TVWeek article on NBC's new slogan

[CAwasinNJ]

www.tvweek.com/news/2008/07/nbc_chimes_in_on_network_sloga.php

The article brings up something I've been talking about for years. What ever happened to the great promos of years past? I think the heyday of the promo was in the 80's They mention NBC's "Be There" (though I thought his son "Let's All Be There" was better) and ABC's "You'll Love It". There were more though. How about CBS' "We've Got the Touch" or "Come On Along" on ABC? That's not to mention the infamous "We're Proud" that NBC came up with in 1979.

I've been wondering what the heck happened to all those great jingle writers. That's something that today's TV could use. Get people excited about TV again. Get people humming our theme song. One of the buzzwords today is "viral marketing". Network TV was doing viral marketing 25 years ago, only they didn't call it that. Today it's more important than ever. People aren't seeing distribution outlets anymore. The only pay attention to the programming that comes out of it. If network TV wants to survive, they need to get viewers interested in THEM and not just the programming they show. Big difference.

[Guest 2000]

I guess some of it could be that individual stations can better feel out their markets and what to call themselves there?

For example, for years KIFI "Idaho" 8 was around then one day they up and changed to calling themselves "Local News 8" and of course stations basically now emphasize their news product at this point - when KPVI in the same market switched to NBC they became "Newschannel 6" and haven't changed in the 10 years since.

KIVI on the other side of the state has re-branded several times but settled on "Today's 6," whatever that means. It was Idaho 6 and then a few others in the interim. Belo seems to like to brand their market stations as (Region's) Newschannel (channel #) as if they were a 24-hour network or something.

KSL "Eyewitness News"
KTVX "Close to home, close to you" (before: Utah's 4)

Of course Fox nationwide branded their affiliates "Just you watch the best..." not sure if KSTU is still using that stuff or not. It was kind of catchy to sing/hum/whatever.

I am a fan of catchy branding, myself.

[CAwasinNJ]

Local station branding is important too, of course. I don't see anything wrong with have a strong local brand on a station that also has a strong network campaign. It would probably be even more effective to align the local branding with the network branding. The network spots emphasize the network programming while the local spots emphasize local productions and syndicated programming, all with the same theme. NBC did that with some of their campaigns. Whether the local station wants to participate would be up to them though.

[kenglish]

I remember the "Five comes home to you" jingle, from when I started at KSL in 1979 ;D .