Two months ago, Ten chief executive Hamish McLennan brought in his old Y&R buddy Matt McGrath to help him turn the troubled network around. Here's what he's done.
A new series of promos for Ten News are a marked departure for the station and seem to be the first big push from Ten's new chief brand officer.
The spots for Ten News Sydney and Ten News Melbourne play on the experience of veteran presenters Sandra Sully and Mal Walden with the tagline 'Breaking News for 20 Years'.
McGrath told AdNews it was the beginning of Ten's new strategy to more aggressively promote its news and current affairs offering. "It's a key property of the network and it's something we want to do more with," he said.
"The first thing we did was look at people like Sandra Sully and Mal Walden and say, what's the best way to reinforce their credentials. It's about resonance – people obviously know that Sandra and Mal have been around the longest.
"They've been there breaking news for 20 years. Sandra was on-air when September 11 happened and it's amazing to watch her reaction to seeing those events unfold. Mal has similar credentials."
The ads, produced by Fuel, use the "visual analogy of shattered glass going in reverse" as a different take on the standard "retail" or personality-based news promotion used by other stations, McGrath said. The creative will be tailored for other presenters in key markets.
But wait... if experience and longevity is the order of the day, what about old Bill Woods? Any chance of bringing him back? "We don't have any plans to change our presenter line-up," McGrath said. "We're going to build on what we've got."
Sorry, Bill.
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