News Promos Take A Walk On The Wild Side

“We can be unpredictable, irreverent, and unconventional,” is how WGN’s Morning News anchor Larry Potash characterizes the newscast in Chicago.

“Think of it as the Today show meets David Letterman.”

One of the more outrageous examples of that is this spoof promo that became an Internet sensation — it played like a real promo, Potash says, coming up as the news faded to black to go to a commercial break.

WGN Morning News: We Put the Suck in Succeed

“Viewers loved it, that’s what they expect from us,” claims Potash, saying WGN has played it seven or eight times in the past year.

This style of parody feels more like Saturday Night Live than Letterman.

Not surprising since one of the writer/producers on staff spent part of his career at Second City, which defines itself as “the leading brand in improv-based sketch comedy.”

But it’s just one example of the newscast’s many pre-produced segments lampooning and satirizing itself that have made the Morning News a favorite of Chicago viewers.

So how do you market a morning newscast that’s part hard news and part comedy? Tom Vodick, WGN’s creative services director, promotes it as a “must-watch” event.

“It’s news, weather and traffic but also laughs, the stuff viewers can’t get on any other TV station. [WGN] likes to take a self-deprecating wink at themselves, but they can do that because they have a product that’s different.”

Note the balance Vodick achieves between the hard news and the laughs in this recent promo.

In addition to image spots like this one, Vodick, who’s been in WGN’s marketing department for 10 years, the last three as director, uses what he calls POPicals — part proof of performance and part topical to promote the show.

These POPicals have been airing from Friday to Tuesday, 50 weeks a year, for the past eight years. Do the math — that’s 400 spots using carefully selected clips from the show featuring both hard news and comedy.

As Vodick says, if that doesn’t give viewers an idea of the show’s about, nothing does. “These are not intended to make viewers discover what the show is about because everybody knows. They just reinforce that these people are good.”

“I can’t say this formula would work anywhere else,” Vodick says. He gives all the credit to the chemistry of the staff, especially Potash, co-anchor Robin Baumgarten and weatherman Paul Konrad, all of whom have been together for most of the 17 years the show has been on the air.

In addition to promoting on its own air, WGN uses billboards like this one to keep the irreverent and unconventional side of the morning news talent first and foremost in the minds of viewers.

WGN is also able to take advantage of other Tribune media in the market, like the Chicago Tribune, for print ads like this one.

When the boss moves back your start time so you won’t miss any of WGN’s Morning News, you really do have a newscast that’s a “must watch.”

Hard news and comedy must be a winning formula there in Chicago.

WGN’s Morning News is the No. 1 news from 6 to 9 a.m. among adults 25-54, according to Vodick, who adds that viewers are equally split between men and women.

Postscript

After last week’s review of morning news promos from local TV stations around the country, I got an e-mail from Mike Rausch, director of digital journalism at WKRG, the CBS affiliate in Mobile, Ala., asking if I’d add a few of his station’s examples.

Mike concedes that the “promos are a little out there, but, we hope, memorable.”

Here are a couple examples from the campaign. What do you think?

WKRG — The News 5 Alarm Clock Elimination Team

WKRG — We Do All the Hard Work

And here are a couple of fun spoof news segments created by John Kukla and Tadd Van Cleve and the creative services folks down at KDFW Dallas that played at the Lone Star Emmy Award ceremonies the past couple years. The first, Roast of Social Media, played during the 2010 ceremony and then was submitted for Emmy consideration in 2011 which it won. It has been viewed by more than 339,000 on YouTube.

The second, KYOU News, played during the ceremony in 2012.

Roast of Social Media

KYOU News

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.