You have to hand it to Patrick Hammer, the chief meteorologist for WGRZ, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Buffalo. When asked to wear shorts, a light-weight, short sleeved Hawaiian surfing shirt and loafers outside during a snow blizzard for a promo, he was all for it.
You have to hand it to Patrick Hammer, the chief meteorologist for WGRZ, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Buffalo, N.Y.. When asked to wear shorts, a lightweight, Hawaiian shirt and loafers outside during a snow blizzard for a promo, he was all for it.
“I’ve always felt that news promos have to be memorable,” Hammer says. “The idea behind it was great.”
The idea for the promo came from Dan Myers, the station’s marketing director. Show Hammer under-dressed outside during a storm shoveling snow with the temperature in the teens to make the point that it’s never a good idea to be unprepared for the weather.
The spot aired during the Super Bowl.
Now you would think that picking a day in Buffalo during the winter when it’s snowing could be almost any day, right?
Not so for this promo which aired during the Super Bowl.
“It being Buffalo, it’s not hard to find a snow day,” Hammer says. However, to capture the right snow that can be seen well on camera, you have to pick the right day and have the production team at the right place, at the right time.
Hammer says they had to wait three weeks for the right day.
The spot was shot in Hammer’s backyard to capture that pristine, untouched look.
“He was more than willing to do it, and you have to love on-air talent that understands the value of marketing and promos,” Myers says.
Another WGRZ promo that aired during the Super Bowl and during the Olympics was a 60-second spot for WGRZ’s brand, On Your Side.
“It’s a sampling of the types of stories we cover here at WGRZ, and of course, we do it across so many screens and platforms,” Myers says.
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