How to harness the power of morning TV to increase sales and create new press opportunities
10 December 2021
With the Christmas retail market in full swing the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists (MFPA) - a partnership of over 800 artists with profound physical disabilities and who earn an income by creating art by using their mouths or feet - tasked us to help boost sales of Christmas cards designed by their artists.
To generate maximum impact and drive the news agenda we secured MFPA artists Bazza West and Tom Yendell with two prime morning TV interviews on ITV’s This Morning over the space of two weeks. As a direct result, sales of MFPA Christmas cards increased exponentially as did the number of people who have signed up to follow the MFPA on social media - providing the organisation with an opportunity to further increase its sales in the future through ‘social selling’.
Read on for how we delivered this campaign and our top tips for broadcast success.
Morning TV is particularly effective in reaching millions of older adults. To reach this audience you need to:
1. Have a true national story: Morning TV is all about feel good stories with widespread appeal. This means your story needs to be more than specific to a location and relevant for the entire nation or people’s live. For example when we launched the SS Great Britain’s new Being Brunel museum in Bristol we secured broadcast coverage across the UK by highlighting the national impact of Brunel and all the structures he had built across the country from bridges on the Balmoral Estate to train tracks in Cornwall.
2. Have a convincing story teller: Bazza West and Tom Yendell are powerful story tellers with compelling stories to tell that people can relate with. Your interviewee should be able to communicate in a natural, unforced manner, that will bring your story to life. This is often not the CEO of an organisation. For example when we worked with visitor attraction Robin Hill on its introduction of the Sea Eagle bird onto the Isle of Wight we secured morning TV for the bird’s keeper and the bird.
3. Have a compelling - but not overtly commercial - message: Of course your brand may have a product to sell or promote, but for success the your sales or wider message needs to wrapped in a genuine and compelling story rather than being blatant. The message from the MFPA artists was one of ‘self-help and enterprise not charity’ this nuanced approached appeals to viewer and helps sell their Christmas cards.
4. Mention your social media feeds: Always mention your social media in a broadcast interview, that way viewers know the best way to find you. Doing this boosted the MFPA’s following on Instagram with a new follower every 30 seconds after the interview aired.
5. Maintain momentum: Media attention breeds media attention. Use your brand’s moment to secure other media coverage throughout the day, and help doing this by thinking how you can evolve your story - or tell different aspects of it - for different media channels. Taking this approach saw us secure coverage for the MFPA not just ITV's This Morning but also Channel 5 News and Yahoo! News.
6. Prime your website: Above all, make sure your website is optimised to handle not only increased website traffic, but to convert visitors into spenders. For tips on how to optimise your website to drive sales re-watch our latest webinar here.
Browse and shop MFPA cards and products here.
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