Here in the UK today (June 22 2011), BBC Radio 2 is trying out a clever marketing trick.

They are pairing up all of the presenters from different shows and genres to present in different parts of the day. It’s being described as “a-12 hour on air celebration of everything the station has to offer”.

For a station like Radio 2, 2DAY gives a great opportunity to showcase the range of what they offer to listeners who may only tune in for certain parts of the day. Of course, there’s a danger that having hooked people in, they’ll come back expecting the same every day. But at least they’ll have heard a sample of everything else that the station offers. And that will hopefully make them want to sample more. For the people who complain that the BBC wastes resources promoting the mainstream offerings from their radio stations, this is a nice example of using the mainstream presenters to help showcase the outer parts of the schedule.

I really like the style of the TV trail that they have created to promote it too. It’s a bit like one of those children’s puzzles where you slide the pieces around to finally get the full picture. It’s a nice visual metaphor and resolves with all the presenters on it as well.

Related articles

• Radio 1 and 2 ‘should streamline management’ (guardian.co.uk)
• UBC to produce Radio 2’s Sounds of the 60s (guardian.co.uk)
• Learn Radio (and TV) Production Skills for free from the BBC (jamesstodd.com)