WJXX Jacksonville

A new testimonial promo campaign from WTLV-WJXX in Jacksonville, Fla., shows viewers there is hope when they have consumer problems.

In the Florida market, Graham Media’s WJXT is the rare independent station that rules ratings. Pictured: Tom Wills arrived at WJXT in 1975, and anchors the independent station’s leading newscasts. (WJXT photo)

WTLV and WJXX, Tegna’s NBC and ABC affiliates in Jacksonville, Fla., turned to their viewers’ testimonials in a powerful new promotional campaign.

Tegna brings him back to its Florida NBC-ABC duopoly to oversee all operations.

She gets the position permanently after being both interim news director and assistant ND at Tegna’s NBC-ABC duopoly in Jacksonville, Fla.

Welcome to another episode of “Checking In,” a Market Share feature in which we survey local TV marketing and creative services directors. Today, we check in with Kristen Joyal, marketing director for Tegna’s WTLV and WJXX, the NBC and ABC duopoly in Jacksonville, Fla., co-branded as First Coast News.

WJXX and WTLV, Tegna’s ABC and NBC affiliates in Jacksonville, Fla., ran a two-week on-air campaign promising viewers that something big was coming. What was coming was four years and $1 million in the making, and it was going to be revealed live during the evening news.

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include openings for an IT manager, a sales and management chief, a digital product manager, a graphic artist, a general manager, a weekend evening and morning co-anchor/MMJ and a weekend meteorologist/MMJ.

An unvaccinated viewer watching a newscast on First Coast News in Jacksonville says she was so “confident with the information it gave” that she scheduled and received a vaccine. Not only that, but she sent First Coast News an email thanking them. The station then turned the email into a testimonial spot.

“Testimonials are your best research audience,” says Kristin Joyal, marketing director for WTLV and WJXX in Jacksonville, Fla. “It doesn’t get more honest or closer to the truth at a time when people demand it.”

Marketing at TV stations across the country is undergoing a metamorphosis of sorts in 2020. In this first of a multi-part series, TVNewsCheck’s Paul Greeley shares the work — and the thinking behind it — of local TV marketing executives around the country to see how it’s changed to reflect the news events so far this year.

Tegna’s NBC-ABC duopoly in Jacksonville, Fla., picks assistant ND to fill the top spot vacated by Meagan Harris last year.