Radio on the telly

The BBC World Service is running a series of promotional films and radio promos in the UK in the coming weeks. I thought you might like to see one of them:

In this campaign, young artists from around the world are inspired to produce creative work by listening to the BBC World Service. This film shows the response of Spanish artist Mato Atom,

At a time when it’s easier to feel that the world is smaller and more conformed than ever, the BBC World Service is encouraging people in the UK to “be inspired by a bigger world”.

As BBC World Service director, Peter Horrocks, explains:

“Celebrating our ability to connect voices around the world and to uniquely facilitate global conversations, these trails are designed to show the way in which our programmes can transport listeners to other places and lives.

It’s about raising awareness of [the BBC] World Service with UK audiences, reminding them that they can listen to us here in the UK and also why we matter to 188 million listeners around the world.”

What the BBC and agency Fallon have attempted here is to showcase the radio content and then draw you deeper into its significance through an artist’s personal interpretation.

Running a product demonstration of radio content on tv is hard to get right. You want to retain focus on the audio yet you need the spot to be distinctive in the middle of a formatted television junction.

You also have to acknowledge that the deep personal experience of listening to involving radio is never going to be fully replicated in a short tv spot.

These artists’ reactions are a courageous way of demonstrating radio’s emotional impact on one listener. Your reaction to the audio will probably be different, and possibly not even rendered in CGI polymorphs. That, of course, is the joy of radio.

This campaign is running on BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Four and BBC Radio 3 in the UK.

Disclosure: I was involved in the planning for this campaign and my former team co-produced it.

Tags: "world service", BBC, Fallon, Peter Horrocks

Aftershock

Here’s a promo campaign, and one you won’t experience much in the UK.

The campaign is for the BBC’s new season exploring the impact of the recession. It’s a global recession and this is a global campaign, delivered by radio, television and online around the world.

The Aftershock season starts this weekend and contains everything from a radio drama based on the fall of Lehman to a Robert Peston documentary.

The programmes on radio and television are actually quite different so the promotional campaign requires a big idea to transcend the detail.

Here it is for television:

…and for radio:

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The approach, as you’ll see and hear, is to present challenging questions about the possible effects of the recession. It’s good that the agency (Rainey Kelly Campbell Rolfe Y&R) and production teams (including the good folk I recently managed) have played to the different strengths of each medium while remaining true to the common theme. That’s not always as easy as it seems.

Moreover, there’s a vibrant debate already on the YouTube page sparked by the campaign. If you’re going to ask challenging questions, I reckon that’s a good first response.

But what do you think?

Tags: Aftershock, BBC, economy, news, promos, radio, radio drama, recession, RKCR, Robert Peston, television, Y&R