Video: Austin station strategically leverages AI tools for ‘Tap that App’ promo

Nexstar Media Group’s KXAN in Austin, Texas, is encouraging viewers to “tap that app” in a new promo that also used a little help from AI.

“This one started as a joke a year ago at an off-site retreat,” noted Erik Candiani, the station’s director of marketing, on LinkedIn.

Candiani wrote the lyrics from scratch and ran it through the AI tool Suno to create a full-length version. 

“However, living in such a music town, we didn’t want to push AI music,” noted Candiani. The station worked with 512 Studios and local artists Vance and Spice to rerecord the song — using the AI’s result as a scratch track. 

The station also used AI to help with “some impressively executed compositing.”

Candiani stressed that AI is a “tool” — in this case it did some of the legwork but ultimately the core creatives were still handled by humans.

• Producer and editor: Seth Skuza
• Camera: Skuza, Riley (no last name specified) and Brooke Blackwood
• Music: Omar Vallejo and Candiani
• Performers: Vace & Spice
• VO: Beau Weaver
• AI: Candiani