Leslie Lyndon was honored with the Industry Icon Award at the PromaxBDA Station Summit last week for her distinguished service to the Fox stations, her network colleagues and syndication partners. Lyndon retired from the Fox Television Corporate office where she was the VP of Advertising and Promotion for the past 18 years. Fox Television Stations […]
Leslie Lyndon was honored with the Industry Icon Award at the PromaxBDA Station Summit last week for her distinguished service to the Fox stations, her network colleagues and syndication partners.
Lyndon retired from the Fox Television Corporate office where she was the VP of Advertising and Promotion for the past 18 years.
Fox Television Stations CEO, Jack Abernethy, presented the award to Lyndon at a packed luncheon at The Mirage Hotel, where the PromaxBDA Station Summit was held.
“While she is way too young to receive a lifetime achievement award,” said Abernethy, “there is no one more deserving.”
The day before she was to receive the award, I sat down with Lyndon at her suite to talk about her career and local TV marketing.
What are you going to do now that you’re retiring?
Doing almost absolutely nothing. I think I’ve earned the right to take a full year off.
What was your day like as VP of advertising and promotion for the Fox stations?
There was no such thing as a typical day. Every day was different. Every day you didn’t necessarily know what was going to come up. I got in at around 7 a.m. because we had so many stations on the East Coast and you just start running from the moment you get in.
My job wasn’t just working with the local creative director, but also any number of company initiatives as a project manager.
What was your interaction like with the local Fox creative services directors?
When I first started, I spent a lot of time looking at creative, looking at the stations’ on-air schedules to see how they were promoting their stations, were they using their on-air inventory in the most advantageous way.
In the last five years, I did very little of that.
The business has really changed a lot. Especially in the past 10 years. Most of us started off in this business being promo cutters, writers and producers, that’s what we were all about, trying to create a great spot. My job and the creative services directors’ jobs have changed a lot in the last 10 years. Now, you really have to be able to multitask. And not multitask into doing a good spot, you really have to become a true marketer. And really understand your market.
For me it really changed, we built an in-house media unit and we developed a graphics hub which many of the groups now have.
Were you interested in how the local Fox-owned stations were promoting their news?
All dayparts, but news is our No. 1 priority. Every once in a while, I might tell somebody that their positioning statement didn’t work for them. But in the end, I thought it was up to them and their general manager.
I always felt that the creative services directors were in that job for a reason. They’re going to know their product better than I’m ever going to know it, so when I would look at news spots, it was with an eye, does that work?
Do the Fox-owned stations have a particular style and tone to their news marketing?
No, I don’t really think so. It depends upon the market, every market that I worked with would do what was right for their market.
Some broadcast groups attempt to standardize their stations’ marketing, is that a good idea?
We didn’t do that. How can you do that? Every market is different. I can’t imagine trying to do that.
There are some things that you can do, you can have the same music, I think you can have the same graphic look, but I think you always have to do what is right for your market. And what’s right for Philadelphia may not be right for Dallas, for example.
In general, are TV stations more effective now than they were then in attracting new news viewers?
I think that’s like comparing apples to oranges. It was a different time 20 years ago.
Then, it was about creating a great spot and getting your anchors out there with the public.
You use to be able to spend so much time crafting this great spot. Now you have to be very, very, very clear, about what it is that you’re selling.
How has it changed? It’s become so much more work than it ever was.
What are the biggest challenges TV stations face?
That the audience is so fragmented. It use to be that if you used your on-air inventory correctly, you could really speak to a lot of people. But now, so many people DVR, they’re never seeing your spots, so you have to go off channel to reach them. It is very difficult to reach your viewers now.
How has local TV news marketing changed over the years?
I don’t think there’s anything different about news promotion in general.
Often it’s still the same. Using clichés like ‘it’s every mother’s nightmare’, all these over-blown terms. People don’t believe in that anymore, they don’t fall for that, so in many cases there’s not enough change.
There’s got to be away to promote news where you can just be natural. Tell it to them in a way that they won’t feel like you’re blasting them over the head, that was the ’80s (laughs).
Advice for creative services directors as you retire?
You can’t do it by yourself, you really have to work as a team whether it’s with other people at your station or in your group.
Everything’s changing so fast, that unless you’re open to building those alliances, and really working with other people, you won’t survive in the business.
The only reason I survived in this business so long is because I tried to treat people the way I wanted to be treated.
To read more about Leslie Lyndon, her career, and why she was chosen to receive the PromaxBDA Industry Icon Award, click here.
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