Five stations from five different broadcast companies doing five different promos for the same, identical news story. They get 48 hours and must use the material they have in house. What did they come up with? Which one worked best? Now, you can decide. Welcome to the Battle of the Promo Superstars, one of the […]
Five stations from five different broadcast companies doing five different promos for the same, identical news story.
They get 48 hours and must use the material they have in house.
What did they come up with? Which one worked best? Now, you can decide.
Welcome to the Battle of the Promo Superstars, one of the first sessions of its kind at this year’s PromaxBDA Station Summit at The Mirage in Las Vegas.
Moderated by David Baumann, a former station CSD in Detroit, Seattle and Minneapolis, and now marketing and creative director for Stephen Arnold Music, Battle of the Promo Superstars lined up creative services departments from Tegna, Scripps, Tribune, Hearst and Sinclair stations in a fun and creative competition to see what kind of creative approach they would each take to the same news story.
We’ve all seen stories like this, some call them TSRs, Targeted Special Reports, special stories from news during sweeps.
Then the folks in creative services create the promos that hopefully, increase viewership.
Here’s the story they all used. It’s from WCVB, the Hearst ABC affiliate in Boston.
And in each case, the stations came up with a 30-second promo, a :15, an ID and a Facebook promo.
First up was Steve Rifkin, the CSD from WESH, the Hearst NBC affiliate in Orlando. Rifkin said his team wanted to do something simple and straightforward, and get right to the point.
Here’s what Rifkin’s team at WESH did:
Leila Stilwell, the CSD from KGTV, the Scripps ABC affiliate in San Diego, said she wanted her promotion to make an emotional connection.
Here’s what Stillwell’s team at KGTV did:
Mike Hansen from WSYX, the ABC affiliate in Columbus owned by Sinclair, wanted his team’s creative to put the viewer into the story and to promise the truth.
Here’s what Hansen’s team at WSYX did:
Next up was Drew Fowler from KXTV, Tegna’s ABC affiliate in Sacramento, Calif. Fowler said that because his station wasn’t the market leader, his station’s promotion must do it differently. His team looked for the emotion in the story and he said the team found it by getting into the mind of the victim.
Here’s what Fowler’s team at KXTV did:
Last but certainly not least was Adrianne Anderson, CSD at KTLA, Tribune’s CW affiliate in Los Angeles. Anderson said she wanted her team to go simple. She also mentioned that her team researched the story for more information and depth. Her creative has a true crime feel that focused on the system.
Here’s what Anderson’s team at KTLA did:
Which set of promos did you think was the most effective at driving viewers to watch the story? Drop me a line and tell your thoughts at [email protected].
How did WCVB promote the story?
“Our spot is clearly targeting the local Boston viewer,” said Russ Nelligan, WCVB’s creative services director.
“Our investigative reporter, Kathy Curran, asks the very recognizable governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, a pointed question… and we reference a local town, Haverhill. I’m sure those were unimportant aspects to Promax producers but were meaningful to Massachusetts viewers.”
Here’s their version.
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