‘Battle Of Promo Superstars’ Returns To Promax Station Summit

Last week at the Promax Station Summit in Las Vegas, another Battle of the Promo Superstars took place. Four TV station creative services departments were given the same special report investigative story. Each department had 48 hours to turn around a 30-second promo with shorter versions, including one for social media. Check them out.

by Paul Greeley June 25, 2019 9:28 EDT

It’s become a Promax Station Summit favorite.

Last week at the Promax Station Summit in Las Vegas, another Battle of the Promo Superstars took place.

You remember the rules? They couldn’t be simpler.

Four TV stations’ creative services departments are given the same news story.

Each department has 48 hours to turn around a 30-second promo with shorter versions, including one for social media.

Who wins? We all do because we not only see how each department handles the assignment creatively, but we get to understand their strategies as well. How would your station have tackled this story?

L-r: Dave Baumann, marketing and creative director, Stephen Arnold Music; Graeme Newell, president, 602 Communications; Danielle Ray, creative services director, WDAF, Kansas City, Mo.; Terri Peck, station manager KVVU Las Vegas; Sherry Carpenter, creative services director, WJXT Jacksonville, Fla.; Willie Garrett, director of marketing and promotions, KSNV Las Vegas; and
Erin Finnegan, creative services director, WDSU New Orleans.

Hosted by former station CSD Dave Bauman, now at Stephen Arnold Music, Bauman picked a tough news story to promote from WCPO, the Scripps ABC affiliate in Cincinnati. Why? His granddaughter Gracie says it best.

Here’s the news package from WCPO. As many local TV marketers will attest, it’s not every day that they get to promote a news story that is already edited and ready to air.

Yeah, I know, tough story. Dying babies, racial discrimination in the medical field. Not an easy one to promote. That was by design, said Bauman.

Sherry Carpenter, the creative services director from WJXT, Graham’s independent in Jacksonville, was up first to reveal what her station did to promote the story on-air and on social.