Tags -> Kicker: alternative?

They have good hooks that let you overwrite these. I added the following to my functions.php to use the second category name as the kicker if the first category name is Instant Articles.

function change_ia_kicker( $category_name, $post_ID ) {
//Next block is my specific code
	if ('Instant Articles' == $category_name) {
		$categories = get_the_category($post_ID);

		if ( is_array( $categories ) && count( $categories > 1) && isset( $categories[1]->name ) && __( 'Uncategorized' ) !== $categories[1]->name ) {
			$category_name = $categories[1]->name;
		}
	}
//At the end, return the new kicker
    return $category_name;
}
add_filter( 'instant_articles_cover_kicker', 'change_ia_kicker', 10, 3 );