There is a television station in Los Angeles that gives away free advertising time. But nobody is taking them up on it.
This is not some weak-signaled wonder reaching a few hundred households, it’s a station with the largest reach of any cable network in L.A., appearing in some 600,000 households on every single cable system in the city. It is so anxious to give away time that it will even let local businesses use its production studio and equipment which includes professional cameras and editing systems for free.
So what’s the catch? Well, there are a few, but it still seems like a heck of a deal.
The station in question is L.A. City View Channel 35, which is best known as the channel people race through while surfing for virtually anything else. That’s because Channel 35’s typical fare is a riveting debate on wastewater treatment by the L.A. City Council, or an expose on the dangers of lead paint from the Building and Safety Department.
But Gary Ghiaey, director of multimedia development and television projects for the city, says it doesn’t have to be that way. Ghiaey is looking for businesses willing to put up a few bucks to provide compelling programs that also just happen to be blatant promotional opportunities.
Ghiaey believes that city-owned Channel 35 is being underutilized. Instead of just presenting City Council meetings or short programs promoting city agencies, it could be put to use on behalf of L.A. businesses.
“At the end of the day, if a show is promoting business in Los Angeles, it’s promoting the city of Los Angeles. And if the business increases its sales as a result, it’s increasing our tax revenues. Everybody wins,” Ghiaey said.
The kinds of things Ghiaey has in mind are 30-minute shows on, say, shopping in Los Angeles. A number of local malls could get together and pay some freelance producers to put together a show focusing on the malls. Or hotels or restaurants could do the same thing. Or a big company like Atlantic Richfield Co. could make a documentary on the oil refining business.
The City Charter forbids commercials on Channel 35, but it doesn’t say anything about promotions. What’s the difference? Not much, Ghiaey admits.
The city reserves the right to screen shows in advance, and ultimately decides not only whether they will run, but when. Ghiaey says that the more appealing a show, the better chance it will get prime-time treatment and the longer its shelf life will be. Most programs will likely be aired more than once.
Not just any business need apply.
“Obviously, we’re not going to do a spotlight on the porn industry or anything,” Ghiaey said. Mom-and-pop retailers also aren’t appropriate, since this is a citywide channel although individual shopping districts like Westwood Village or any of the various Business Improvement Districts would be ideal candidates, Ghiaey said.
Although Ghiaey has been pitching the channel at Chamber of Commerce meetings and other events, so far there have been few takers.
The cost? Considering that the airtime and the equipment are free, sponsors only have to pay the labor costs of the people producing the show (the city chooses the producers, not the sponsor). Ghiaey estimates a high-quality, 30-minute program could be made for about $10,000.
Advertising meltdown
It’s Jan. 1, 2000. Do you know where your commercial is?
Century City-based Western International Media is afraid you won’t. In fact, it’s afraid that the entire advertising and media industries may be paralyzed by a computer problem most companies seem to be all but ignoring.
There’s been no shortage of media coverage of the so-called Year 2000 Problem, which involves computer software that only uses the final two digits of the year when keeping track of dates meaning that when 2000 hits, our computers will think we’ve gone back in time to 1900. But most stories have concentrated on the impact on the banking and financial industries; the media seem to be ignoring the wolf at their own back door.
Getting an ad from an agency to a media outlet is a process fraught with computers. Machines place media buys, they monitor whether and when a commercial has run, they handle the billing for media time and space, and they track the demographics of a given media outlet. A meltdown could mean catastrophe.
But while even fierce competitors in such industries as banking and insurance have banded together to address the problem, there has been no such joint effort in the media or advertising businesses, according to Yvonne Fogelman, senior vice president of information technologies at Western.
“We really haven’t seen a lot of combined efforts (from advertising and media companies), even though we use a lot of the same resources and we rely on each other to a certain extent,” Fogelman said. “To date, I haven’t heard a lot of assurance from stations and publications that they’re Year-2000 ready.”
Western is trying to spearhead a crusade on Year 2000 readiness, seeing as how it will be virtually shut down if the many agencies and media outlets with which it works find themselves inoperative when the millenium arrives. Western is currently testing all its own systems and is consulting with its clients and partners in the advertising and media industries.
But it’s fighting the battle nearly alone; trade groups like the American Association of Advertising Agencies have convened various subcommittees to study the problem, but have to date produced no recommendations nor led a joint industry effort to assure readiness.
“This doesn’t have the splash of some other issues in the advertising business, but unfortunately it will be very explosive and very expensive if we don’t address it,” Fogelman said.
News Editor Dan Turner writes a weekly column on marketing for the Los Angeles Business Journal.
