What if you could find loyal viewers of your morning news and get them to tell you why they watch?

What would they say to describe the value they get from watching your morning news and on-air personalities?

“They know the information I want and need.”

“They make me feel connected.”

“I love who they are as people.”

“I trust them, and they’re part of my family.”

A new marketing campaign from KING, Tegna’s NBC affiliate in Seattle, features viewers who have a strong relationship with the station’s morning newscast.

Jay Yovanovich, KING’s marketing director, says the viewers used in this testimonial campaign reached out to the station to say they love watching the morning news. “They left a voicemail or an email or some sort of viewer comment.”

Yovanovich says he tracked down a half dozen of these passionate viewers, got to know them and made them feel comfortable sharing their experiences.  

“Since they reached out to us, these viewers were much more in tune with what value KING’s mornings news had for them,” he says. “I love the way this campaign came together because it’s very introspective, very visual, and very personal. It links to the value of our people and the value of what we do in the morning.”

Kudos to Yovanovich and his team for making sure they were aware of viewers’ phone calls, emails and comments that came into the station and saw the value in them.

Yovanovich says finding those people who are attracted to the KING brand and make it part of their day is special.

“There is authenticity with someone saying these words and being so authentic on TV,” he says. “I don’t think you can ever reach the authentic nature of the message without having it come straight from the community. That’s why we really wanted to go that route.”

Great care was taken in the production of the campaign to make it visually stunning. Parts of it are an homage to living in Seattle.

“We were very intentional about shooting everything outside,” Yovanovich says, noting that meant not just the viewers who were on camera, but the morning news talent.

“We felt that the creative message would fly better if we shot our people outside as well,” he says.

Yovanovich says all the footage was shot between 5 and 9 in the morning, the golden hours, giving the spots the warm feeling of a beautiful sunrise.

“It just really, really was this synergy of visual colors that worked well,” he says.

The campaign launched in late August. Yovanovich says the timing of the launch was to take advantage of people’s changing schedules due to kids going back to school.

Thus far, there is a 60-second spot and a couple of 30-second ones with more on the way.

Clearing a 60-second spot on KING’s air took some dealmaking with the sales department.

“But in the digital world I am not constrained by time,” he says. “We get that messaging out there as well.”

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