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Promax & BDA to hit the road

May 20, 2002  •  Post A Comment

The countdown is officially on for Promax & BDA as executives from across the country prepare for the organizations’ gathering in Los Angeles, as well as gatherings in New York, Chicago and other cities.
In a move designed to ease the blow from cash-strapped stations, Promax & BDA will launch a “Ratings Roadshow” to four key regional station hubs in late July, a month after the group’s annual conference in Los Angeles. The tour will visit New York and Chicago, the country’s first- and third-largest markets, as well as Dallas and Atlanta in an effort to meet with local stations from the geographic area.
“We know it’s been difficult for stations to afford to come to the June show,” said Glynn Brailsford, president of Promax/BDA. “So what we’re planning to do is a mini-Promax in [each] region because we know people from the local station community still want to come to the show.”
The roadshow will offer key sessions presented at the Los Angeles meeting in June, with the primary gathering geared toward promoting ratings growth and featuring branding and design specialist Lee Hunt. Another session will be geared toward news promotion and a third will focus on state-of-the-art design.
In recent years, consolidation and a downward economy have prompted syndicators such as Twentieth Television and Universal Worldwide Television to fly to the stations to discuss promotional plans instead of relying on get-togethers at Promax. With the confirmation of the upcoming Promax tour, syndicators are already planning to piggyback their own events. Paramount, for example, will offer sessions on the upcoming talk show “Dr. Phil.”
Reaction has been overwhelmingly positive to the tour. One marketing executive applauded the move as “a strong reaction to some of the inherent problems in the changing marketplace. It didn’t make sense for us to invest in a presentation when less than 15 percent of our clients would be attending [the annual Promax gathering]. Now I applaud Promax for looking ahead of the curve, not only by going out to see stations but allowing us an opportunity to sit with stations one-on-one.”
Mr. Brailsford said that the roadshow would not replace but instead supplement the traditional annual Promax event, which will continue after this year.
“While it doesn’t replace the full-blown experience of attending the Los Angeles show and hearing people like Jamie Kellner and Jeff Zucker discuss issues important to stations, the `Ratings Roadshow’ does go a long way toward providing some of the more vital elements they will be missing in June.”
Mr. Brailsford noted that among the stations attending will be major market executives from Hearst-Argyle, Sinclair, Belo and Gannett.