Promos

Don Lemon>Tony Manero?

While that may be a stretch, one thing is for certain, people LOVED this spot. The proof is in the fact that thousands liked it through various social media channels, and even @beegees retweeted it to their fans. After that, the spot was picked up and retweeted by everything from The Hollywood Reporter to People magazine adding to its overall reach.

What do you get when you combine two of CNN’s most famous anchors with a choreographer and an iconic scene from the 80s? A PROMAX Hot Spot that gets the entire entertainment community talking.

To promote it, Bell drives around the country in his sunny VW bus, picking up anyone and everyone and letting them join the party.

“Why can’t we be friends?” the promo asks. That’s what Bell will explore in this new series that isn’t afraid to take on tough topics.

When Kamau moves into CNN he doesn't expect things to be quite so loud.  When he investigates what's going on, he's surprised to find out where the music is coming from.  Basically the track I chose was picked to get attention.  People watching CNN during the day are not going to expect to hear a rather underground hip hop song on our air.  If people even look up at their screen for a moment to wonder what is going on, then mission accomplished.

I thought I would share something that cost literally zero dollars to make.  Networks usually take themselves a little too seriously ... there is no better way to defuse that ... than to make fun of oneself :-).  This was almost too fun to make. 

As HLN continues to broaden their Original Series slate, we needed an eye catching promo to "scare" people into watching our new show Very Scary People.  I worked directly with an outside agency on budget, concept and final cut as supervising producer to create this Unforgettable promo.

The comedians involved in the CNN Original Series History of Comedy have a few "choice" words for management about all the preemptions.  Unfortunately, most of them can't be aired on TV.

I was given the task of creating a Decades marathon piece with about three days notice - pretty sure Billy Joel solved my problem by writing the script for me

We licensed the original song for the campaign, but I thought it would be funny if we commissioned some "elevator music" for any clever people that noticed.  Thankfully - some did.  So we had Syn compose this. 

Executive Producer Sean Hayes wants CNN anchor Don Lemon to know what it's like to be constantly ... interrupted. 

So I had lunch with our talent to see what makes her tick, and I walked away thinking to myself ... wow, she reminds me of Mary Tyler Moore.  IN fact, during our conversation she mentioned how much the show inspired her to go on her career path.  With that said, why not pay homage here?  So, I researched some cover songs to "update" the feel - and who better than to turn things up to 11, but licensing a Joan Jett cover of the original theme?  

When History of Comedy originally launched on CNN the show was preempted a few times due to the demanding news cycle. This was one of a series of promos featuring executive producer Sean Hayes. Sean wants his loyal fans to know that this will not happen again ...unless Don Lemon has anything to do with it that is. 

Popular music sells TV and I knew I wanted to use "Come With Me Now", both because it told the story of Mike Rowe going on adventures ... and I had a relationship with the label I could lean on to get things licensed quickly and for the "right" price with our budget. 

for season two we had much less money so this track is needle drop from a music library, but once again performed the same "trick" ... to get people to look up and see what a hip hop beat was doing on CNN's air. 

Smooth jazz anyone? Kamau is heading out in the city on a dinner date ... just him ... and his Emmy.

Mike’s Mom calls into to Jeff Zucker’s office.

This spot entailed a full production shoot in Miami for the underwater footage along with a full soundstage shoot in Atlanta the following week.  The concept was that everyday people do extraordinary things every day and that weather plays a role. Original music was composed by Clean Cuts in DC.