ITV roadshow to woo top clients

Granada and Carlton are to launch a sales offensive at key advertisers in each of their TV regions. The push is designed to get them to “engage” with TV as a medium.

In each of the TV regions, about five key clients will be invited to attend a lunch along with local MPs, actors, TV presenters and sports and music stars to talk about the medium.

In the past ITV has been criticised for being arrogant and failing to listen to advertisers.

Granada Broadcasting and Enterprises managing director Mick Desmond says: “We are trying to use all our assets to more actively engage with clients.”

The campaign follows a poor year for ITV1, in which its advertising revenues plummeted.

Aside from the lunches – which will take place twice a year – clients will be asked to nominate “rising stars” from within their businesses, who will then be invited to attend a day on a TV set or in an editing suite in their region, so that they can experience the “magic” of the medium.

Desmond says: “The idea is to show the strength of ITV as a national business, which is able to the reflect the regions through programmes such as Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Midsomer Murders.”

Carlton Sales chief executive Martin Bowley and Granada Enterprises chief executive Graham Duff will embark on a tour of advertisers’ creative agencies in the next couple of weeks, with the aim of pushing TV as a medium. The move follows a similar initiative by Bowley and Desmond last year.