I’m now feeling more Christmassy having seen the new animations for BBC2’s Christmas idents. The Jack Frost character seems to have been thawed out and replaced by scenes from an animated town.
The idents, created by Red Bee Media with 15 Badgers feature a number of iterations including “Turkey” and “Scientist”. They are slightly off the wall, but have a real sense of fun to them. I particularly love the intricate sound design and little design details in the animation – the sort of idents that you’ll see loads more in every time you watch.
Last week I shared the BBC1 Christmas film – positioning BBC1 as the home of entertainment for the whole channel this Christmas. Unlike BBC1, Channel 4’s youth brand station E4 has a completely different feel this Christmas – as these short idents from Matt Layzell at Treat Studios show.
E4 (E stands for Entertainment) is aimed at the 15-35 age group.These animations have a distinctly uncomfortable anti-Christmas feel. But then, who says every channel needs look the same?
It seems these idents build on a fairly distinctive visual style that the channel used to promote various other elements of the output too – as shown in this wrapper for film content.
I really like seeing animation in TV idents – it worked so well for MTV for so many years – and in fact, the longer a channel does it, the bigger the impact. The animation doesn’t have to be in a single, distinctive visual style, but it has to be true to the character of the brand; in MTV’s case, the MTV letters become part of the personality of the visual identity. It’s the equivalent of radio stations trying to maintain an element of sonic distinctiveness through “heritage” musical logos.
The success of both a visual and audio identity is to sustain them over time. In a world where brand managers are always wanting the “new” – this is sometimes easier said than done.
The Red Cups are about to return in Starbucks branches around the world.
For years, every Christmas, Starbucks have added the red Christmas Cups to their stores with a number of special Christmas flavours. Christmas music appears in the stores (they also sell the CDs) and it feels a little bit closer to winter. Over the past few days, the number of mentions of Red Cups in my Twitter feed has been increasing. I’ve noticed loads of video ads at Underground station telling me the Red Cups are Coming. There’s even a dedicated websitefor them counting down to the big day. It feels like Starbucks (just like Coke Christmas ads ) are doing their best to “own” Christmas.
In the UK, Smooth Radio have again launched Smooth Radio Christmas – non stop Christmas songs and a great way to cross promote to Smooth Radio. I’m guessing the thinking is that people who don’t necessarily think that Smooth Radio is for them might like a Christmas station. Add in some cross promotion and hopefully gain some listeners.
Christmas stations are nothing new. There are loads online. Many AC format stations in the US flip format in November and December to do the same thing. In Denmark, Radio Soft – sister station to Radio 100 becomes all Christmas too.
But can Starbucks teach us anything about brand extensions?
The Red Cups work because they tie in with a specific time of the year where it’s easier to create a Mood. I’m not sure Starbucks summer cups would have the same effect.
With radio, it’s easier to do brand extension with musical decades (such as Absolute 80s and the like).
But whatever happens – in a crowded (coffee) market, the sight of the Red Cups instantly makes me think of Starbucks and Christmas.
Loads of “suits” talking the same old stuff that pours out of “industry” gatherings? Great ideas that are all well and good if you have huge budgets and unending resources? Or something else?
It’s designed for people who like radio, who want to be inspired by new ideas, who recognise that technology will help it to change and adapt and for those who want to meet like minded people.
I’m hugely looking forward to this conference. And I’m really glad that James Cridland and Matt Deegan are putting it on. This promises to be a great place for discussing new ideas, looking at things in a new way, and making new contacts. If I was starting out, this would be the place I’d be heading; loads of people who actually “do” radio thinking about how we can make radio better.
And there is a future for radio.
Sure, there’s lots of doom-laden statistics floating around about how younger listeners are failing to engage with radio. But not all of them. And only if radio refuses to engage with them, interact with them on the platforms that they hang out on, and actually deliver them the content they want to hear.
And radio still is radio. But it can be enhanced in many different ways. And let’s face it, whilst some people may sneer at the many ways that stations like Radio 1 and others have used to “visualise” radio, what they are doing now is really just a natural extension of what has been done in the past. From meeting listeners at the County show or the Radio 1 Roadshow at Great Yarmouth Beach, to the BBC radio Solent magazine that I remember buying as a child – they are all ways of extending the reach of the radio station.
But the biggest positive I have taken from the last few months is that fact that my daughter (8) has now decided that she wants to be on the radio and maybe run her own radio station.
This interest was started when she came to visit me at work way back when I was at Capital FM. She was 3 – and recorded 3 links which we made into a radio show for her to play in the car. She was also fascinated last time that Radio 1 did their Access All Areas week – as can be heard in this recording as she describes watching Newsbeat going out online.
Now, she has taken it one step further. Over the last few weeks, she has been recording her own radio show. She brainstormed what sort of features she wanted to run, what music she wanted to play (mostly the Capital playlist) and even how she wanted to broadcast (she wants to be on Red Button and can’t understand why it’s a bit complicated to make that happen).
She’s now started to learn how to make a radio show – in basic form using Garage Band to drag in songs and record her links. She’s even recorded a report from her day out at Brands Hatch a few weeks ago. Now whilst this isn’t necessarily radio in its truest form, it’s no different from back when I was her age, where I recorded the ads and jingles off Radio Victory, and sat in my bedroom playing tunes off a battery powered record player, talking to no-one except my brother, and playing in ads from an old mono cassette recorder. The difference is, now, that I can record her and share a little of it with you.
So, it’s a bit rough around the edges. But she wrote the jingle, recorded the keyboard part, selected the samples and the instruments and the sound effects. And she loved it.
Maybe Next Radio or an event like it will inspire her in the future to do it for real. But only if we all help make it a reality for Megan and her Generation – and keep making radio a medium that is relevant to them as well as us.
You can follow all things nextrad.io on Twitter @thisisnextradio and the conference hashtag is #nextradio Radio Today are covering it live here. I’ll be there, doubtless tweeting interesting bits. If you’re coming, it’ll be nice to catch up – and if you’re not, hopefully you’ll learn something useful.
I remember what I was doing on 9/11. I was at work at Red Dragon FM in Cardiff. When the news started breaking we were in a state of disbelief. We broke format and started having regular news updates. We took off all production and changed the playlist to remove inappropriate songs.
Someone recently asked me for examples of any on air production or imaging that we ran during that period, and to be honest, I have no recollection of us doing anything specific. I think we stripped everything back and felt our way through it. In the US, stations ran powerful montages. For us, it was their story – which involved us.
The same thing happened during the London bombings, whilst at Capital FM. We broke format, becoming a rolling news station – along with the other stations coming out of Leicester Square. I can’t recall us running anything in terms of production. Why would we – the emotional shock was so raw.
Today, I came across this very powerful visualisation from the New York Times – combing a large number of recordings from the day – from Flight Controllers, to the military, to someone who was on one of the planes. It plays alongside an animated timeline and transcript of the audio. I think this is a very powerful way of telling the story. No visuals are needed – it’s simply the power of words.
You might also be interested to see this video with Lee Harris of 1010WINS in New York City, who was on air at the time the planes hit the Twin Towers. Skip to 3:51 in to find it..
I’m a bit of a fair-weather listener to Absolute Radio. I listen to Christian O’Connell as the mood takes me but I don’t tune in every day. I tend to listen to the offshoots of AbsoluteRadio90s and Absolute80s more. I also have their OC Alarm Clock app and the Rock and Roll football app on my phone. And it’s the latter that has sparked an idea..
When I installed that app, I was asked to nominate the team I support. I’m not really a footy fan but my father in law is a season ticket holding life long Manchester United fan so I selected them. Then I forgot about it.
Now, every time they play a match and score a goal – whether or not the app is being used – my phone flashes up a goal update. I might be watching Tv. I might be surfing online. It flashes me a message. It interacts with me.
Is this an opportunity for other radio station apps? Could the Capital FM app do this? Could it ask you to input your favourite artists. Or the sort of things you are into. Or your lifestyle interests?
Then, when The Wanted were in for a chat – could it directly notify me? (I’m not a fan but my 8 year old daughter is). Or when tickets for the Summertime Ball went on sale, could they send me (her) a reminder..?
As the technology of mobile listening changes – are you thinking beyond linear listening..?
Deep Fried mars BarsHaving 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.
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.
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.
Yesterday, Capital FM hosted its Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium for 75,000 rain-soaked fans with acts ranging from JLS and Nicole Scherzinger to The Wanted and Jennifer Lopez.
I spent the weekend in Cardiff, once home to another similar event when Red Dragon FM was around. Cardiff is now one of the cities that has Capital FM as its own radio station. And this weekend in Cardiff it was all about the Ball. And even though the event was over 2 hours away in London – it still sort of felt local. All the local shows talked about was the fact that they had last-minute tickets to give away. All the news bulletins led with the Ball – with a reporter backstage and loads of quick relevant scene setting. And on Sunday morning when Cardiff was being soaked in a torrential downpour, the local host had upbeat, excited callers on, getting ready for “South Wales’ road trip to the Ball”.
In fact, the weekend served as a warm up for Take That’s arrival in Cardiff – an event that it seems is so anticipated that one local fashion advertiser has themed their local campaign around the band’s arrival.
My personal road trip home from Cardiff joined coverage of the Ball at about 4, and it was good to hear Capital throwing everything at it – from backstage reporters to “live” interviews along with (somewhat surprisingly) live tracks too. Live performances are hardly ever as good as recorded ones , so this felt a bit of a brave move for Capital. But as a passive listener, it made me feel part if the show. They were also making much of the HD photos available online along with video interviews. And I’m sure they will be hammering home the amount of online content (both photos and video) available for listeners to check out in the next few days.
Little is made of the backstage effort made to make this sort of thing happen. I know there will have been a fairly small team of hugely dedicated people working long hours to make this happen from engineers to online editors to producers. Maybe Global should shout publicly about this a little more – they should be proud of the team.
But, the moment I heard Capital FM’s Greg Burns link to someone high above London in the Flying Eye describing the sight of the stadium and the bands arriving, it felt like Capital had really nailed it. I’m uncertain whether the Flying Eye is still even in existence on air on Capital. But it is radio shorthand to Capital’s past that still exists in the collective memory (certainly for the older part of the audience). It’s a simple device to paint pictures and create context. And it was a nice subtle link to Capital’s past heritage too.
JAMES STODD 