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Consider Yourself One of Us – BBC 1 Christmas Trailer

What’s the best way to showcase the talent on your channel or station? Feature all of them in a trailer for your Christmas programming.

And that’s what BBC1 have done this year. You’ll be singing along..

BBC One’s Christmas 2011 trailer featuring Gregg Wallace, John Bishop, Gary Lineker, Len Goodman, Lee Mack, Guy Henry, Laila Rouass, Hugh Quarshie, Shane Richie, Shona McGarty, Ricky Norwood, Frank Skinner, Brendan O’Carroll, Tyger Drew-Honey, Ramona Marquez, Daniel Roche, Kevin Bridges, Sian Williams, Carol Kirkwood, Chris Hollins, Bill Turnbull, Matt Allwright, Lenny Henry, Tess Daly, Fiona Bruce, Alex Jones, Sunetra Sarker, Alexander Armstrong, Graham Norton, Julia Bradbury, Sir David Jason, Anne Robinson, John Torode, Nick Knowles, June Brown, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, Michael McIntyre and Sir Bruce Forsyth

Related articles

• Christmas TV preview: Great Expectations and Big Fat Gypsy Christmas among the crackers (mirror.co.uk)
• Doctor Who 2011 Christmas Special Trailer!!!! (nerdist.com)
• Absolutely Fabulous is back for Christmas special and cast haven’t aged a day (mirror.co.uk)

Utilising User Generated Content

Here’s a fantastic example of using user-generated content to make a really interesting looking TV spot for BBC Radio 1′s Teen Awards. It’s a simple idea – but executed really nicely.

There’s a little more background on the Earshot Creative review blog here.

I think there are huge opportunities for making great sounding, highly effective promos and imaging using this method. There are countless examples online of contests where bands have let fans download elements from their songs to create alternative mixes. There are also examples of online games where fans can “create” their own programme trails – like this one for the BBC’s Doctor Who from a few series back.

So – how about someone publishing some imaging elements online and giving their listeners the chance to create the idents for the station. Just imagine the creative treats that might emerge.

Related articles

• Engage or Die – user generated content and social media (austinatibile.wordpress.com)
• How User-Generated Content Is Changing SEO (bjconquest.com)
• Leveraging User Generated Content For Search Engine Optimization Part 2 (convonix.com)

Scottish Is.. The Longest Promo Ever?

 

Having worked as a radio promo producer for many years, it’s not often that I hear a bit of production that really  grabs me and makes me sit glued listening to the radio. This morning, I think I heard it.

BBC Radio 1 are currently promoting their coverage of the T in The Park Festival in Scotland.

 

15 hours of television coverage for BBC Three and BBC One and Two Scotland, featuring on the HD channel, 115 hours streaming on the red button across the three days and almost 90 hours on the catch-up service. All that plus highlights for BBC Two and BBC Scotland plus 12 hours of radio on Radio One and Radio Scotland.  Starting on Three at 8pm on Friday 8th July, Edith Bowman and Reggie Yates will be in the tree house studio overlooking a newly designed site, Greg James will be out and about soaking up the atmosphere and local lads Ally McRae from Radio One and Vic Galloway from Radio Scotland will be bringing expert local knowledge

Radio 1 are running standard trails for this – including music from the artists performing and listeners talking about their passion for the event. That works really well .

But then between 2 songs on the Chris Moyles Show this morning, I heard the audio version of this between 2 other songs.

 

It’s a 3 minute promo. With one simple call to action. But it has created a huge buzz. It’s been produced by Matt Fisher, one of the station sound team at Radio 1 along with his colleague Rob Lewis. Matt told me:

We asked the Scottish listeners via our facebook page what being Scottish meant to them. Their replies inspired and fed into the script. Track is Biffy Clyro - God & Satan, VO is Louis Mellis – Scottish VO and Actor. 

It’s a stunningly simple piece of production. It’s under-produced. There hasn’t been a temptation to fill it with unnecessary sound effects. I really hope it wins some awards – it certainly deserves to.

 

Related articles

• Chris Moyles renews Radio 1 contract (newstatesman.com)