Dan Kreiter

I worked for CNN Marketing & Promotion for more than 8 years.  During that time I touched every Turner news brand in some way.   Take a look at this compilation of my On-Air Promo work for CNN, CNN International, and HLN.

Promax BDA Finalist 2011
Martina: My Toughest Opponent (seen at :36)
Writer/Producer

Currently, I am a Creative Services producer at ABC7 Bay Area.  Disney owns and operates this station located in San Francisco.  I produce a lot of TV spots to promote upcoming programming and station talent.  This is a compilation of some of those spots.  I also create content for all ABC7's social media platforms and the ABC7 News website.

Every great campaign needs a memorable starting point.  For the ABC7 "Where You Live" brand campaign, this spot was that.  Throughout days of brand exploration and countless conversations with ABC7 staff, there was little talk of ratings and/or demographics. Instead we talked about the people in local communities as the clear motivation behind every piece of ABC7 content.  So I set out to find a way to communicate that to our audience.  I wanted to be honest, transparent, and show ABC7's commitment to keep local communities safe, while honoring the diverse stories that come from each one of them. I wanted to show that it doesn't matter who you are or how you identify yourself, ABC7 is here for you.  I took the cameras off of news our talent and, instead, put the focus on our audience.

ABC7 "Where You Live" goes beyond any physical location.  It's also the space that you live in; the space where you spend your days and do what you love.  So many memorable ABC7 News stories start in that space and I wanted our audience to know that.  So for this follow-up spot in our launch campaign, I called on a few people (and one foggy, fictional personality) in Bay Area communities to represent that idea.  The people you see in this promo are not actors.  They are all real people I found who are passionate about life in the Bay Area and beyond. 

Oscar Night is ABC's Super Bowl. The huge audience means more eyeballs and a big opportunity to promote the ABC7 "Where You Live" brand.  When asked to create local commercial content for this event, I immediately started looking for opportunities to include the Bay Area in a night filled with Hollywood stars.  It dawned on me that there are a lot of "real-life" stars right here in the Bay Area; passionate people who make us all proud to live here and represent our community well.  So I selected a few local stars and gave them an opportunity to shine.  The people in this spot are real people who made news on ABC7 for making life better, pushing the limits, and/or supporting their communities.  Now that's the stuff movies are made of!  I keep the ABC7 Stars franchise alive on an on-going basis by pitching Star Stories to the ABC7 newsroom and producing the online gallery at abc7news.com/stars.  

Shining the spotlight on "real" stars in local communities turned out to be an extremely positive connection point between our television station and the audience that it serves.  To maintain that connection and the ABC7 Stars franchise, I created an online outlet for the Bay Area to nominate their own ABC7 Stars at abc7news.com/stars.  This spot is the initial call to action for nominations.  I receive all nominations via email and select several ABC7 Stars from that pool.

The first step in this campaign was to create excitement around the Smart Car.  To do that, we strapped a GoPro to the bumper of the car and drove around San Francisco.  The idea was to show how a car this small can be a big benefit for Bay Area drivers.  These tease spots announced that a sweepstakes was coming while also showing some of the direct benefits of having a Smart Car, like easy parking and saving gas.

After running our series of tease spots, it was time to announce that the sweepstakes had started.  In order to do so, I enlisted the help of ABC7 Traffic Reporter, Leyla Gulen.  Leyla showed off the car for viewers and provided an ABC7 face for this sales partnership.

You can't make television without money from advertisers.  You can't get advertisers without a well-equipped sales team.  Sometimes it's my job to help that sales team shine.  In 2012, HLN was the #2 network in cable news.  Our sales team came to me for a visual representation of that network success. I was given one line, "HLN Draws You In."  From that idea, I produced this upfront video.

I hired a film crew and found a few friends at AIDS Walk SF to help me explain ABC7's photo/video sharing hashtag - #abc7now.  After spending hours at the walk pulling participants to play along, I produced this explainer video to generate excitement around the hashtag within ABC7.  The same video was later repurposed as an on-air promo and as a social media explainer for our followers.

When you go to make your case for more production money, you have to prove you'll use it well. I produced this sizzle reel to open the 2016 ABC7 Budget Presentation. The reel was used to generate excitement around our brand and to make the promise that we always take our best qualities and turn them into golden opportunities.

Every holiday season, ABC7 participates in a Bay Area food drive to help the hungry. What says holidays without being too heavy?  Animation!  So I wrote a script, grabbed my favorite graphic artist, and created this hopeful spot to tackle the tough topic of hunger.  All the sound design on this one is my own; I chose and edited every sound effect you hear.  Admittedly, the campaign was used to engage our Facebook audience but with the help of our parent company, Disney, we raised thousands of dollars for local food banks. 

ABC7 Bay Area has been a proud sponsor of AIDS Walk SF since 1988. Every year we work with the AIDS Walk group to get more people to sign up and show up. I produced this promo to increase enrollment and raise awareness around the event. 

Smart partnerships inspire smart creative!  When the Exploratorium reimagined itself, the beloved Bay Area science center came together with ABC7 to promote its new space and exhibits.  I needed to find a way to combine the two organizations into one promo that looked and felt cohesive.  I directed the ABC7 graphic design team to use the Exploratorium's drawing-based ad campaign as a starting point.  Together, we worked out animated sketches of television news icons and added them to the drawings the Exploratorium was already using in its advertising.  The finishing touch was enlisting the help of two different voice actors to really drive home the idea of partnership.

ABC7 took on a huge project to update its website. We needed a new look and a digital design that could be responsive, engaging and still serve up the news (and distractions) relevant to our audience. When the site launched it was the first responsive local news website in the Bay Area. I produced this fun piece to announce the changes and get our audience excited about exploring the new abc7news.com

When you work for The Home of The NBA Finals and you live where the winning team lives, it only makes sense to start talking to fans and rally with them. I produced this Warriors fan spot to localize promotion around the NBA finals airing on the ABC network. It taps into the excitement around the Bay Area's favorite basketball team. I hired a photog to get crowd shots at a Warriors game and even used an ABC7 stage manager for the voice-over (he'd already done some work for the SF Giants). When editing the spot, I decided to keep the music minimal to really capture the roar of the crowd.