SMT: Building Buzz

Here are a few smart reasons to do a satellite media tour.

1. Incredible cost savings.

- Effective TV commercials and radio ad campaigns cost thousands upon thousands of dollars, not only in the creative process, but also for the time purchased on air.

- They produce buzz...that the news media helps create. (Yes. That is me briefing Col. Buzz Aldrin for the SMT on July 16, 2009 at 5:55 a.m. Photo by Lisa Cannon)

- Satellite media tours "start" at around $18,000 for pitching and producint. Fees may increase for remote locations and other add ons such as catering, make up artists, number of cameras, lighting crews and such.

2. No advertising.

- They are NOT a commercial and broadcast audiences know the difference.

- News typically owns a captured audience so people tune in and don't change to another station until the broadcast is over...or during commercials.

- An aired segment helps a company stand from their competition.

3. Say "credibility".

- Interviews in the news translate into credible experts for the viewing or listening audience.

- The art of producing a great tour is working with the client and person being interviewed to ensure their talking points or responses to the host, anchor or reporter don't sound like a commercial. It is news by the way!

4. Timing is everything.

- Incredible timing means SMTs offer a chance for opportune and strategic placement in the news.

- Both offer the ability to quickly respond to regional or national issues.

5. Very little effort for client.

- Media tours are written, pitched and produced by an SMT specialist.

- Production can be conducted in a studio or can originate from remote locations by hiring a satellite truck.

- It only takes set amount of time for the client (typically three to six hours during a tour) to reach an audience of millions.

6. Huge value.
- Because of the Internet, broadcast interviews live on! They are posted on a station's website and are then shared via social media (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

- A news story has a higher perceived value placed on it than advertising. When measuring, a news story MAY be valued up to four times the cost of the same length for a broadcast advertisement during that same time.

- And lastly, SMTs are measurable in many ways!

Check out my earlier posts of several SMT interviews with Buzz Aldrin that I helped produce on July 16, 2009 for the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 at Kennedy Space Center. I was three feet below him and one foot behind the camera working as the floor producer. There was also a camera guy, a lighting tech, a makeup artist, Buzz's assistant, and two caterers on the floor in addition to three producers in the satellite truck.

For more info about producing a tour, working with me to pitch and book your tour or to discuss your next Satellite Media Tour, give me a shout at 407-341-9866 or mmonte@hotmail.com.

Satellite (SMT) and Audio (AMT) Media Tours

Shoot from here (location) up to there (satellite) and down to there (broadcast station).

Satellite Media Tours (SMTs) are used to book a company expert, CEO, spokesperson or celebrity on television to be interviewed for the news. They are usually live, but can also be live to tape (meaning the interview seems live when it runs later.)

Organized, pitched and produced by a public relations specialist, these one-on-one interviews, are booked by news producers or talent bookers. In what are called windows, the producer works with the person pitching the tour to secure a specific time for the interview. The interviews are typically booked within five to 10-minute windows. The interview, typically from one to 10 minutes, takes place within the window and the hit time is the on-the-spot time that the interview is scheduled to start.

To organize all of the information, the specialist uses a tour production grid which is shared with the client, the talent or person being interviewed and the production staff. The grid is the Bible, plan, part and parcel for the tour production team.

A typical grid contains the following:

1. Number of windows (6:00-6:10, i.e. 6 a.m.-9 a.m. with 5 to 10-minute windows
2. Hit time (6:03)
3. Segment length (i.e. 2-2.5 minutes)
4. Station name, location and affiliation
5. Anchor, host, reporter or talent name(s)
6. IFB # (more on the technical stuff later)
7. Control room number
8. Producer's name, phone and email
9. A back up phone number
10. Key information about the station, producer, talent, etc.
11. Address to send b-roll (Beta or DVD) before the tour

Media tours get out a specific and news worthy message to millions and can target a key audience!

Check out posts on the recent SMT for the 40th Anniversary of Apollo 11 with Buzz Aldrin at Kennedy Space Center.

For more about producing a tour, pitching and booking your tour or to discuss your next Satellite Media Tour, contact me at 407-341-9866 or mmonte@hotmail.com.

SMT: Buzz Aldrin KARE11 Minneapolis

Aldrin reflects on 'Moon Landing' 40 years later

kare11.com Twin Cities, MN Aldrin reflects on 'Moon Landing' 40 years later

SMT: Buzz Aldrin and Boston WCVB

Astronaut Buzz Aldrin recalls historic moon landing.

Col. Aldrin paints a beautiful picture about standing alone on the platform of the Saturn V rocket as he waited to board that July 16, 1969 morning.

SMT: Buzz Aldrin and CTV.ca

Aldrin recalls moon mission on 40th anniversary

Updated Thursday, July 16, 2009 10:07 AM ET (Transcript of Media Tour-video not available) CTV.ca News Staff

Buzz Aldrin, an astronaut on Apollo 11, speaks on CTV's Canada AM from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. on Thursday, July 16, 2009.


They dreamed of conquering new frontiers, and 40 years ago today they made it happen. On July 16, 1969 the crew of Apollo 11 blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the historic quest to be the first men on the moon.

"Twelve, eleven, ten, nine -- ignition sequence start -- six, five, four, three, two, one, zero, all engines running -- liftoff, we have a liftoff, 32 minutes past the hour, liftoff on Apollo 11."
And with that, as the world watched on, a bold new era of space exploration began.
Aboard Apollo 11 were the men who would make history: Mission Commander Neil Alden Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin Jr. Four days later, on 20 July, Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon.

Looking back on that day four decades ago, Aldrin called it an "enlightened experience."
On CTV's Canada AM on Thursday, Aldrin described his wonderment at landing on the moon.
"I was looking out at lifeless scenery in front of me, no colour at all, shades of gray, black sky, no stars visible, and I just thought, this place hasn't changed in 100,000 years. And I used the words 'magnificent desolation,'" he recalled.

And he marvelled at what it took to get there. "I think of what a magnificent achievement it was for humanity to be able to progress to the point where we could fly airplanes, and then hop inside a rocket, a spacecraft and take creatures from the Earth and land them on the moon," Aldrin said.

The veteran astronaut was not only looking back, but also forward to the next journey into space -- to Mars.

"It may take us two decades, or a little bit more, to chart and fulfill an exciting, achieving pathway to the moon of Mars, Phoebus, prepare the surface of Mars for human settlers there for a growing permanence. I think it's an inspiring time, and we need to be optimistic."

In 1963, Aldrin was picked to join the select corps of early U.S. astronauts, and six years later he set a record -- now broken -- for the longest space walk by spending five and a half hours outside the spacecraft during the Gemini 12 orbital mission.

He was the back-up command module pilot on Apollo 8, man's first flight around the moon, and on July 20, 1969 he made the historic moon walk with Armstrong.

After retiring from NASA, the Air Force and from his position as commander of the test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base, Aldrin remained a strong advocate of space exploration.
A crater on the moon, near the Apollo 11 landing site is named in his honour.