creative services

I got an email from Tina Veon, the creative director at KDKA, the CBS-owned affiliate in Pittsburgh, saying that the station did a PSA with some former Steelers/Pens/Pirates players to honor the real life heroes in her town and did I want more info about it. I told her yes, that if she gave me some background, I’d share her story but I would also tell her my Mean Joe Green story.

Project Community: Day of Giving, raised $1.2 million, the equivalent of more than 6 million meals for area communities. It was the largest single day fundraising in the station’s 62-year history.

I wanted to know how a TV station’s creative services/marketing department could function when each member of its staff had to work from home. I know this is how things work now, but I couldn’t imagine how it is accomplished. So I reached out to a couple of station marketing directors to hear how they were managing working from home. In addition, I asked each if they would allow their staff to pen a few lines about their experiences working from home.

One doesn’t normally think of local TV news and its marketing as a source of inspiration. But lately, it’s had its moments.

“Normally for a big celebration like this, we would gather a bunch of people and put them on the set and bring out a cake and really celebrate,” said Andrew Felix, WEAU’s creative services director. “However, because of COVID-19 and social distancing we had to do things differently.”

“With so many schools canceled and families looking for way to keep their students engaged we were proud to offer this learning opportunity to our community,” said Ike Walker, KVLY’s general manager.

Erik Candiani, marketing director for Gray’s NBC affiliate, said this spot took the entire team to put together, running from one side of the DMA to the other, coming together to shoot 30 people. “This is the kind of message everyone needs right now,” said Candiani.

“I can think of no greater use or public service of a station’s promotion inventory than bringing helpful content to our community during this critical time,” said Scott Brady, WDRB’s VP of creative services.

“In less than a calendar year, we’ve had more than a dozen tornadoes in May, a mass shooting in August and a worldwide pandemic in March,” said Jason Doyle, the creative services director at WDTN, Nexstar’s NBC affiliate in Dayton, Ohio.

KSHB, Scripps NBC affiliate in Kansas City, is seeing and sharing the stories of people helping each other through the coronavirus.  It’s part of a campaign called We See You, that recognizes and honors those who are making contributions to others.