Archive for the ‘Branding’ Category

CBS L.A. O&O rebrands again

KCBS-TV and KCAL-TV, the CBS owned-and-operated stations in Los Angeles, have been rebranded under the name “CBS Los Angeles” and launched a new Web site that, similar to WCBS-TV in New York, also incorporates the station’s sister radio properties.

The new site, CBSLosAngeles.com, sports a similar look and feel to CBSNewYork.com.

You may recall that last year the two stations were branded under the name “NewsCentral,” a name that lasted about five months.

Alabama station to rebrand

WAAY-TV, the ABC affiliate serving the Huntsville, Ala. area, will become “WAAY 31 First News” on Sept. 13.

The station currently is branded as “WAAY 31 News.”

A significant change is the elimination of a 6 p.m. newscast. Instead, the station will air “Jeopardy!” at 6 p.m., in addition to a repeat episode of the game show at 4:30 p.m. The station is also adding a 4 p.m. newscast and will move its main anchor team to 5 p.m. followed by “World News” (which the station apparently still thinks is called “World News Tonight,” according to its official announcement).

WAAY-TV certainly isn’t the first station to use the “First” moniker and it will be interesting if it manages to beat it to death as many other stations using the name have. Too often the word “first” gets thrown in front of practically every segment title (”First World,” “First Weather,” “First Sports”) and tends to be a bit much. It is worth noting, however, that the addition of a 4 p.m. newscast and moving up its primary early evening newscast to 5 p.m. does support this branding to a certain extent.

The “First” branding concept is perhaps most common with 4 p.m. newscasts running under the banner “First at Four” — a name that works pretty well given its alliteration and the fact that many stations who use it air the market’s only 4 p.m. news.

WCBS-TV rolls out CBSNewYork.com

WCBS-TV has relaunched its online presence as CBSNewYork.com, following NBC’s trend with WNBC-TV.

The new site combines the online side of WCBS-TV and its CBS owned radio counterparts in New York City.

A search engine has also been rolled out as part of the deal to help locals find “everything New York City.” Branded as CBS Local Search, the search engine uses Google for its backend.

WTSP-TV dumps 10Connects

WTSP-TV has dumped its 10Connects brand, in favor of 10News, a brand used in 2002 by the station.

The previous brand, lasted almost two years and was met with some criticism from the start. In a NewscastStudio poll, 55% of users thought the brand was not going to be effective.

Branding and slogan change in the news industry is common place as news directors change and go, but WTSP-TV promoted this change as a new way of covering the story. (more…)

MSNBC hires new ad agency

The Star-Tribune is reporting that Minneapolis-based Mono has been hired as the new ad agency for MSNBC.

Mono is the agency behind MSNBC’s sister cable channel USA Network’s “Characters welcome” tagline. That tagline apparently sits well with both USA Network management and viewers — it’s been in use for five years.

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Stephen Arnold Music helps give KXAS-TV promos a ’sonic brand’

Via UBB, Stephen Arnold Music has posted its Promax|BDA award winning promotional campaign for KXAS-TV.

Uncle Barkley writes, “In these cases, the already ingrained three-note NBC chimes theme is matched to natural sounds from a White Rock Lake bike trail, Billy Bob’s, a McKinney Ave. streetcar and a Frisco Roughriders game.”

Non-Stop Music takes you behind ESPN’s World Cup theme

Non-Stop Music recently posted a video going behind the scenes of its recording session for ESPN’s World Cup theme music.

The theme features an African beat and was performed by a live orchestra with choir members. Lisle Moore composed the them and Judd Maher  produced.

615 Music takes home the Emmy for ‘Your Day is Today’

615 Music won the 2010 Daytime Emmy Award in the Outstanding Original Song category for its recent “Your Day is Today” campaign for the “Today Show.”

“The team here at 615 Music is very proud to have been involved in the making of such a memorable song to promote the “Today” show with NBC. As a company, we are proud of our ongoing relationship with NBC and of the award-winning work we do together,” said Wachtler.

615’s winning song, “Your Day is Today,” was written by Wachtler and songwriter Greg Barnhill for the “Today” Show on NBC, featuring vocals by Paisley Van Patten.

You can listen to the song here.

Inside Stephen Arnold Music’s CNN International work

In a recent release, Stephen Arnold talked about his recent work for CNN International:

”I-Desk is about immersing viewers into breaking stories,” said Stephen Arnold, President of Stephen Arnold Music. ”Since the news can come from anywhere in the world, the theme needed to have a broad reach in terms of instrumentation and orchestration. So our job for a show like ‘I-Desk,’ is to maintain an international flavor, without skewing the sound too heavily towards any one region.”

For “Inside Africa,” Arnold had to create a compelling intro using local beats that worked with CNN’s existing brand.

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CNN turns 30

Thanks to CNNFan.org, an original ad promoting the launch of CNN 30 years ago. CNN.com also has an interactive gallery of the network’s past 30 years.

Massive morning show CONSPIRACY

A user by the name of “Lim” has been commenting on this for the past week, and now TVNewser has picked it up.

This user, and maybe others, believe a vast conspiracy is underway by “Good Morning America” to copy the graphics used by CBS’s “The Early Show” in 2008.

As Alex Weprin of TVNewser noted, “THEY BOTH USE THE COLORS BLUE AND YELLOW. DON’T YOU SEE???”

What are your thoughts? Did ABC draw inspiration from the package?

615 Music nominated for Daytime Emmy

615 Music has been nominated for a 2010 Daytime Emmy in the “Outstanding Original Song” category for its “Your Day is Today” campaign song.

“The team here at 615 Music is very proud to have been involved in the making of such a memorable song to promote the “Today” show with NBC. As a company, we are proud of our ongoing relationship with NBC and of the work we do together,” said Randy Wachtler, president of 615 Music.

The awards will be handed out June 27 in Las Vegas.