Thanks to Publicity Hound Stephen Brockelman of Las Vegas for explaining the clever way he managed to be the local angle to Steve Fossett’s quest to fly around the world in Global Flyer non-stop.
"Watching GlobalFlyer.com, I noticed that after crossing the Pacific coast near Los Angeles, the plane would be flying at 45,000+ feet just south of Las Vegas. I wondered if the media would be watching because it was a top story for days on local TV stations.
"The night before the fly-over, I set up my camera in the best window for the view and set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. Sure enough, as I was monitoring the progress of the flight on globalflyer.com, the plane came into view at 6:41. I snapped some photos with a new digital camera. I added some lens flare in Photoshop (for a television visual) and emailed it to the local NBC station.
"With headline-size credits about me, my camera settings, my location and various other minutia, my photo was on screen for close to 15 seconds while the anchors and the weather guy talked about it.
"’It’s a great photograph’ and ‘I didn’t know it was flying over Las Vegas.’
"But the best part was when John Fredricks, the weatherman said, ‘If anyone can put a local spin on a national news story, it’s Stephen Brockelman.’
"I took that as high praise from someone who is, no doubt, pitched daily. Sometimes it’s best just to look in one’s own backyard. And not pitch, just send news.
Stephen bills himself as "The Creative Resource for Individuals in Business" at his website.
"Working in a 24-hour town where almost as many people watch the noon news as the 5 and 6 p.m. editions, and certainly more than watch the 11 p.m. broadcast, many of my current clients saw the story," he said. "Some said they saw it on the big screens in the hotels and casinos and sports bars."
What does this do for Stephen?
"When any station anchor or weatherperson says, ‘If anyone can put a local spin on a national news story, it’s Stephen Brockelman,’ then I’m very pleased. It tells my clients that I can get to the media and get covered. It tells them (and future clients) that I can do the same for them. And as long and the media spell my name correctly, I’m a happy camper."
He has ordered a copy of the coverage from Television Monitoring Services and will put that at his website, along with instructions on "how-to-do-it-yourself" and a call to action to have businesses contact him to do the same and more for them. He’ll also include a case study on local spins.
This idea is brilliant, and a clever way to get onto local TV. There are lots of other ways, and TV reporter Shawne Duperon explains them on the CD titled "How to Get on the Local TV News Tomorrow." It’s also available as a cassette tape or an electronic transcript that you can download and be reading in minutes.