Promax taps new CEO to revive org
Chabin hopes to lure attendees to June confab
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"There are no Olympic Games in 2003 and no national political ads," Chabin said. "And there's no indication that the overall economy is going to get better next year."
Facing these barriers in 2003, Mark Stroman, senior marketing agent for Endeavor and chairman of Promax, said the stations and networks will look even more to marketing and promotion to help pump up the ratings and swell advertising revenues.
"If viewers can't find a show, they can't watch it," Stroman said. Good promotion will at least make people aware of the date and time of a show.
He said the June convention of Promax, to take place at Los Angeles' Bonaventure Hotel, will be uppermost in Chabin's mind. The consensus is that last June's Promax at the L.A. Convention Center was a disappointment, its shrunken attendance the result of a weak economy that prompted TV stations and networks to cut back on travel and expense accounts for their staffs.
Only about 3,000 people attended last June's Promax, compared to 4,700 four years ago when the economy was thriving.
Chabin's job will be to convince Promax's members that "they'll come away with 10 money-making ideas" if they show up at the Bonaventure in June, Stroman said.
One of the ideas, according to Chabin, is what he calls "sales promotion," in which advertisers get much more involved in a TV program than just buying 30-second spots. He cited the way Ford and Coca-Cola integrated their product into the fabric of the hit Fox Network summer series "American Idol."
Stroman said he'd also like to steal a page from the James Bond book of product placement. "You can't beat it," Stroman said, "when one of the cast of 'Friends' picks up a can of Pepsi in the middle of the episode."
Presumably, Pepsi-Cola would pay through both nostrils to get that privileged position on the highest-rated sitcom on broadcast TV.
