Sweeps and Super Bowls

Well it's been awhile since I wrote. Almost a month, in fact. The holidays always seem to tie me up and have their way with me. Then I need a week or two just to recover (and lose weight). I'm finally getting back in the groove at work but it's been tough. I need a good campaign or spot to give me a push in the right direction. It looks like I'll have to deal with sweeps first, however... ***sighs***

Hopefully we'll have some good stories for the Feb. book. I say hopefully because I have no idea what we're doing. Throw in the possibility of the Colts going to the Super Bowl again and the ever present threat of a whopping snowstorm and you've got the potential for an ugly February month, indeed.

Last January and February was an interesting time to work in our promotion office. Three stations originate out of the building where I work and we hub several more. One of those stations happens to be the CBS affiliate which, you guessed it, carried the Colts vs. Bears Super Bowl matchup. I can honestly say I never clocked more overtime in my life. There was one day where I was in at 3:00 AM! We handed out posters at numerous events. To this day our competition still winds up with our posters in their live shots because so many people in the city kept them and put them up in their businesses. Gotta love it.

So if the Colts do the unimaginable and beat the Patriots (unlikely but wouldn't that kick ass?) and go to Phoenix, we'll pull out all the stops again. The only down side is that Fox gets the big game this year. Still, there is nothing like working at a station when the hometown team is in the Super Bowl. It's pretty amazing.

I'll try to be better about posting here this year. I also resolve to upload more of my own work. Hopefully those will be two resolutions I can actually pull off...

Here's one for you

The quality isn't the greatest but here is a promo I was involved in producing. The script isn't mine but I helped with the shooting and editing. And if the voice sounds familiar... that's Scott Rummel. He does movie trailers. Lots and lots of movie trailers. I believe he's the voice for the new TV trailers for I Am Legend and Sweeny Todd.

I posted this one because I beleive it has some of our nicest visuals to date. I'd love to know what you think.

5 voice guys in a limo

I may have mentioned this one before but Ijust have to post it. For anyone that works with voice over guys... you'll love this. And your voice guys (or gals) probably will, too. Ours did. ;-)

It's not a promo...

But it's a fun ad. I laugh every time I see this new Verizon Wireless spot. "Does he... bite? Yeah."

Speechless

I am 100% behind the writers when it comes to the current strike. Studios are trying to screw them over. As much as I hate to miss out on new episodes of my favorite shows (or see some of my new faves not get renewed as a result) the writers still have my full support. That's why I absolutely love the messages several high profile actors are putting out there. This is one of my favorites...



And be sure to check out some of the other clips from the site as well. http://speechlesswithoutwriters.com/ It's nice to see the actors getting behind the people who put the words in their mouths... ;-)

A cool new spot

Has anyone seen the new promos for the Sarah Conner Chronicles on FOX? I was only mildly interested in the series until catching one the other night. I have to admit the promo did what it was supposed to do. I am so watching the premiere. I especially loved that creepy shot of the Terminator sans skin there toward the end. Nicely conceived and edited.

Here's another spot I came across while browsing YouTube. Can you imagine the time this one took? Yikes!

Thank God...

It's over. Another November sweeps has come and mercifully gone. A lot of the aggravation was washed away when our promotion manager treated us to a nice celebratory dinner at Ruth's Chris, however. I recommend the upside down chocolate souffle. I'd put up with twice as much sweeps irritation if I could have two of those at the end of it all.

So I'm wondering if any stations out there had some new, really ground breaking investigations or stories. Something we've not seen before. And if the news departments didn't deliver what about the promos? I saw our competition picking up their game a little bit. They had some really nice spots that made me stop and take notice. They also goosed my competitive nature a bit. Always a good thing.

Two of our biggest stories revolved around sports figures. We did a very interesting interview with Colts' punter Hunter Smith who chose our station to confess his battle with depression. The other was the big 3 interview I've mentioned in previous posts. The story did in fact pull in some big numbers and we held our quarter hour with both part one and part two. Tackling these interviews like they were stories instead of sports pieces made all the difference. My former news director who has moved out to California caught my spots for the Big 3 when our sports anchor sent them to him. He sent along a very nice note that just made my day. And I must confess that I've never done a spot that had more people talking. It was weird, and very gratifying, to get that much feedback.

We also did a story that's gotten us sued. Don't you just hate it when that happens? Our station, and our parent company, are standing by the story.

Our other big stories? You can never go wrong with stories about the state wasting your money. And property taxes have been a huge issue here in Indy. We did more on that. We also had a few stories about air travel - specifically people stealing from your luggage and air traffic safety. That was about it.

Anyone out there with some sweeps stories to share? That includes stories that didn't work. That info is gold.

On to year ender promos and the next big image campaign for the AFC Championship game...