Mass market: How to get your business on breakfast television

If free publicity is on the agenda, it’s pretty fair to say that it’s every business owner’s publicity dream to get themselves and their product on television. Seriously, there isn’t a day that goes by when I’m not asked by one of my MasterClass graduates for advice about securing an elusive TV spot.

Whether or not that’s always a great question to be asking is a topic for another day, but there’s no doubt television is a powerful medium when it comes to generating publicity for your brand. 

The first stop in television land for many SMEs is breakfast or morning TV: programs like Sunrise, Today, ABC Breakfast, The Morning Show and Today Extra. 

These programs are hungry beasts and have an insatiable appetite for compelling content seven days a week. They’re on for hours at a time and the shows’ producers have dozens of segments to ‘fill’ each day. And they generally cover the whole gamut of life. 

So, with a bit of creative thinking, planning and persistence, there’s every chance you might just be able to get yourself on one! 

Here are five lessons I’ve learnt over the years about the way these shows work and how you can give yourself the best shot:

1. Know your story

One of the most common pieces of advice I give to business owners is to know the difference between their business and telling a story. It’s very rare that you’ll garner any publicity — especially on breakfast or morning TV — if you try to convince a producer that your business or product is the best thing since sliced bread (even if you had invented a device to make bread knives obsolete, you’d be hard pressed getting a spot on TV… unless, of course, you bought an advertorial spot). 

So, the challenge is to figure out a compelling way to shine a spotlight on yourself and what you do — your story. And it’s not about your product or service, it’s about what sits behind what you do. 

If you’re an accountant, don’t try to tell a brekky TV producer that you’re the best accountant on the planet. Instead, you’d be much better off coming up with a list of deductions that most Aussies are failing to account for (and are entitled to) on their tax return.

What I’m trying to say is: think like a journo!

2. Hook ‘em in

On any given day, a breakfast or morning TV program brings its viewers up to speed on two or three dozen topics. There’s the news, sport and weather bulletins, of course, but then there are a whole bunch of breakout segments featuring new trends, exciting discoveries, useful advice and quirky people. 

It’s little wonder then that the producers of these programs are inundated with media releases and phone calls from publicists. It’s also little wonder that the producers reckon they’ve ‘seen it all’ a million times before! 

Your challenge is making them sit up and pay attention when you send them your media release (and follow up a bit later with a phone call). Quite simply, your challenge is to sell your story as something new. 

For example, one of my clients is a physiotherapist who sees clients every day with all sorts of ailments. He figured out pretty quickly that some of the most compelling stories he could tell were about how people could reduce back pain at various ages and stages of their lives. 

Over the years he’d done a number of segments on the topic on one of the big breakfast TV programs, and, to be quite honest, he thought he’d exhausted the subject (and the audience) on the subject. 

However, when COVID hit, he thought he might be able to get another segment across the line if he tailored the sell to giving people tips to avoid back pain while working from home. Voila, it worked. So, remember to think creatively and contextually when tailoring your story to a particular show and at a particular time in the world. 

3. Keep it simple

One of my favourite parts of my job is that I get to speak to incredibly passionate people every single day. Small business owners are, without doubt, some of the hardest working and enthusiastic people on the planet: it takes incredible fortitude to keep a business going! 

However, one of the great challenges I have with SMEs who want to generate free media coverage is making sure that their passion doesn’t become a hurdle to achieving positive publicity. 

This can be a particular challenge when it comes to breakfast and morning television. It’s important to remember that each segment on these shows is generally between three to five minutes long: i.e. there’s not much time to get your message across! 

So before you put pen to paper on your press release, make sure you can distill your story idea into a couple of sentences. You’re never going to be able to relay everything you know about a particular topic during a breakfast or morning TV spot. And that’s totally fine. 

My best clients have been able to satisfy the needs of the interviewer and segment while also leaving the audience “wanting more”. This has then seen interest in their business pique following the TV spot… and, in many cases, resulted in positive ROI.

4. Use a calendar

The great thing about breakfast and morning TV shows is they’re on-air every day of the year (except Christmas Day). And their omnipresence can be your omnipotence if you just take a bit of time to look at the calendar! Firstly, have a think about key dates during the year that relate to your business. 

For example, if you’re a personal trainer and you generally receive an influx of calls at the start of spring as clients vow to shed a few kilos before summer, then why not get ahead of the pack and start planning a publicity push to coincide with the advent of the season.

Secondly, don’t leave it until the last minute: it’s important you’re a couple of steps ahead of the producers (and your competition). It’s worth remembering that the producers on these shows have very little time to “forward plan”, so if you’re thinking ahead and can provide a heads-up about important milestones then you may just be able to get yourself locked in for a spot! 

Thirdly, type “cause days” into Google and see if any relate to your business — they may just help you formulate a story and hook a producer in.

Finally, it may just help you to pitch a topic at a traditionally quieter time of year. I know breakfast and morning TV producers dread filling their shows from mid-December to mid-January and on public holidays. So, if you’ve got a good idea and you can make yourself available during those times, you might just strike gold.

5. Keep your phone on

A senior producer at one of the big breakfast TV shows once told me his pet hate was when people listed as contacts on media releases don’t answer their phones. And I don’t blame him! If you’re going to send out a release, the very least you can do is expect to receive a few calls. 

When it comes to breakfast and morning TV the stakes are even higher (but the potential for success is equally so), given producers on these shows often start work — and hit the phones — well before the sun comes up. So, you should expect and be ready for a call at any hour of the day or night. It’s not uncommon for segments to be locked in the morning of a particular show (or late the night beforehand). 

Make sure you keep your phone on and be ready at a moment’s notice for your 15 minutes of fame!For

SmartCompany has attended Kate Engler’s Meet The Press MasterClass as a guest of the organisers.