How effective are local news promos?

[cinehead]

The Boston Globe asked the question, here's the story:

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2008/02/27/how_effective_are_the_promo_spots_airing_on_local_ tv/

[RollTide98]

I'm not a huge fan of WHDH's format, but I liked the promo here. The others are forgettable.

Promos certainly can be effective... Viewers in my market seem to know our station is the only one in town with a chopper. But I think stations as a whole can often lean toward being too self-serving with promotions. Our goal should be to affirm our brand and build audience, without making people roll their eyes.

Perhaps the best promo I've seen was done by WBNS in Columbus, Ohio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijLAPCGTAY0

[Gil]

I always liked, "Watch our news or we'll kill this puppy."

[INLANDNEWS]

Promos are way overrated and overhyped

[TV Dad]

Promos get too much credit for helping when things are going good and they get too much of the blame when things aren't going so well.

[Bureau Chief]

I still like the "Doppler Dead Zone " promo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJH-nvnCqLI

Alot depends on WHO produced the spot. Amateurs and burn out cases make for bad tv. You need someone with "vision".

[Sigonfile]

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ta6lzlz0gT8

[Roy Hobbs]

How Long is a Chinaman's name?
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/e/ea/Ben_and_Hop_Sing.JPG/300px-Ben_and_Hop_Sing.JPG

Seven letters, apparently.

[TVNewsLady]

I think because we're in the middle of such a changing culture in TV news, it's hard to get a Promotions or Creative Services department to create that right spot. We're trying to draw in an audience that is increasingly distracted by so many different mediums and we aren't sure how to reign them in... many of us are trying to use our websites all we can. I have yet to see a really good promo addressing this new "age of TV", so to speak.

[RollTide98]

Just stumbled onto these great promos from WCCO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYzYpBd4hZI&NR=1

[Sultanosurf]

Promos work. I just hate the formulas. It's always funny to see stations plug in new people using the same verbatim format as their previous talent.

If only creative services really were.

[NewsguyMark]

Key News in Santa Barbara had my favorite: News Happens!

[cinehead]

Promos work. I just hate the formulas. It's always funny to see stations plug in new people using the same verbatim format as their previous talent.

If only creative services really were.


The problem with Promotions is the same problem with News; consultants.
That's why every promo pretty much looks like every other promo.

Just look at promos' distant cousin, the commercial. In the commercial world, the goal is to be different and set yourself apart. If a promo looks too different, the CSD, the ND and the GM will have a heart attack.

[Sigonfile]

Another idiotic thread started by one of Medialine's more idiotic posters.

[The Thrill]

I always liked, "Watch our news or we'll kill this puppy."

http://metaphorical.files.wordpress.com/2007/06/lampoon_national_killdog.jpg

[newz2me]

Many of these promos are just too cheesy and make us look like fools.
A current promo that looks like a flashback to the 70's or something from "Anchorman"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcDYJuAJGjc

[News Is Broken]

Personal Favorite:

"If you don't want to DIE TONIGHT - watch our newscast. If you don't, we'll find you. We know where you live."

[ISTHISTHINGON?]

The number 1 in our town has a few 30 second promo's running now where a "Viewer" talks about how much they love this station.
"I've been watching for years and XXX is like family"
***
I'm no expert, but when #1 starts filling 30 second spots with that crap...me thinks they are worried about losing viewers.

[overthehill]

The success of promos depends on the viewer. With soft core viewers--who would change channels to watch YOUR newscast if they saw a promo--news promos work. For harder core viewers, you can't make any headway.

That's why you need to run great topical promos (about tonight's newscast) during your network's highest rated prime time shows (if there are avails). That's your best chance to get a soft core viewer who usually watches the competition's newscast to JOIN YOU that night.
Even great topical news promos about the best (most watchable) stories in tonight's newscast won't pull a competition's "hard core" viewer to your newscast. Those hard-core viewers are very loyal to the competition. Forget trying to win them over. Research, if you company can afford it, will help you identify which geographic areas and which times to reach soft core viewers who are tempted and act on topical news promotion.

Also realize that most news people are NOT great judges of a good promo.
Face it, we write news copy where we give away the punch line in the lead! A good promo doesn't do that, it truly teases me and makes me want to watch to see more.

Generic, branding promos are good to build character, personalities, but they need to run hundreds of times before anyone really "sees" them (about the time we're really sick of seeing them, the viewer finally sees and retains them).

[Jane Craig]

Generic, branding promos are good to build character, personalities, but they need to run hundreds of times before anyone really "sees" them (about the time we're really sick of seeing them, the viewer finally sees and retains them).

So true. And the other thing to remember about a promo -- like it or not -- is that many times more people will see a given promo than will ever see a particular newscast...

[AutoTranz]

I believe promos work if they are strategically designed and produced to cater to the market in which it is aired. In this business, everything is cookie cutter. What works in New Orleans may not work in Nashville. What works in Oklahoma City may not work in Los Angeles.

But I'd be willing to bet that more than a few strategies have been rinsed off and tried again in a totally different market, market research be damned.

Also, the promo can't sugarcoat the content, neither should the content run away from the promo. When John and Jane Smith are cooking dinner with Oprah in the background, the promos they hear shouldn't attract them to the content if the content is going to leave them disappointed.

I sat in a barbershop and watched that exact thing happen. News promo ran during Oprah, entire shop goes "wow, we gotta see this!". PKG airs, entire shop disappointed at content.

Next time I was in that barbershop, they were watching the other station.

[adam & doctor drew]

yep, the promo often makes the newscast seem better than it is.

instead of trying to come up with the newest, slickest promo, stations should be trying to improve the actual product.

your best promo IS your product.... if people watch it, and it's good, they'll come back.
and they'll tell their friends.

[kneedinthegroin]

The number 1 in our town has a few 30 second promo's running now where a "Viewer" talks about how much they love this station.
"I've been watching for years and XXX is like family"
***
I'm no expert, but when #1 starts filling 30 second spots with that crap...me thinks they are worried about losing viewers.

Because it's all about us. We have to tell you why people have to watch us. No viewer benefit, just more about us. Watch my forecast tonight, only on XX a mother cries, ... us us us us us us.

[The Thrill]

Many of these promos are just too cheesy and make us look like fools.
A current promo that looks like a flashback to the 70's or something from "Anchorman"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcDYJuAJGjc

I think I just threw up in my brain a little bit...

...but what do you expect from a John Shelby shop? :p

[The Fedora]

I absolutely HATE the term "Action News". It. Is. HORRIBLE.

[TokenWhiteGirl]

I don't know about you, but I'm hiring this guy to write my station's next promo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hu4NqbP5Sg4