Chicago station promotes its weather coverage as ‘(fill-in-the-blank)’s very own’

WGN is known for its longtime tagline “Chicago’s very own” — but a new weather promo is emphasizing the fact that you don’t live in the Windy City proper to still have its forecasts be your “very own.”

The spot features on-camera appearances from Paul Konrad, Demetrius Ivory, Tom Skilling, Alyssa Donovan, Morgan Kolkmeyer, Mike Janssen and Tim Joyce.

Lead by the station’s Director of Creative Jeff Wilson, Senior Promo Producer C.J. Dugan and Art Director Kristi Ikemire Stone were responsible for much of the hands-on work.

This included shooting talent in a variety of locations around the viewing area ranging from the shorts of Lake Michigan to cow pastures in less than two weeks. Ironically, creating the weather promo also proved challenging thanks to wild swings in temperature, which ranged from the 30s to 90s, according to Wilson.

Short clips of the weather team saying a few words from the script is strung together as: “WGN is known as Chicago’s very own … but severe weather can strike … anywhere. So wherever you live, when you turn to us for your forecast, think of WGN as … Bolingbrook’s very own, Norridge’s very own, Waukegan’s very own, Whiting’s very own, Schaumburg’s very own, Tinley Park’s very own, Batavia’s very own.”

All of these are the names of cities, villages and towns within the Chicago DMA and metro area.

Many of the shots were filmed in front of one of the municipality’s water towers or storage tanks, which are traditionally decorated with its name on the side.

Others included locations such as in front of a flagpole flying Bolingbrook’s city flag, Waukegan Harbor and the distinctive Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory building.

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There’s then an animated map of Chicagoland with a marker indicating the station’s physical location, along with a collection of red markers scattered across the area followed by indoor shots of the station’s weather team at work both in the station’s weather office and on-set.

Finally, there is a composite view created using the station’s talent portraits set against a blurred image of the station’s weather office, part of which is a familiar sight to many viewers. 

The promo is particularly effective at clarifying that while the station may brand as being “Chicago’s,” it still serves a much wider area that extended even beyond the immediate suburbs of the city.

Waukegan, for example, is considered a suburb of the Windy City, but is about 40 miles away to the far north of the state, almost in neighboring Wisconsin. 

The message that the station serves more than just the city is particularly important when it comes to weather. The Chicago metropolitan area is known for its wide range of weather conditions that can often change on a dime, thanks in large part to both its size and how geographic features such as the Great Lakes affect conditions. 

The promo also has the possibility, if it hasn’t been explored already, of being an ongoing campaign, with locations swapped out and combined with new ones to further drive home the point that the station serves numerous areas.