Promo roundup: ‘Weather can change everything,’ unique audio and taking ‘action’

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Here’s a look at some news promos created by stations across the country.

KMOV ‘Weather can change everything’

In this beautifully shot promo, KMOV chief meteorologist Steve Templeton is shown contemplating potentially angry skies while providing narration. Striking black and white imagery and unique camera angles, framing and moves all combine to create a well-crafted promo. A splash of red thanks to the station’s “First Alert” branding at the end creates an additional striking look.

Produced by Danielle Reeves and Tom Zupanci with videography by Daniel Martinez, Gary Womack and Josh Robinson, the promo was edited by Marianne Desrochers and features graphics and special effects by Steven Hasvold. Local St. Louis band “The Viv” provided the music (Scott Dubitsky and Michael Calcara). KMOV creating and marketing director Danielle Ruth Reeves helped lead the creative team behind the spot.

WKBT ’70 years and counting’

Featuring a look through the station’s logo history, this promo for WKBT in La Crosse, Wisconsin, this simple but effective promo outlines the station’s commitment both past and present.

WKBT ‘News 8 Now This Morning’ 

In this series of promos, also from WKBT, “News 8 Now This Morning” anchor Alexandra Carter takes viewers on a walk through the studio, down the street and a brief spin in a car.

Chris Hussey, director of marketing and creative services, acknowledges the promos’ unique style. “If you don’t experiment, you don’t know where the edges of the promotional envelope are,” he wrote in a LinkedIn post spotlighting the spots. 

“They’re different than your standard newscast promos, but that’s kind of the point. Yes, the copy is target customer directed. (T)hat’s essential, but the presentation, to me is different,” he continues.

Unlike most promos, these spots don’t feature much in the way of flashy graphics or hard-hitting or inspirational music. Instead, the promos are shot in a “natural” style — almost if captured by a smart phone as a short or video clip posted to social media. The audio purposefully includes “dead” air with white ambient noise, which is quite effective at standing out among the usually more slickly controlled sounds heard on TV (even TV news doesn’t often include this much nat sound of “silence.”).

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KFSN ‘Taking Action Together: Live at Six’

ABC-owned KFSN in Fresno, California, is airing this dramatic promo featuring a collection of studio and field footage, most of it shot behind-the-scenes style. 

The theme of the promo is the station’s “Taking action together” tagline, itself a spin-off of its “ABC 30 Action News” branding — and the promo manages to convey a sense of teamwork in newsgathering after a brief ramp-up into the action.

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