There are three main paths to getting on TV:
1. Make so much noise elsewhere that TV has to pay attention (online is the best place to kick up a firestorm, IMHO)
2. Be a billionaire heiress or pop singer, then either shave your head or go to jail
3. Create and pitch a trend + segment instead of you and your product
Number three is the most neglected.
I once thought that pitching the person and story were the keys to the TV kingdom, but I’ve since learned that’s Minor League. Why? A single person, unless already a celebrity, doesn’t fill 30 minutes on the most popular shows.
The solution is to develop an entire segment based on a new trend or phenomenon.
This is how it looks: find statistics that indicate a new trend, tie yourself into the trend, add experts, case studies, PhDs, and other guests to help fill 30 entertaining and credible minutes about this topic. Give it a good headline and pitch it to producers at the top shows. It’s a simple concept and it works.
To become a quick study in pitching media and creating buzz, I highly recommend picking up Losing My Virginity by billionaire Richard Branson, and for a good tactical guide minus the autobiographical stories (which are awesome), see Author 101: Bestselling Book Publicity, co-authored by one of the top experts in TV placement in NYC, Rick Frishman.
Find below a few recent examples of TV pieces I’ve done — Fox and Friends and Businessweek TV — that resulted from approach 1 above:
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/4hourworkweek/index.html
http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/4hourworkweek/index2.html
And approach #3? Keep an eye on this blog for more TV news coming soon… 😉
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Grand Prize Winner of the Endless Summer Competition!
With 39.6%, the winner is… Roger! Congratulations to all for such amazing entries. Roger, I’ll be in touch so you can get that trip to Japan you’ve wanted, the coaching, as well as the donation for the causes of your choice. Well played!