WDAF

Two local TV news directors and a general manager attended the Promax Station Summit last month in Las Vegas. After you read what they have to say about it, this may start a trend. “I am really glad I went,” said one. “To me, having both the news director and creative services director there to hear the same information is key,” said another. “I was taking notes like a fiend.”

When you think about it, few careers demand you be creative every day as much as being in the marketing department of a TV station. So how do local TV creative services directors and marketing managers keep themselves and their staff from getting burned out, stuck? That was the mission of the first-time session, Unstuck, at the Promax Station Summit last week in Las Vegas. Check it out.

At the Promax Station Summit last week in Las Vegas, attendees filled the room for the session Zero Budget Magic, to see how imagination, and little more, is the only currency allowed in spots submitted from stations across the country. Here are all 40 of them.

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.

“Too often, we are promoting our technology and not our people,” said Danielle Ray, the creative services director at WDAF.  “Every station has great technology, but our people set us apart and how they tell the ‘weather story’ is different. That was our inspiration for these promos.”

A new set that resembles a trendy downtown apartment that’s been converted from industrial space is now the workplace for the newscasts at WDAF in Kansas City. “What we ended up with is a mix of old and new, gritty and modern; just like KC,” said Danielle Ray, creative services director.

WDAF Kansas City wanted to thank its 500,000 Facebook fans with a special day of celebration. Problem was, as the day approached, it didn’t have a half million followers. The solution was a 24-hour Facebook Live marathon. “I don’t know that it’s been done before, but to go 24 hours straight on Facebook Live was quite the feat,” said Danielle Ray, WDAF’s creative services director.