Unlike in radio, television viewers tend to choose between programmes not stations. Most tv promos therefore drive appointments to view.

Christmas is a big exception though, and over the years, one channel has consistently out-performed all the others, becoming the UK’s natural home for Christmas and other major shared national events.

So here’s BBC One doing its big branding number for 2011. Fab.

For readers overseas, every UK home gets BBC One (plus seven other commercial-free public tv channels, ten network radio stations, local radio and websites) in return for a licence fee which costs just under 40 pence a day.

Disclosure: I am contracted to the BBC (although not a part of it funded by the public licence fee).

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:

Download audio file (aftershock.mp3)

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?

Comments

• Saturday 5 September, 2009, Drew writes: That TV trail is stunning and it's a real "stop & watch" production. What's the soundtrack? I noticed the Rockabye Baby version of Under Pressure on another trail but this one sounds like it must have been made to fit the storyboard.
• Saturday 5 September, 2009, Stephen Martin writes: If you watch the tv promo on the BBC World News channel you'll hear the "Under Pressure" glockenspiel soundtrack. However, online rights clearance for that track meant that the viral/online/YouTube version uses this piece of library music which has been expertly structured around the narrative of the film. If you think it sounds like a custom then the production folk have done a truly superb job. There's also an Aftershock sonic mnemonic, produced by Ben Neidle of Noise Fusion. You'll hear it a lot on the BBC World Service over the coming weeks.