No bold breaking news graphics. (Read how this station banned breaking news from its lexicon). No reporter live shots from nowhere. No mention of traffic or weather at all. In fact, no claims of any kind, except maybe personality. You could say that these new morning news promos from WDRB, the Fox affiliate in Louisville, […]
No bold breaking news graphics. (Read how this station banned breaking news from its lexicon). No reporter live shots from nowhere. No mention of traffic or weather at all. In fact, no claims of any kind, except maybe personality.
You could say that these new morning news promos from WDRB, the Fox affiliate in Louisville, Ky., are the anti-hard news promos. It’s not often you see local TV news promos with heaping helpings of confetti being dumped and thrown around, and anchors dancing and boogieing and playing air guitars.
“The new morning promotion is something I’m proud of,” said Barry Fulmer, WDRB’s VP-director of news.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CX3THp-ob0&list=PLPfQHfTlJrn2fKLIr0YSTG5XLrgeG2MTy
“Every morning show seems to run promotion about waking up, getting coffee and showing the sun rising. It’s cliché promotion,” Fulmer adds. “Every morning show offers news, weather, and traffic. Our goal was to highlight the fact that we deliver news, weather, and traffic, but we also have personality. Not every morning show can say that. We are fortunate to have a great morning team that genuinely like each other. You can’t promote personality and fun if it doesn’t truly exist.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icfAS0WUuKY
While these new promos may make some news marketers, and news managers, gasp, it seems to be a winning formula for morning news viewers in Louisville.
“Well, our morning news has held the No. 1 spot from 5-9 a.m. – in households, adults 18-49 and adults 25-54 – for a couple of years now,” wrote Ray Foushee, WDRB’s director of marketing, research and publicity.
The station even managed to hold onto that No. 1 title in February despite an unusually strong performance by the NBC affiliate, which enjoyed an Olympics surge in The Today Show ratings.
I think the use of super slow-motion juxtaposed against real-time video and the hand-drawn graphics make the spots very eye-catching. The music is great and it’s hard not to toe-tap along. It you ask me how I feel when watching these, I’d say happy.
“The response from our viewers has been overwhelmingly positive,” Fulmer says. “Viewers have noticed the difference and we are proud and appreciative to be Louisville’s No.1 morning newscast.”
Comments (0)
Reader Interactions