In the history of television, no award has been so meaningless... so "who cares" so... "so what?" than the IDOPROMOZ Station of the Year Award!!!
It's not something you'd put on a resume, heck - its not even something you can put on your shelf(the physical award itself, like so many these days, costs so much money that stations don't dare try and expense one for the front lobby)
This is the 2nd annual IDPSOTYA - so maybe, just maybe, it will one day mean something.
Anyways -- it does mean something to me. I mean this "award" with great sincerity. Last year, WCCO was the winner. This year - its a station that has seen incredible ratings growth and has inspired many of us in promoland.
That station is WBZ in Boston.
Led by the very talented Wendy McMahon, this year WBZ launched one of the best campaigns in recent memory -- the Curious campaign.
Their promotion is smart, classy and clever.
Check out their year-ender spot. Most stations would string together some footage and soundbites -- put it to some cool music and call it a day.
Oh! But not the 2nd annual winner of the IDPSOTYA(copyright 2008)!!!
http://wbztv.com/video/?id=70566@wbz.dayport.com
Once again - clever, simple and nothing like the typical promo. That's how they look at all of their advertising.
WBZ is creating a personality for their station. WBZ is funny, smart and treats the audience with respect.
If WBZ was a person - wouldn't you want to hang out with them? Apparently Boston does. Their ratings have seen some incredible growth.
Funny how that works, eh?
8 comments:
Good choice. Really like their stuff. The year ender is a nice spot. Clever, and fresh.
I think it fits them. They are definitely consistent. The only problem is it doesn't sell their coverage. Isn't the point to say, "hey, here's what happened this year and we were on top of it." Give viewers a sense you are the only station to watch in the coming year?
Was a nice spot though. They stand out and I imagine connect with viewers.
That's an interesting debate -- is the spot missing the mark by not selling the coverage?
I think that's where the rest of us may need to get on board. I can argue both sides - but my take on it is this:
Do viewers wonder "Did WBZ cover the election? the gas prices? etc?" Of course not. They assume all the stations did coverage on these hot button issues.
This is the classic "It's not about us... it's about the viewer." Forget selling your coverage - the audience assumes you covered it.
What WBZ is doing is going beyond the "we cover the news" and making a real connection -- which I believe will do wonders for them.
Now, I'm not saying WBZ is the end all and be all of TV promotion - but they are on to something. It will be interesting to see how they continue to grow.
loved it.
good work.
and congrats to jeff on the move to chicago :-)
I'll add on to the discussion. Young people rebel only when they feel they are being disrespected. Most modern newscasts disrespect youth by either wasting their time or belittling their intelligence. WBZ decides it's going to talk human to human--for real, not just in name only because they can see through that--and guess what? The once-alienated young audience comes back.
And what's the point in going for the absolute lowest common denominator when intelligence directly relates to income? In essence, because WBZ is going for a smarter audience, they have to get better results for their advertisers. It should be a no-brainer, really.
Great...another spot that makes me read the whole thing.
I like the Houston YearEnder more...I got a better sense of how they covered stories, the sots kept me engaged the whole 2:00 and I just felt more of an emotional connection.
The WBZ spot was cute but I kind of zoned out after about :15.
If I wanted to read, I'd grab a book. Otherwise, I'll just go back to playing games with my kids.
I guess I'm not hip enough.
p.s. I'm not from Texas
I think some promo people concentrate too much on selling the coverage. Everyone else in town covers the same story, albeit usually irrelevant news, but what do I know.
Put it this way, if you're doing great coverage each and every day, your station shouldn't NEED to prove itself constantly in its promotions.
The folks at WBZ defintiely get this. And their promos stand out for it, because instead of shouting at you they're just talking. Or in Jack Williams' case, bouncing.
Selling coverage? C'mon. The average viewer thinks we all cover the same stuff. WBZ knows this and has decided to try to win the popularity contest instead of the coverage contest.
Smart.
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