Newport PR Firm Takes Visibility to New Heights : Publicity: Perri Pharris Productions uses video news releases to get clients TV coverage.

When public relations executive Patrick Pharris met former television news anchor Tony Perri in 1988, the two struck up a conversation on the future of publicity in a video age. Neither could know that their lively discussion would evolve into their livelihood.

At the time, Perri was director of Disney’s broadcast publicity department, shooting footage of special events for Disneyland and sending it by videotape or satellite feed to television news operations. To Pharris, that concept--in effect, a video press release--had the ring of innovation.

“I was just blown away by that,” said Pharris, who joined with Perri in 1990 to form Perri Pharris Productions, which has been ranked by an industry journal as this year’s fastest-growing producer of video news releases. “I was a PR guy, and all I knew was that if you wanted television coverage, you asked the station if they could send out a camera, and then you just hoped they would.”

Instead of relying on television news teams to show up, the two envisioned using the Disney strategy that Perri helped create--packaging interviews and information on a product or event into a news-style story format and sending the finished product to television stations nationwide.

For image-hungry broadcast news, they surmised, the convenience of ready-to-use footage could lead to increased exposure for their clients.

“Because they don’t have the money they used to have, TV news is cutting back on the size of their staff, even though the number of hours of news have remained the same,” said Perri, who has worked for small stations in Colorado and in Santa Rosa. “It’s not always physically or fiscally possible for a station to send a camera to an event, but we can send them footage via satellite or on tape, and it’s like they were there.”

It’s a formula that has proven successful for the eight-employee Newport Beach company, which reported 1992 gross billings in excess of $1.1 million, about three times the previous year’s sales. The firm’s client list includes Disney, Lucasfilm, General Motors, Carl Karcher Enterprises, L.A. Gear, AST Research, Taco Bell and Hyatt Hotels & Resorts.

The partners said that having backgrounds from different sides of the wall that separates media from public relations helps them please both their publicity-seeking clients and the news directors who ignore material if it is blatantly endorsing a product. “It’s a balance you have to find,” Perri said. “But I know what TV stations want and how they want it.”

To promote L.A. Gear athletic shoes, for example, Perri Pharris pieced together a faux news report on the overall marketing trend of sneaker “gimmicks,” and included as an example its client’s use of blinking lights in the heel of the shoes.

“For our client, it gets them on the news, and for the stations, it gives them some footage they can use, in a way they see fit, to do a story on a very real business trend,” Perri said. “This is not just a story about one product.”

The video news releases, VNRs for short, produced by Perri Pharris have the highest average viewership in the fairly young industry, according to A.C. Nielsen Media Research. Last year, an average of 8.2 million people saw each of the company’s videos, compared to the industrywide average audience of 1.8 million viewers per video, Nielsen statistics show.

Their most widely viewed video production was in 1991, when 46 million people saw Perri Pharris footage shot as a promotion for Sector Sports Watches, according to figures supplied by Medialink, the nation’s largest distributor of VNRs.

Perri Pharris crews filmed from land, sea and air as French adventurer Gerard d’Abouville completed his solo 134-day rowing journey across the Pacific Ocean in a boat emblazoned with the Switzerland-based Sector’s logo. Because of the out-of-the-way landing site in Astoria, Ore., the three major broadcast networks, CNN and 32 local stations relied on Perri Pharris’ VNR footage.

Without pictures of the weary but triumphant d’Abouville to accompany the story, it is unlikely that many of those news programs would have even mentioned the item, Perri said.

“That was one of the most widely seen VNRs ever,” said Laurence Moskowitz, president of Medialink, the service that arranges VNR satellite feeds to about 700 television stations in the United States and Europe. Moskowitz, whose New York-based company handles more than 1,000 VNR producers, said Perri Pharris is a solid example of the expanding industry’s cutting edge.

“They’re relatively young and one of the fastest growing,” Moskowitz said, citing Perri’s experience at the innovative Disney production department among the company’s chief assets. “And they certainly are among the most creative. Most independent producers are relatively small, and they are an example of one of the best.”

While Moskowitz said there has been an 800% increase in the number of VNRs produced in the past five years, an official at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles said there is a decidedly unfavorable view of the tidy video packages in most television newsrooms.

“At the stations I’ve been, as a rule, we didn’t use them,” said Mark Hoffman, vice president of news for KNBC-Channel 4. “Ninety-nine percent of them that come into newsrooms are not used or viewed.”

Hoffman said that in instances where VNR footage was used, it would be accompanied by both a spoken and visual reference to its origin to ensure viewers knew they were seeing sponsored material. KNBC, for example, aired the Sector Sports Watch-sponsored footage with such a disclaimer.

Many broadcast journalists blanch at the use of the VNRs because they are not made with impartiality in mind.

In the L.A. Gear spot, for instance, Perri Pharris presented its client alongside several competitors and their gimmicky shoes, such as the Reebok Pump and the Puma Disc. But, by far, the lion’s share of references were about their client; only L.A. Gear officials were quoted and photographed, and the on-air time devoted to images of L.A. Gear shoes far outweighed other brands.

While clients are obviously central to the productions that they pay for, Perri said, the stations have the option to do whatever they wish with the footage they get, including editing it or combining it with their own reports.

Indeed, while Nielson Co. reports that 75% of television news stations use VNRs, Moskowitz said that almost without exception they are used only in excerpt form. Stations can dodge unwanted commercial overtones by using just the shots they want and providing their own voice-over commentary, Pharris said.

“It’s really their call, we’re just here to give the (news stations) the option, another resource they can use,” Pharris said. He paused, smiled, and added, “And to get our client on the air, of course.”

Video News Releases: Who Makes Them?

According to Medialink, the nation’s largest distributor of video news releases (VNRs), the field is divided equally between small, independent firms such as Perri Pharris and larger, in-house operations.

* Independent companies: 25%

* Public relations firms: 25%

* Corporations: 25%

* U.S. government: 25%

VNR Industry

* Average production cost: $15,000 to $25,000

* Average distribution cost: $6,500

* Growth: In 1987, Medialink distributed 500 VNRs. The estimated 1993 total is 4,500.

* Viewership: As high as 50 million for some VNRs.

* 1992 sales: About $18 million*, up 20%.

* Fully edited, scripted and produced VNRs

Perri Pharris Productions

Business: Produces video news releases for television news broadcasts.

Owners: Tony Perri and Patrick Pharris

Founded: 1990

Headquarters: Newport Beach

Clients: General Motors Corp., Lucasfilm, Hilton Hotels, Walt Disney Co., Princess Cruises, Scripps Memorial Hospitals, AMC Theaters, Sector Sports Watches of Italy.

THE PARTNERS

Profile: Tony Perri

* Position: Co-owner, Perri Pharris Productions

* Credentials: bachelor of arts in broadcast communications, Cal State Chico, 1980.

* Background: Former television news reporter and anchor. Joined Walt Disney Co.’s VNR production department in 1984 but returned to television in 1990 as a feature producer. Later that year, he co-founded Perri Pharris Productions.

* Honors: His VNRs “Mickey Mouse Goes to Moscow” and “The Hula-Hoop Record at Disneyland” were among the top 10 most widely watched VNRs in 1988.

Profile: Patrick Pharris

* Position: Co-owner, Perri Pharris Productions

* Credentials: Bachelor of arts in media communications, Cal State Sacramento, 1980.

* Background: Advertising and public relations veteran. Former director of publicity and promotions at Palm Springs Desert Resorts Convention and Visitors Bureau. Was also a senior executive at Mahoney Communications, a Beverly Hills-based public relations firm. Co-founded Perri Pharris Productions in 1990.

* Honors: Awarded Western Assn. of Convention and Visitor Bureaus’ Tourism Campaign Award for his “Summer in the Spring” production about the spring-break phenomenon in Palm Springs.

Sources: Perri Pharris Productions, Medialink, A.C. Nielsen Media Research; Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times