WVUE New Orleans' Louisiana’s Own campaign began with music and lyrics created by General Manager Joe Cook.“I know general managers are supposed to be logical, bottom-line oriented,” Cook says, “and I am, but I also wanted to do something to lift the emotions of this area for all it’s been through since Katrina.”
MARKET SHARE BY PAUL GREELEY
At WVUE, Promos Can Start At The Top
It’s unusual for a general manager of a TV station to suggest to the creative services director that the station do a ‘feel-good’ music image campaign. Rarer still for a GM to bang-out the lyrics for it. And it’s really unheard of for a GM to actually come up with the music, too.
But then again, I guess we shouldn’t be that surprised, this all happened in New Orleans.
“I hummed the melody for him over the phone,” said Joe Cook, the general manager of Fox affilaite WVUE, describing how he called a musician friend, Jack Miele of Fudge Recording, to get him started on the music for what would become Louisiana’s Own.
WVUE, Louisiana’s Own, Version 1
Miele says Cook called and told him he had this idea for a song.
“He said he wanted it to be a minute long, and for it to be slow and lazy, with a ‘floating down the river’ kind of feeling.”
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Miele says he told Cook to hang up and call him back so he could record Cook humming the melody on his phone. Several phone calls later, the team had collaborated the timing, the chords, the keys and lyrics before Miele brought in some musicians to record a rough cut with Miele doing the singing.
“I know general managers are supposed to be logical, bottom-line oriented,” Cook says, “and I am, but I also wanted to do something to lift the emotions of this area for all it’s been through since Katrina.”
Once the music was fully produced, it was up to WVUE’s promotion manager, Blaine Strawn, to add the images. Strawn, a former news photographer, says he listened to the song a hundred times to visualize what those images should be.
“Everything except the talent shots was shot on the fly,” Strawn says. “I knew what I wanted to shoot and where to go, but some shots were just dumb luck.”
Using a Canon Mark III 5-D camera, Strawn says he shot a street car scene from the sun roof of his car (someone else was driving) and stopped on the causeway on his way home from work to capture a pelican lifting off from a piling. The shots of people sitting around eating were taken at the annual station crawfish boil.
WVUE, Louisiana’s Own, Version 2
“We’re locally owned [by Louisiana Media Co.],” Strawn says, “so we wanted something that reflected our home and the pride people have for it.”
Viewers have responded well to the tune, posting comments on Fox 8’s Facebook page.
“This gives me chills…. I absolutely LOVE IT!!!! It gives a look at the lives and family’s of Ch.8’s family, and makes the people we love to get our news from just that much more personal to us!!! Great job, ALL THE WAY AROUND!!!!!!!!!”—Charlene Tyre Sibley
“Beautiful sceneries, peaceful music playing in the background and just pure New Orleans!!! Love it, FOX 8.”—Melanie C. Dennis
“LOVE those promo’s! Hope you make more! Just Beautiful!”—Debbie Tabor-Gros
Louisiana’s Own isn’t the first time WVUE has used its airwaves to make a musical connection with Southern Louisiana viewers. In 2012, it launched a song, March On, intended to fire up New Orleans Saints fans.
Prior to that, the station launched the music video, Big Thang, to celebrate the Saints’ road to its 2010 Super Bowl victory.
But Cook says he had a specific goal in mind for Louisiana’s Own. “We wanted something soothing and positive. So for 60 seconds, people in New Orleans can feel good about themselves and their heritage. And that’s not a bad thing for a TV station to do.”
According to Cook, WVUE was the highest-rated Fox affiliate in primetime in the country in February 2013 (among metered markets).
WVUE’s 9 p.m. newscast is one of the top-rated Fox affiliates in the country.
And WVUE’s 10 p.m. newscast, started in May 2010, is very competitive, “coming very close to catching the former powerhouse station in the market in February,” according to Cook.
***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** *****
Correction: In last week’s column about WPVI’s Action News in Philadelphia, I wrote that in February 2013, Action News was the No. 1-rated newscast and then listed several time periods. I stand corrected: Action News was first in every time period.
Market Share by Paul Greeley is all about marketing and promotion at TV stations and appears every Monday. If you have some ideas or stories you want to share, please let me know. You can reach Paul Greeley at [email protected] or at 817-578-6324.
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