Promax, the association of promotion and marketing professionals in the electronic media has been recognizing the talent of promo producers for the last few decades. In order to maintain their success in the industry, promo producers submit their work every year for a Promax Award (the Oscar for the TV marketing business).

Promax is all about recognizing the best creative talent in the television industry who are responsible for making sure that programming reaches its viewers.

In the world of promos, the creative team's job is two-fold: to produce an artistic product that is an event in itself, and to attract audiences to the promoted upcoming event. In a sense, the world of "coming up next" and "don't miss this fall" is becoming more an art form and less a sales gimmick. It is a part of keeping television alive. A well-done 30-second spot can be as entertaining and artistic as a music video or a clever commercial.

Since the introduction of new tools such as non-linear editing, motion graphics, and more, a revolution began in the creation of spots; a new phase for design and branding in television. If the promotion is done well, the audience will be there, whether the show is promising or not. Suddenly programming is no longer the only life-blood of television, because if it is not accompanied by a well thought-out and clever marketing campaign, it runs the risk of not making it. A uniform look with tasteful graphic elements are essential ingredients to captivate viewers who not only identify with their favorite show but can then identify with the network or channel presenting the product. Such encasing of the program promotions, designed to generate audience loyalty to a brand, requires a tremendous amount of talent both in the creative and the technical realms. The challenge is increased with the evolution of digital technology. The number of visual resources required to produce a promo has grown from a source reel and a logo to include graphic elements, digital effects, and brand design. The same challenge exists for audio, especially in managing the large variety of music cues and digital sound effects, along with multiple voice-over talents.

It is with the above in mind that Thought Development has designed and built ON-AIR Pro: to manage, simply and effectively, these visual and audio resources and to track the increasingly complex production of a spot. Without ON-AIR Pro, networks and channels are trying to produce promos the new way, using old methods. This becomes incredibly inefficient and wastes the producers' valuable time. If the emphasis is on content and content requires creativity, then promo producers must be turned loose to create, and let ON-AIR Pro do the back-office job of tracking the production process, managing the visual and audio resources, maintaining schedules, all in one place.

Real-time access to the status of the development of a promo is crucial to its success. ON-AIR Pro offers this type of benefit to users, down to the most minute detail. As the industry has evolved, specialty talent is required to perform specialty functions with specialty tools. ON-AIR Pro is the specialty tool necessary for advanced and up-to-date management of the creative and technical processes in promo production. It is the solution to the evolution: a new way of working...

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