perfect blend media

Creating a new media channel from the ground up has definitely proven to be a challenge of love, blood, sweat and some tears. Yes, that’s right - I think we may have cried once or twice along the way.  One of the most challenging aspects of running a new HD “TV” style show has been the learning curve for potential sponsors and for us too.  While new media is quickly becoming old media, there are still significant differences that require both old and new learn something about each other in order for them to productively coexist.

This quick blog post is not really targeted at answering all those new media/old media questions, but I felt it worth mentioning that we are learning together in this new media venture.  The good news is that our audience “gets it” and only wants more and more of what we produce.  Without our audience and their approval, the rest is moot discussion. Alaska HDTV recently broke the 200,000 viewer mark in a single month and is showing consistent and significant growth in viewership over the last year.

Sponsors, Viewers and Relationships

We’re making a trip to Seattle for a 2 day meeting marathon with potential sponsors to continue growing our business.  It’s always been our objective on the business end of things to provide the advertising sponsor a targeted and engaged audience.  More importantly, we know that creating a “match” between the sponsor and the audience, everyone will come out on top.  The sponsor reaches an audience that is actively seeking their brand, the audience is glad to know more about the sponsor and Alaska HDTV (Perfect Blend Media) gets to pay the bills and continue to develop increasingly higher quality shows!

This approach to creating a perfectly matched audience and sponsor has been a tough sell for many agencies and companies that are still tied to the Madison Ave. approach of buying advertising as though it was pork belly futures or some other commodity. Not only do we believe that our audience is NOT a commodity, we know that the approach of becoming a matchmaker in media will be the only way to reach buyers from this day forward. Give viewers what they are looking for and don’t interrupt with messages that are completely out of character with the content they are enjoying. It’s rude and the audience has lots of choices now, upset their experience and watch them move on with out a second thought. We’re building relationships not just making sales.

More about what we’re doing in Seattle can be seen in a recent post on Alaska HDTV. Go read the Behind the lens with Alaska HDTV post.

Fall 2008

Our goal for the Fall of 2008 is to make it to 2009. The promise of great content and good production has proven that we can attract and keep an audience. Our challenge now is to get the business end in gear and attract partners that believe in building a relationship with us and our audience. We’re working on repurposing our existing content to create additional revenue streams beyond the primary sponsorship for the online audience. With a combination of local TV, DVDs and out of home marketing with our friends at Retail Entertainment Design - we hope to really create the momentum we need to fund our jump to the next level.

In 2009, we’re planning to build out our business to include more crew and expand into a space where we can be more collaborative with our video production. We’re grateful to those who have already supported us along the way, either financially, through barter and emotionally. Alaska really is the Last Frontier and we intend to continue with our pioneer spirit at Perfect Blend Media. I know that sounds cheesy, but it’s true, we are going to keep forging a new path, innovate, lead and inspire. It’s sort of the “Alaska Spirit” to explore and pioneer, and that is part of our unspoken mantra.

/Kevin