Charlotte station drives home the ‘point’ in weather promo

WJZY in Charlotte, North Carolina, is promoting its Pinpoint Weather franchise with a cheerful, upbeat promo that incorporates giant versions of the map marker-like icon found in its logo. 

Charlotte station to drop Fox name from news branding

The station, a Nexstar-owned Fox affiliate, rebranded its newscasts under the name “Queen City News” in January 2022.

“In every game, all it takes is one — point — to win,” the promo begins with the image of the Bank of America Stadium and a giant version of the map marker falling from the sky and landing in the middle of the field.

“Winning the day is no different,” says chief meteorologist Tara Lane.

There is then a combination of shots of different weather talent at locations across the city, with the large marker marking a point somewhere in the scene.

The marker is shown in mixed reality-style in the sense that it casts shadows and reflections on the surrounding environment, has vehicles pass in front of it and, at one point, even has a plane fly through the hole in the middle.

Advertisement

Also included are multiple posed shots of the station’s weather team in various spots around The Green, a small park located in downtown Charlotte. 

Each forecaster takes a turn speaking on-camera about how the station devotes more time and resource s to weather, ensuring accuracy.”

“With facts, getting straight to the point with practical climate science,” Elisa Raffa says. 

“Doing weather better. That’s the point,” Lane says toward the end, using a play on the word “point.”

The spot uses a fast-paced musical been with “I can do it better” lyrics slipped in for brief moments, though it’s not immediately clear where that comes from. There are multiple songs that appear to use the line, but none of them match the sound of what’s in the promo, and it’s possible it’s taken from a production music library.

The Pinpoint Weather banner isn’t used as frequently as some other on-air branding, but it’s still fairly common across the U.S., with many stations using it along with a focus on “hyperlocal” forecasting tools such as technology that can predict when a storefront will reach specific cities or even neighborhoods. 

WJZY’s Pinpoint Weather icon, which forms the “O” as well as an angled accent in the logo lockup, has similarities to Google’s famous red map marker, which is trademarked, though it’s not uncommon to see similar designs used in a variety of applications. The station, like many other organizations using similar icons, has modified the shape to remove the curves before the point forms.