Opportunity
Beacon College’s award-winning television program, “A World of Difference: Embracing Neurodiversity,” had been reaching Central Florida audiences through WUCF TV since its debut on the public media station in 2022, but the conversations it was sparking deserved a much bigger stage. The show features national experts, families and successful adults who thrive with learning differences, offering a perspective that deeply needed by families across the country as 1 in 5 individuals in the United States now has learning and attention issues.
When Beacon College secured a partnership with the National Educational Telecommunications Association (NETA) in 2025, it gained access to hundreds of PBS stations and network affiliates nationwide. What it needed next was a strategy to make station program managers notice, care and schedule the program on their airwaves.
Approach
We consulted with WUCF TV to understand how program managers at PBS stations actually make scheduling decisions. Based on this conversation, we launched a sustained print and digital mailer campaign delivered directly to other stations across the country, designed to reach program managers bimonthly with information about the show. Each touchpoint was anchored to a relevant awareness moment – Learning Disabilities Awareness Month, ADHD Awareness Month, Dyslexia Awareness Month, International Day of Persons with Disabilities and Autism Acceptance Month and more – giving program managers a ready-made scheduling rationale for their audiences.
We also recognized that local relevance drives local decisions. For select major markets in New York, Texas and Georgia where many Beacon College families reside, we developed targeted postcards that referenced show guests from those regions, giving station managers a direct connection between the program and their own communities.
Impact
This effort extended the show’s reach from a single station in Central Florida to 30+ U.S. markets through the NETA platform. We secured air dates in some of PBS’s top markets, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Salt Lake City and Minneapolis. In peak campaign months, we secured nearly 20 percent market share of PBS stations airing the program. We also positioned the program for long-term presence on NETA, with a second season of the show added to platform exactly one year after the first campaign launched.
