PROMAX promises to please.

Promotion and marketing workshops remain the crux of the annual PROMAX International and BDA Conference and Exposition, which take place this year in Los Angeles from June 19 to 22.

Needless to say, some of the L.A.-based execs are not too happy about the locale: they feel that their, station

or network will expect them to be at work and PROMAX at the same time. Senior VP of PROMAX Gregg Baiko is hoping that most "L.A.ers" will view PROMAX as just "another out-of-town meeting that will save their companies on air fare." He added that the proximity to home and the timing relative to the L.A. Screenings probably influenced Columbia TriStar International's decision to test the PROMAX waters this year. This will be the company's first appearance at the event.

This year there will be about 30 workshops, compared with 25 last year. Balko expects attendance to reach between 6,000 to 7,000 and international attendance to increase. To be sure, it's no secret that the Europeans' forte is not marketing and promotion; however, things are changing. "For the last couple of years, some of the major marketing awards have gone to international attendees," Balko pointed out, adding that "it's not because they have greater budgets either." (Balko noted that one of the international sessions held last year was standing room only and that a good amount of domestic people attended it as well.) "There's a lot of talent in Europe. They have the equipment, but they just don't have the personnel that really understand the industry," he admitted. Indeed, because of the increase in broadcasting outlets (cable and satellite channels), Europeans have to get in on the game in order to maintain their audience share. "They never had to do it before. Now they have to become marketing whizzes," Balko said. To this end, PROMAX will hold its first-ever European conference, in association with BDA, next year from March 6 to 7 in Barcelona.

PROMAX continues to be an event that the creatives can't say enough good things about. Multimedia's Sandra Shutak touts PROMAX as the "promo manager's NATPE," citing the innumerable events that allow creative executives to get a handle on what's hot and what the competition is doing in terms of marketing and promotion. Multimedia is having workshops for each of its new talk shows - Crook and Chase and Pat Bullard - and, as in the past, it will have a hospitality suite on the floor. In addition, Multimedia will co-host the opening ceremony with MCA/Universal at the Jurassic Park Theme Park.

Although Crook and Chase and Pat Bullard are both talk shows, Multimedia will be using different marketing strategies for each. Shutak said that Crook and Chase has been on a slow roll-out since January. The hosts, Lorianne Crook and Charlie Chase, have been working together for about 13 years now, most recently on a show on the Country Western cable channel. "We're just taking their proven knowledge and humor into syndication," Shutak said. She added that Pat Bullard will require more marketing since "no one is really familiar with him." Multimedia will be promoting this show ahead of time, sending sales tapes to the stations' sales people, in addition to media kits containing CD-ROMs. "We are keeping up with the times and technology," commented Shutak.

Bob Cook, executive vp of Eyemark Entertainment (formerly CBS-GroupW-MaXam), is very familiar with the process of connecting with station execs. Before taking his current position he worked at Columbia TriStar Television Distribution, where he took syndication marketing beyond its traditional boundaries and helped pioneer the formation of station advisory councils designed to get clients' input regarding campaign development. "We want to be partners with the stations and give the sales personnel whatever support tools necessary to help promote the show, whether it be through tapes, books or any other marketing tool," Cook said.

CBS will be conducting workshops for two shows: Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal and Day & Date. The former is a new weekend show hosted by Dan Aykroyd that will explore paranormal occurrences. The latter was launched last September - before Westinghouse bought CBS - and was created because CBS and Westinghouse O&Os wanted a show to lead into their news and compete with Oprah. Day & Date is a fast-paced daily magazine show, not a talk show.

After the merger of the three companies, a new sales and marketing strategy had to be put into play for Day & Date. PROMAX comes at a good time: the Day & Date marketing workshop will give the new distribution division a chance to explain who they are as a new entity and to discuss how Day & Date has evolved. "The workshop will give stations an idea of where they are now with the show since it has been on for a while, and [will] focus on content and research to fine tune the product itself," Cook explained. "Our primary thrust is to explain to the carrying stations that you can't come in with a blanket campaign for this show. It has to be a market-by-market campaign - a customized campaign since each station airs it in different time periods." Cook said that their campaign might include multiple topic spots designed to create universal interest. In addition. a number of advertisers have approached the company about doing cross-promotion.

As for the Psi Factor, Cook said that since it is a weekend show its marketing will be different from that of Day & Date. "Just hawing Dan Aykroyd as a host gives the show an extra push, and of course this genre is really hot now," Cook pointed out. Currently the company is talking with various newspaper syndicates and radio shows about marketing the show via a Psi Factor column and radio shorts written by Aykroyd for syndication across the country. And one can't forget about new media - the company is in the process of developing a Psi Factor Web site on the Internet as well as a chat room that Aykroyd will host live.