In my last blog - I raved on a 50th anniversary from WBNS. The following is an article from our promo pal Paul Greeley on the spot. Thanks Paul!
The Best Local TV Station Promo? You Decide.
By Paul Greeley
There's probably not a more advertised product on TV than local TV news. In every market, 3 or 4 or more local TV stations vie for viewers, airing slickly-produced commercials about their talent, their technology or their content. Most local TV stations have on-air schedules that few national or local advertisers could match. Then when sweeps come, the exposure goes way up.
The question is which of these promos actually work?
Over the years, I’ve seen tens of thousands of examples of local TV station promos. I’ve written and produced more than a thousand myself. So I’m often asked if I’ve seen any one promo that I thought was the best. And while I’ve seen lots of terrific work, (and lots of not so terrific work); recently I saw a promo that, in my opinion, is one of the best local TV spots I’ve seen. And the good news is that this technique might work just as well for many local TV stations. The spot comes from WBNS, the CBS affiliate in Columbus, Ohio. Take a look.
Frank Willson, WBNS’s Director of Operations says, “the response has been amazing. In addition to the promo…the Marketing Department placed a lot of additional content online. They uploaded it on the WBNS-10TV You Tube channel and started a viral marketing campaign using Face Book, MySpace, and other social networking sites.”
Here are several reasons why I think this spot works.
First off, it’s a 60-second promo, and in :60 seconds, you have time to tell your story, and make an emotional connection with your audience. And very few other advertisers, except perhaps pharmaceutical companies, can afford to do :60s, so your message really stands out.
Secondly, I like the music. Not many local TV station promos feature a rock band performing on the roof of the station’s studio. Imagine pitching this idea to your GM?
“This one took a lot of trust from our President & General Manager, Tom Griesdorn,” said Wilson. “But he gave us his support to make the spot as good as it should be. Everything was shot using Sony HDCam and edited on Avid DS HD’s.”
What’s interesting to me about this spot is that it was conceived and executed by a 25-year old writer/producer, David Plantz, who also wrote the music and the song. Plantz says he got the idea of doing a heritage campaign while watching old Nickelodeon promos on YouTube.
“I thought that our viewers would make the nostalgic connection I felt watching those old kids’ promos.”
The song is original and fresh, appeals to young and old alike and when combined with the images, projects the electronic news gathering process as important and fun. And according to Plantz, it worked.
“We’ve gotten 200 e-mails about it, all positive. It’s been a wonderful success.”
Lastly and most importantly, one of the real strengths of the spot is that it uses carefully chosen examples of WBNS’ performance over the years in news, weather, sports, community and local programming to make the point that while times may change, WBNS’s contribution to its viewers and the community hasn’t. I think local TV stations often ignore their history. We often forget that while local TV station owners may come and go, the station itself has been an integral part of the city or town for so many years. Why not highlight the years of service your TV station has made to remind viewers of the long-standing contribution the station’s made to the community? If showcasing history and tradition is good enough for Mercedes Benz and Cadillac to sell cars, then it certainly will work for a local TV station.
At one point WBNS had a documentary on its web site about the making of this promo and WBNS’s anchor, Andrea Camburn, mentions that sometimes in local TV, “we forget to look where we came from, it’s fun to look back.” She goes on to say that she likes the spot because it “reminds people of our legacy here.”
Indeed, what kind of legacy does your station have?
Paul Greeley has over 20 years experience in local TV marketing and was recently the VP of Marketing for a top-20 broadcast company. You can contact him at pgreeley98@aol.com or 817-528-2354.
4 comments:
I remember seeing this one somewhere and being impressed by it. All too often we're told not to make the station look old by referring to our history... yet that's what makes a station - those legacy viewers who then pass the tradition down to their kids. It was a very well done spot. I'm not crazy about the band (they either should have used them a little more or not at all), but I like the rest of it!
I love it. Those HUGE budget New York image promos could take a lesson from this middle market station. And if you do the math, it's way beyond 50 years.
The song may not resonate with every audience, but it seems to fit theirs, and I love the slap zoom past the graphics into the band timed to the hook of the song.
Well-planned, well executed. It don't get much better.
I don't get it. Looks like a spot I've seen in every market all over the country a hundred times!!
Good spot.. sure. Well produced, well edited and a good song.... But the best promo ever?? COME ON!
Paul needs to stop spending so much time trying to make a name for himself.
"We often forget that while local TV station owners may come and go, the station itself has been an integral part of the city or town for so many years."
This quote may give the wrong impression. The same people have been the owners of WBNS since 1949. Another interesting aside is that sister station WTHR in Indianapolis (the Wolfe family has owned the station since 1975) did not use either the band or any historic clips in their version of the promo.
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