One of the more popular sessions, judging by the number of people sitting on the floor and standing in the room, at this year’s PromaxBDA Station Summit was Battle of the Promo Superstars. It was the first of its kind at the summit and judging by the crowd, I predict it will be a continuing […]
One of the more popular sessions, judging by the number of people sitting on the floor and standing in the room, at this year’s PromaxBDA Station Summit was Battle of the Promo Superstars. It was the first of its kind at the summit and judging by the crowd, I predict it will be a continuing session.
The premise is interesting for those of us who have promoted TSRs — targeted special reports — special stories from news to promote during sweeps.
In the Battle of the Promo Superstars, five stations representing five different broadcast companies create five different promos, all from the same 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?
In an earlier article, I shared all of the entries from the five stations, and asked for folks to comment on which one they thought worked best. I did get a few responses and thought I’d share them.
This creative process is really interesting to me. So watching each station’s attempt to create a promo that would drive viewership watch was fascinating.
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.
Nick Jossendal, creative producer for WKMG, the CBS affiliate in Orlando, Fla., owned by Graham Media, chimed in first.
“Longtime reader, first time emailer. I think the battle is close between KXTV and KTLA. While all the others are fine and solid, these are the two that stand out as unique and different. I’d give the edge to KXTV though. Drew Fowler gets it. Keep up the good work.”
Larry Watzman, just settling in as the creative services director at WBNS, the CBS affiliate in Columbus owned by Dispatch, was very succinct in his vote: Adrianne Anderson and Drew Fowler. That would be a vote for KTLA and KXTV, where both are the respective creative services directors.
John McGrath, a voice actor who won the Promax Local Best Voiceover Gold Award, sent in his vote.
“Hi Paul. Enjoyed your article on Promo Superstars. It’s interesting to see the different takes each station took. Personally, I liked the KGTV version the best. Enjoyed the way they told the story in 30 seconds but left questions unanswered that could only be answered by watching the actual report. Also liked their use of graphics and choice of images, such as the screen shot with red highlighted ‘Expired’ in reference to expired training.”
Me? I liked them all. However, I did tell Drew Fowler that his team’s approach was the most unusual. What I liked about it was that it was told from the view point of the victim in the back of the van.
Fowler’s team took a single shot of the interior of the van and did a pull-back with words on the screen. Simple but powerful music track and one single word to entice the viewer: Why?
While admittedly, there were just a few votes, here is the consensus.
KXTV gets two votes, two nods to KTLA and one strong vote for KGTV. Leila Stilwell is the CSD for KGTV, the Scripps ABC affiliate in San Diego.
Congrats to all five stations for being brave enough to enter the battle.
Before I show the three promos, I wanted to include this comment from John Kukla from KDFW, the Fox O&O in Dallas, about Market Share.
“Thank you again for coverage of our Station Summit Social media panel — and our Gold Award “Banjo” spot — got a lot of great response from near and far on both! Really appreciate all you do for our side of the business. In a rapidly changing industry where marketing can get lost in the sea of deals, regulations and ratings, you keep us top of mind. Thank you!!!”
Here’s what Fowler’s team at KXTV did:
Here’s what Anderson’s team at KTLA did:
Here’s what Stillwell’s team at KGTV did:
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