Monday, March 30, 2009

You have 3-minutes, now sell it!

One of the exercises we did at the recent We Kan! conference I attended was to make a sign promoting an event in our community. On the sign was the name of our town, the spokesman and the person who would promote the event. Fighting off the urge to go with the obvious idea of having General McPherson in front of the Opera House I opted for Miss Wickersham at the All Schools Day parade. We had 30 seconds to give our "commercial" to the rest of the group. Standing up in front of a crowd, even a friendly crowd like you find at We Kan!, was scarier than you think.
This week we are shooting a 3-minute promotional piece with KWCH for the Kansas Shopper program. This is new territory for me so I'm hoping it goes well. The spots will air in April and May on Channel 12. I'll post the video on Visit McPherson once I have it.
How do you summarize all that McPherson has to offer in a 3-minute segment? Of course, it's important to know who your audience is, but it's also important to think of who your audience could be. Is it families looking for a weekend getaway or retired folks curious about our history? Is it ladies' groups looking for a day of pampering and shopping or an organization looking for a central location to hold its annual meeting? Is it hunters, cyclists or hikers? Is it art enthusiasts or the many people that come into town for sporting events? Is it the person who's been to Mac many times but never made it over the overpass to see the heart of the town or maybe it's the lifelong resident who's become so used to his hometown he's forgotten about all the wonderful opportunities for recreation?
I hope to condense McPherson's many attractions into a fun segment with the host Amy Jo. If nothing else it will be a fun way to spend the day talking about my hometown of choice, McPherson.

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