As corporate cause sponsorship investments continue to rise, so too does the importance of sponsor acknowledgments.
Once upon a time sponsor credits on PBS were called “grant cards”. They were literally cards shot with a title camera which provided the opportunity for a voiceover along the lines of “this program made possible by …..“. The rules governing the acknowledgment of content underwriters haven’t changed much — no implied endorsement, no comparisons with competing products or services, no call for the audience to take action — but everything else, including the contemporary media environment, has changed dramatically. And it all looks a lot like PBS from here.
The changes started around 1993. Depending upon whom one talks to, either PBS started getting “commercial” or the sponsor relations people within the broadcasting service got more responsive to sponsor ROI. Step 1 in the evolution was helping corporations differentiate themselves in the marketplace, perhaps even addressing a specific brand reputation challenge along the way: “providing dependable US-made widgets since 1833“.
Now, of course, there is hardly any difference — except perhaps in length — between “enhanced sponsor acknowledgments” seen across PBS and the spots viewers see on Sunday morning talk shows or, more to the point, the Super Bowl. In terms of state-of-the-art corporate image enhancement, PBS wrote the book.
The overall tone and appearance of the announcement must be informational rather than promotional. Both voice-over delivery and video treatment should be developed with the objective of providing a viewer service, not a commercial sales opportunity. (From the current PBS guidelines.)
Hence:
- The Lexus “H” campaign <youtube>
- The Chevron “Human Energy” campaign <youtube>
- And our own spot, from the December 2007 Independence Bowl <youtube>
But the contemporary PBS influence is not limited to spots on television or YouTube. The very PBS idea of foundations or corporations, for reasons of their own, underwriting the development and presentation of issue-oriented content is expanding.
What isn’t so clearly on display in contemporary examples is the Jedi art of helping a corporation promote its association with the content and the cause to achieve the most possible positive public notice and positive social impact. Working without marketing budgets, PBS folks had to learn to help underwriters blow their own horn about their sponsorship. Without that extra oomph, it is very hard to generate expected buzz and ROI. As a veteran PBS colleague notes, underwriting buys a ticket to the dance. The real payoff comes when sponsors actually show up.