Goodbye Wendy

This week, our main anchor of 20 years is leaving WESH. Wendy is a fantastic person who will be missed. Here is a spot we put together to promote her last newscast:

Gotta Love a Talkin' Baby

These spots from E-Trade are pretty darn funny:

RIP Funniest Spot Ever

Sorry to say - but a spot I put up earlier this week is now gone.

We're F'ing #1! --- may you rest in peace.

Funny stuff.

This makes me angry.

I know I should go easy on what appears to be a very small market... but these promos are not only poorly done - they make no sense. What's the marketing message?

If I were to receive a resume tape with these spots on it - I would burn it. No - wait, I would hire the person just so I could yell at them and then fire them 20 minutes later. This is not the kind of work anyone who wants a job in television should be doing. These promos are probably from someone new to the business so I should give them some slack - but damn it, these spots suck so bad - no slack should be given! I'm kinda kidding about all this - but I really do think this is the worst I've ever seen.

Read the "intro" written by the producer, as posted on youtube:

So in September of '07 I pitched a crazy idea for a bunch of weather promos for the station. The story is far to long to tell, so I'll sum up by saying that I got the approval to go for it, and I did. The reaction to the spots were so amazing, it seemed that everyone was talking about them. People either loved them and hated them, but either way... they were talking about them. These are those crazy funny spots.

Here... ugh... are the "crazy, funny" spots:













This is the very definition of spots made for the producer - not for the audience. There is no way these were based on anything that makes sense to real marketers.

The only thing I want to know from the producer is - who is your dealer? They are selling you some really good shit.


WAIT!! THIS JUST IN!!! Here is further proof this producer is smoking the good stuff. Actually, this may actually be his dealer.

WARNING! DO NOT WATCH THIS SPOT. aka "We're #1 POP"

It has been said that POPs are more for stroking our own egos than anything.

Here is a spot that in my opinion is a wee bit overly boastful.

:)

WARNING! Contains foul language. Stop if you don't want to hear it. If you are easily offended - don't watch. Turn down your speakers at work and for God's sake don't let that uptight ass who works in the next cubicle hear this. IDOPROMOZ is not responsible for you getting fired or for your ears bleeding.

You have been warned.

Interesting?

I can't tell if this is a good idea or just comes across as a lame stunt. There's something creepy about it to me. Maybe I'm just jaded.

This is from the competition here in Orlando:

Reason #825 to NOT do your teases live

Hopefully this doesn't get pulled as well...

Sacramento Spots

Our friend Drew Fowler from CBS 13 in Sacramento sent me this link and would like your opinion on these spots.




Here is Drew with the marketing objectives that helped create this campaign:

The marketing objective on this is two-fold, and probably not alot different from most marketing plans for stations going up against a dominant market leader. First was differentiation. We needed to differentiate in both style and substance...which begged for the black and white look... as well as the sparseness of the promos. Most news promos are cut as fast as they can, and written from a perspective of "What we got" instead of "What's important to you". To differentiate, we decided to slow down to an almost uncomfortable level for most of us.

Second, we knew we needed the campaign to be a bit controversial, and make every spot work for us, and the brand.

So.. Teasers and talent walk-ons were the most simple.. and certainly a starting place.

The teasers were designed with the idea of, what's the sound that makes you look at the TV from whatever you're doing? The answer, to us, was silence. When the TV stops making sound, it's more jarring than almost any other noise! So.. I'd agree that from a production standpoint, these would PLAY better with music or production values.. but that wasn't the point. The point was to grab you and get you actively saying in your mind... what the hell was that? Even better to be saying: What the hell are those guys DOING??

In a small way, they were MEANT to be a little frustrating.. and to get people guessing about what they meant.

The second phase, with the talent walks.. was a simple reveal. Ask the question.. intro talent... reveal the brand line. Totally agree that music would have played these up ... but we wanted these spots to be sparse and simple. If you had walked away from the first phase humming music, rather than saying "Asking Question. Getting Answers." we would have failed!

As you see, the next few phases intro music in, and higher production values. Although I will say that we haven;t even begun to tap where we're going on these spots.

The big idea is to get the branding out there in a way that means something to viewers... we're only 5 months into this, and it's starting to take hold!!