It was doomed from the beginning... a weather channel that wasn't...well, "The Weather Channel."
My station, like dozens of others out there - ran the service and completely rebranded their weather product as Weather Plus.
So... now what? Should local stations abandon the branding on their main station? Will they be forced to?
My thinking is dump it -- but in favor of what? WESH 2 Weather?
At least the Weather Plus brand stood out from all the other stations just calling themselves WXXX Weather.
Sure, there's Stormteam. First Alert Weather. Etc...
Anyone have any good ones to share? Will some stations just keep the Weather Plus brand?
6 comments:
Couple ideas:
Cliche Idea
Come up with something cliche like "Live First Alert Doppler 6000 with Nuclear Storm Tracking".
Typical Idea
Brand it with your Station / News Image with "weather" tagged at the end. NBC XX Weather. WESH Weather.
Progressive Idea
Brand it with a niche, web product that's only local weather. I'm serious. Name it after your area code or something short: Like 926WX.com. If you have the biggest online weather brand, it will transfer to the biggest onair weather brand.
The biggest competition for weather today is weather.com. The only way to beat them is with an accurate and an easier-to-use local site.
If you're branding is WXXX News, why not WXXX Weather?
Since O-town is so humid, how about "Your Convection Oven Forecast Team"?
I never got why stations went with the "Weather Plus" brand anyway. Weather plus what? Were they obligated to change so they could carry Weather Plus?
Also, do you now go after another weather provider like Accu-weather and put their wx channel on air or do you go black? How many people actually turn to these weather channels?
The best thing would be to do a local version of something like this.
http://umbrellatoday.com/
The problem I have with Weather.com and all the local weather widgets and station websites is that they give me way more info than I need. Up front, I need weather now, the rest of the day, and the rest of the week. That's how I'd structure it. Three buttons you can click on. If you have a wide enough viewing area, then put a zip code box like this one.
call it:
WXXXWeatherNow.com
maybe even make it where you can automatically put your zip on the end and it will bypass the box.
WXXXWeatherNow.com/76221
i think the idea is silly anyways since you're telling people to go everywhere but your newscast to get weather. we do the same with accuwx here, and i think it's dumb.
What's wrong with WESH 2 weather? After all, most weathercasts are all the same anyway.
Since many viewers are going to go online for the forecast instead of waiting after the break, you might as well stear them to YOUR website, instead of all the other choices out there.
You'll need mobile options too. But products that offer hyperlocal options are your best bet. My neighborhood, my street, zip code, etc.
Because who really has time to look out a window?
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