The Resuscitation of the Public Service Announcement
At last week’s annual meeting of the Ad Council, the largest producer and distributor of PSAs in the US, senior executives announced a new strategy for better placement of the ads – last year approximately a third of their ads appeared between 1 and 6 AM.
“In the old model, which was catch as catch can, there wasn't usually any premeditation about which campaigns they would support," said Peggy Conlon, president and chief executive at the council. The new "upfront" model lets companies consider which issues they want to support ahead of time.
So far this year, companies from Bloomberg to Yahoo have promised the Ad Council time and space valued at roughly $470 million. That is a big jump over the $250 million in commitments the council had secured by May of last year.
Good news for the Ad Council and their major clients: Department of Homeland Security, the obesity prevention campaign sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, a United States Army-backed campaign against dropping out of school, and a campaign that encouraged young people to vote. But no one expects this client list will ever grow to what public health wants/needs. Perhaps one lesson to be learned for state/local campaigns is to think of corporate sponsorships from a distribution point-of-view in a much more strategic (proactive) way. Rather than “building it and then selling it,” approach corporate collaborators early to assess their interests as to how they can support campaigns and programs – I’d suggest at least a year in advance (what, you think the Ad Council just stumbled on this!). This article (link) notes some other innovative tactics the Council has been using including e-cards and donations of search terms and banner ads for specific topics.
Special note to the locals: Local search engines are one of the next BIG things according to some pundits – when you need to find a contractor, these local engines will focus on your city/neighborhood. Just check out your search options whem you're on Google or example. How many schools and hospitals don’t have web sites. And I even heard yesterday that local blogging will be the next big political force.
Creativity and the willingness to do things differently - AKA "that's not in the text books" - will keep you young (or at least busy trying to learn it all).
3:49:55 PM 
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