The Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB) announced a new focus and a new look before an audience of several hundred senior broadcasters and ad execs at TVB’s Forward Conference in NYC. As part of a new customer-centric mission to actively promote the local marketing platforms and solutions that local stations have to offer, the 57-year-old trade association is replacing its “Serving America’s Television Stations” tag with “Local Media Marketing Solutions” and will now be known simply as TVB and not the Television Bureau of Advertising.
The changes were announced by Steve Lanzano, who took over as TVB president at the beginning the year: “Television stations now have local HD programming, hyperlocal websites, mobile DTV, and digital subchannels that offer advertisers the synergy of local multiplatform advertising that connects with consumers at all their media touch points,” said Lanzano. “TVB’s refocused mission will include greater customer emphasis and helping advertisers find the best ways to market their products and services. All sales are local, and effective advertising must reach consumers at home, at work, and on the go, and local television stations meet all those challenges.”
While the trade association’s executives had weighed the possibility of a complete name change, Lanzano said, it was ultimately decided that keeping the TVB acronym was important for maintaining a connection with its history and leveraging its brand equity. A new logo, which was created in house, connects the three letters to convey the interrelationship of local media solutions. Red, green, and blue rectangles, representing the “RGB” of television video, are placed at different angles within the new logo to represent multiple screens and to convey that television is no longer only linear. A rectangle is highlighted in each letter to represent that local TV is made up of different markets.
Lanzano said the new graphic look would be rolled out over the next few months on all TVB materials; the rollout will be complete by 1/11. The TVB website is undergoing a complete overhaul and will reflect both the new look and the new emphasis of the organization’s greater customer focus; www.tvb.org will be relaunched next month.
An expanded business development team is part of TVB’s new focus, Lanzano said, charged with driving marketing dollars to local stations.
