KMOV St. Louis increased viewership for its morning and late news in the fall of 2022. Scott Diener, KMOV’s news director, says since Danielle Ruth Reeves arrived as CSD, “her team has done a great job with the marketing.”
KMOV, Gray’s CBS affiliate in St. Louis, put a plan in place in August and September of 2022 to increase viewership to the station’s morning news, according to Danielle Ruth Reeves, KMOV’s creative services director.
“As far as strategy goes, I sat down and looked at the entire year for opportunities that would be higher yield for us,” Reeves says.
She says that strategy included shifting money for outside media to more nontraditional months, like August and September.
“We did a bigger effort around back-to-school, did some different outside media with that including email blasts,” Reeves says. “We saw that was effective.”
KMOV’s morning news from 5 to 7 was No. 1 in the time period both months among adults 25-54, according to the station.
Not bad results considering Reeves has been with KMOV for only a year.
Scott Diener, KMOV’s news director since 2016, says the success in the time period speaks volumes for the marketing.
“Mornings can be a challenge as a CBS affiliate,” Diener says. “We certainly moved up and made things a lot tighter. Winning a few months against the perennial longtime leader in the market is great.”
Reeves says when she started a year ago, she saw an opportunity to create a clear marketing message focusing on the strengths of the news department.
“The content is all there,” Reeves says. “Scott and his department do a really fantastic job. They have seen a steady increase in ratings over the last three years, just slow and steady.”
The missing piece was marketing, she says. “It was a great opportunity for me to come in and work with really talented teams who were already doing fantastic work and just amplify their voices and their mission.”
KMOV’s 10 p.m. newscast is trending up as well. In November, KMOV was first in households, and has won eight of the last 12 months in adults 25-54, according to the station.
Pretty good performance in spite of the lead-in. “We tend to be in third place on prime at 9:45,” Diener says. “It just means we are recruiting people from other areas, which I like.”
“Our late news saw an increase three times our lead-in,” Reeves says. “We are really pleased with those numbers at 10.”
Reeves says the station has done a lot marketing over the last year for the 10 p.m. news, focusing on content like targeted special reports.
In addition, the station promoted the late news talent and their connection to the city, Reeves says.
“They have some really cool stories to tell and they care a lot about this place,” Reeves says.
Diener says the success of the 10 p.m. news, is “about being consistent not only in sweeps periods, but outside of them. We have a very focused yearly plan — annual, monthly, daily.”
That consistency includes investigative reports in the 10 p.m. news year round, Diener says.
“We work with Daniele’s team in marketing them ahead of time,” he says. “Daniele has put a great group of people together who work with us glove in glove about how to make things marketable.”
A change in the station’s weather brand and how it is being creatively marketed may be contributing to the station’s success.
Reeves says she wanted to create an image for the station’s weather department that was memorable.
“It’s not something that you kind of just watch and then it is in one ear and out the other,” Reeves says. “It’s something you watch and you remember and that was really our mission with that campaign.”
Diener says since Reeves arrived, “her team has done a great job with the marketing. They are very creative. I like to say I am the big J guy, Daniele is the big M gal, and together we jam.”
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