"It's a tactic that is frequently used by political candidates and major advertisers who want to 'ambush' an audience to put forward their message," said Stephen Eckstone, PhD, of the CCF Media Committee. Dr. Eckstone explained the CCF's reasoning: "The decision to focus on the news was easy. Network news viewers are primarily adult, selective, and interested in events and issues. By 'ambushing' the news audience on all four networks, we make it impossible for anyone watching the early evening network news to escape our message." Dr. Eckstone estimated the audience for the roadblock could be as high as 60 million adults: 60 million people who can influence others to consider the benefits of chiropractic.
"We decided to keep our message as simple and uncomplicated as possible," said Guy Riekeman, DC, the commercials' producer and chairman of the CCF's Media Committee. "We didn't want to distract the audience with fancy graphics and music. Our message is clear and direct: Millions of people regularly use chiropractic as a natural, scientific approach to pain relief and a safe, cost-effective way to maintain their whole body health."
The commercial roadblock is scheduled for Monday, June 16th, in the first station break of the evening national news: CBS (Dan Rather); NBC (Tom Brokaw); ABC (Peter Jennings), and on Fox (because the FOX network is made up of local stations, not all stations will be showing the chiropractic commercial during the first station break). Dr. Eckstone said the Fox Network was added because the network is nipping at the heels of NBC as the number one network in the important 8-10:00 p.m. time slot. "Unfortunately, we have to buy the Fox stations on a market-by-market basis, but if we skipped the second ranked network, our message would have missed a large chunk of the audience," Dr. Eckstone noted.
When the Chiropractic Centennial Foundation Board of Trustees faced the decision of how to make the most dramatic, impactful statement possible they explored several options. "The decision always seemed to come back to television," said CCF President William Holmberg, DC. "We wanted to reach the most people possible with the simple message 'that chiropractic works.' We've already sponsored radio, print, and the 1995 Rose Parade Float, but the numbers always pointed us back to television."
"Stephen Eckstone, PhD, who serves with Dr. Guy Riekeman as advisory board members on the Media Committee, and who has a strong background in broadcast media and advertising, did the research that showed us the cost-efficiencies of each medium," continued Dr. Holmberg. "We could see many people each form of advertising could reach and the relative cost per-thousand, then we compared the 'dramatic' impact of each medium, and television always came out on top."
"We knew we had a strong message in the documentary," said Dr. Riekeman. "In 1995, we put the 60-minute version into as many homes as possible using the cable networks and local stations in the top 20 markets. Everyone knows how frustrating that experience was, with stations literally chopping the show up as they wished, rescheduling, and even adding hostile advertising within the program. When we came back with the half-hour version, we thought we had solved the problem of having stations chop the show in the middle."
"This past January, we were successful in clearing 97 percent of the markets on the CNBC cable network," according to Dr. Riekeman, "but our own communication system hurt us when the wrong times, dates and stations were publicized. We still reached an enormous audience (estimated by Nielsen at over 28 million) and opened the door a little wider for chiropractic."
This time Dr. Eckstone recommended network television. "According to the Wall Street Journal ("Why TV Ad Prices Are Rising Even as Viewership is Falling," May 12, 1997, by Kyle Pope, staff reporter) cable viewing is still 'surfing' viewing. Cable's highest rated programs, including first-run movies, rarely get as many viewers as the lowest-rated shows on network TV. For the vast majority of people, the shows they sit down and make an appointment to watch are clearly broadcast shows. Network television remains the only place advertisers can reach big groups of people quickly. It's still the only way to get a mass audience."
Building on that audience strength and working with a limited budget required a creative strategy. "Our $200,000 budget," according to Dr. Holmberg, "wasn't enough to buy one 30-second commercial in Seinfeld (now selling for $500,000 per commercial). We debated the issue and finally decided to do the network news "roadblock."
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