Scott Steinberg · Consultant, Analyst and Business Strategist
Not every campaign needs the same tour. A gadget launch, a seasonal roundup, a financial literacy push and a wellness campaign each reach their audience through a different format at a different time of year. A trends expert and thought leader for 3000+ brands, Scott Steinberg hosts across all of them, as seen in over 800 media outlets from CNN to The Today Show and Good Morning America.
National TV SMTs, radio media tours, co-op and multi-brand segments, in-studio, virtual and on-location production, satellite and social hybrids. Multi-market formats across technology, lifestyle, business, finance, travel, gaming, toys, wellness, AI, hospitality and more!
Format is the first decision and it drives everything after it: budget, station mix, deliverables and how the message has to be built. The SMT company subject areas are listed below the formats.
The standard format: a single production day of consecutive live interviews with stations across the country, typically running through morning and midday news windows.
Best suited to launches and announcements with genuine news value, where reaching a broad national audience in one day is the objective.
Audio-only tours reaching drive-time programming, syndicated networks and station groups, at substantially lower cost than television and with longer segment lengths.
Works well for topics needing more explanation than a three-minute television hit allows, and pairs naturally with a television day.
Several non-competing brands share one segment and split costs, producing the roundup format stations already want at a fraction of a solo tour budget.
Strongest in seasonal windows where gift guides and category roundups are actively sought by producers.
Tours run from a broadcast studio, or on location at a launch event, trade show, retail environment or destination where the setting itself adds to the segment.
On-location adds production cost and complexity but gives producers visual interest that improves clearance for otherwise ordinary announcements.
Broadcast segments produced alongside social cutdowns, vertical video and digital deliverables captured during the same production day.
The marginal cost of the extra deliverables is small once the day is booked, and it gives a campaign material that outlives the broadcast window.
Tours targeted at specific regions, market sizes or language segments rather than broad national coverage, which suits regional launches and market-specific campaigns.
Station selection is built around where the campaign actually needs to land rather than raw market count.
Tours built around a trade show, conference, product unveiling or seasonal moment, timed to when producers are already covering the event.
The news hook does much of the booking work, which raises clearance well above what the same message would achieve on an ordinary week.
Remote-delivered segments from a home or office studio setup, which stations have accepted as routine since remote production became normal.
Lower cost, faster to arrange and useful for responsive campaigns tied to breaking news or short-notice opportunities.
Producers book on subject credibility, so the category a campaign sits in determines how easily it clears. These are areas where the credential is already established with national bookers.
Product launches, category explainers and trend segments. Bookings for hundreds of household brands.
Seasonal roundups, gift guides, family and home segments where service framing carries the booking.
Money topics, small business, workplace trends and economic segments with year-round demand.
Destination and travel planning, wellness technology and consumer health with strong seasonal peaks.
Scott Steinberg is an analyst, consultant and business trends expert with over 25 years of experience advising more than 3,000 businesses and brands, from startups to government agencies and Fortune 500 firms.
He is the author of over 30 books and has published more than five thousand articles covering technology, marketing, leadership, innovation, advertising and digital transformation. He appears regularly on ABC, CBS, CNN and NBC.
He has led seminars, keynotes and training programs for organizations including Wells Fargo, the PGA Tour, Century 21, Ford, Dell and Procter & Gamble, and has been recognized by the International Association for Scholastic Excellence, Fortune and the 21st Century Icon Awards.
National television suits launches with genuine news value. Radio suits topics needing more explanation than a short television hit allows. Co-op suits budgets that would not fund a solo national tour, particularly in seasonal windows. On-location and event-anchored suit campaigns where the setting or the news hook does the booking work.
Technology, artificial intelligence (AI), gadgets and consumer electronics; lifestyle, home, toys, family and video games; business, personal finance and workplace; travel, hospitality, health and wellness; and seasonal campaigns across all of them. Producers recognize the name across the range.
Considerably. Producers book segments that serve their audience, and a host with verifiable credentials in the category clears markets that an unfamiliar spokesperson does not. It is worth choosing the framing of a campaign around a subject where the credential is strong.
Routinely. Television and radio days paired together, social deliverables captured alongside a broadcast day, or a co-op segment anchored to a seasonal moment are all common. Combining usually costs less than running the formats separately since the production day is shared.
A few weeks works for most formats and subjects. Seasonal windows, particularly holiday and back-to-school, fill considerably earlier and are contested, so campaigns targeting them should lock format and host well before station outreach begins.
Share your format, subject area, target window and market goals. Availability and the right format for the campaign can usually be settled in one call.
Budget, product complexity and season all point to different formats. If you are not sure which fits, describe the campaign and the objective and you will get a straight recommendation, including if a tour is not the right tool.