventing the comb. Got a car that never needs a fill-up? Offering a camcorder that never needs a tape? Selling a copier that fits in your pocket? Did you invent shoes that never wear out?
For these examples, the answers to those two questions are pretty clear: a lot of people care, and the convenience is worth the bother.
But this is TV, not print or radio or even a still photo. Make your demo visual. Make something move. And make it happen in 10 seconds or less.
Why 10 seconds? Because it's rare for one item to get even that much air time, unless your thing is the only thing in the story (even then, be aware that the average length of a TV news story is 22 seconds).
A coverage candidate is not, candidly, a coverage date
Let's give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you have a perfect candidate for TV coverage. That alone won't get you coverage, for a very simple reason: the TV crews don't know about you.
So somebody gets the brilliant idea of scheduling a press conference at the trade show, because, of course, tons of media will come to that.
Without commenting on how desk-bound careers can indeed produce a tendency to overweight among journalists, you're unlikely to attract tons of media, and even less likely to attract TV crews. Press conferences make for deadly boring TV. Think about it: how long would you watch a show that featured little more than talking heads and PowerPoint slides?
There are a few opportunities at most trade shows that attract gatherings of products from many companies, and a significant press population, including TV crews. Seek those out and participate, if you can.
But you also have another option.
Major trade shows make registered press lists available to their exhibitors. Check the list for TV people; the contact info may be incomplete or imprecise. Get in touch (e-mail is good) with those TV news rooms 4-6 weeks before the trade show, get contact info for the producers who will attend with their crews, and send them a very brief description (a small snapshot can be very helpful) of one or two new and cool things you'll have at the show. Make sure to give them your own contact info, both before and at the show.
You won't score every time, but at least you'll be in the game.
Forsooth, the booth
There are a few tricks that can make the in-booth display of a new product more attractive to TV cameras and more productive for you. We'll keep it short:
Light it well. Avoid glare. Make it work. Make it move. Make its name visible. Make the brand name and logo visible. Make it easy for even a "run and gun" crew to shoot.
Meaning: Don't hide it under glass. Don't hide it in a dark corner. Don't assume anybody will remember a product or company name when they look at the tape later.
We strongly recommend having a single sheet available with company press contact info, a small photo of the product (to help them recognize it when they look at the tape), its name, its price, its first date of availability and a very brief description.
Don't try to get them to carry a press kit or any more than that one page.
Street smarts
Let's make sure your expectations don't go crazy just because you might now be able to get some TV coverage for your products. Here are some reality checks.
Not everything will get shot. Not everything that gets shot will be aired.
Not all TV coverage is good for you; announcing a future product now that's better than your current product can do bad things to your sales until that future product is actually available. (As your uncle may have said, "Sell what's on the shelf, kid").
The TV crew you get is not a conduit to the rest of the organization's staffers. The morning, afternoon or late night talk show staffs, for example, are entirely different.
Dress well. It may make sense to the crew to have you hold or point to the products or their features, and you don't want to let inappropriate clothing or funky grooming distract viewers from your products. We recommend recent haircuts, manicures, facial moisturizers and eye drops, plus at least a business casual ensemble.
Shut up. If they want you to talk, they'll tell you.
If you have your own B-roll video (preferably on DVC, MiniDV or Betacam SP), have it ready to hand over at any second a TV crew comes by; include one of those single-sheet contact/info things to indicate what's on the tape.
Don't count on the kind of TV news coverage that comes out of trade show exposure to be good for anything other than a little visibility (though to a lot of people). Visibility is useful because it increases product awareness and recognition, but in practical terms, most people (beyond the small "instant adopter" segment) need at least three exposures before they'll consider purchasing a product. TV coverage is a huge boost because it provides one of those three exposures to so very many people, but it's an ingredient, not a miracle cure.
Still, it's worth going after.
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