TV sales house Laser has warned the PR industry that it needs to capture
‘the communications high ground’ if it wants to play a role in
broadcast sponsorship.
Martin Lowde, sponsorship manager for Granada and LWT at ITV airtime
sales house Laser, has rebuked the PR industry for losing considerable
ground to advertising agencies and has said that to reclaim it, PR
people will have to position themselves as ‘client-led communications
consultants’.
‘Most PR companies have shied away from broadcast sponsorship through a
lack of knowledge and a fear or uncertainty that it is not their
communications territory. Ad agencies and sponsorship consultancies have
filled this vacuum,’ said Lowde at a Public Relations and Broadcast
Sponsorship conference earlier this week. ‘To reclaim this lost ground,
the PR industry should consider broadcast sponsorship as not simply
sponsorship credits on screens, but rather ‘programme-led marketing’.’
He attributed the industry’s lack of involvement to its fear of
evaluation, but stressed that sponsorships can be measured with tracking
studies. He also advised the industry to develop ‘a closer relationship
with broadcasters and their representatives’ and to ‘think through-the-
line’ about merchandising, promotion, point-of-sale and direct marketing
opportunities.
