WJXX

WJXX and WTLV, Tegna’s ABC and NBC affiliates in Jacksonville, Fla., ran a two-week on-air campaign promising viewers that something big was coming. What was coming was four years and $1 million in the making, and it was going to be revealed live during the evening news.

Google the “best holiday TV commercials for 2021” and you’ll get quite a few links to sites that have singled out the best from their point of view, both from here in the U.S. and overseas. Here are some that made most of the lists.

Here’s a spot from Darcy Stapleford, senior news promotion producer for KSTU, the Scripps Fox affiliate in Salt Lake City. “Our anchor, Kelly Chapman, suggested we shoot our holiday promo at a light display this year,” Stapleford says. “I began to think how colorful lights on long, dark, winter nights is a good comparison to finding love, hope and inspiration during the dark days of the COVID-19 Pandemic.”

WJXX and WTLV,  Tegna’s ABC and NBC affiliates in Jacksonville, created a 60-second spot that captured the “sense of family and joy in a sincere way, like from our family to yours through iconic imagery,” says Kristen Joyal, WJXX/WTLV’s marketing director.

There’s so much uncertainty and controversy about students returning to school. How is your station covering the return to school for students? How is your station promoting that coverage? However they go back, how do you have their back?

An unvaccinated viewer watching a newscast on First Coast News in Jacksonville says she was so “confident with the information it gave” that she scheduled and received a vaccine. Not only that, but she sent First Coast News an email thanking them. The station then turned the email into a testimonial spot.

“Testimonials are your best research audience,” says Kristin Joyal, marketing director for WTLV and WJXX in Jacksonville, Fla. “It doesn’t get more honest or closer to the truth at a time when people demand it.”

Having the veterans tell their stories from the deck of USS The Sullivans is a key visual element of a special program WJXX is airing tomorrow, Voices of Valor WWII 75 Years Later.

In 2020, local TV news branding and marketing was very different. What about in 2021? What messages are you crafting about your news coverage?

Marketing at TV stations across the country is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts in 2020. In this first of a multi-part series, I share the work — and the thinking behind it — of local TV marketing executives to see how it’s changed to reflect the news events so far this year.