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.

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Little things

It seldom does any harm to suck-up to the boss. At least that’s what I keep telling my team. So you won’t be surprised to hear that the BBC’s Director of Global News Richard Sambrook delivered a characteristically brilliant keynote address at last week’s Radio Festival.

Richard’s speech underlined the continuing importance of radio in reaching global audiences and during it he played the audio imaging used by the BBC of old…

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…and that of today…

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Richard’s point, reflected in this contrasting audio, was not just that one sounded more contemporary than the other but that today’s BBC is about nation speaking to nation in a two-way global conversation, not just London calling the rest of the world. The idents reflect that change.

I was also struck by the copywriting, short as it is. We swapped out “This is..” for “You’re with..” a few years ago but the impact of doing so has only sunk in recently.

The aim was to move from a station announcement to something that acknowledged the relationship between you and the broadcaster. Station announcements still have their place of course (St. Pancras International for example) but radio is about human connections and the newer phrase adds an emotional dimension. “You’re with..” also puts both the BBC and you on the same level. Immediately you’re closer and in good company.

At the time this change didn’t seem a big deal. It was unlikely to bring us new listeners. We did it because, well, I tend to be a bit obsessed with detail. I felt a bit silly writing instructions about something so trivial.

Then, more recently I found this blog entry from a listener in Mexico, and this from Yahuda Berlinger in Jerusalem who is otherwise critical of the BBC:

Every hour the BBC ends the hour with some jingles. The jingles used to end, “… wherever you are, THIS is the BBC.” Lately they have switched to “… YOU’RE with the BBC.”

It’s not much of a change, but I think it’s a good change. “You’re with” gives you a sense of community, where “This is” is just self-promoting. “You’re with.” It’s got a nice ring to it. Yes, I am. I am with you. I hate you, and I can’t trust you, but I’m with you while I’m listening to you, so, yeah. I’m with you.

The “you’re with…” line has made it into this quotations page, into a bunch of Tweets:

…and now into Richard’s speech which, need I remind you, was very good.

It all serves to demonstrate that radio station brands are highly geared machines. A tiny turn on the controls can shift us a huge distance in the minds of our listeners.

Photo: Spot the Differences, by *Dragonfly* Used with kind permission. Go to Flickr to see all the differences. Audio: copyright BBC. Used graciously.

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Freeview

According to Ofcom, something close to ten million UK households use the Freeview digital terrestrial tv platform as their primary means of receiving multichannel television.

On second sets, like those in bedrooms where you might listen to the radio, Ofcom says Freeview enjoys a massive 47% tv platform share, and is growing fast.

It’s a big platform and one which can serve radio listeners rather well. So it’s been a source of irritation to me that the radio station for which I look after promotions and navigation, the BBC World Service, has until now been unable to provide a decent on-screen data and navigation service. You know, like you’d expect on such a platform.

The reason for this has been bandwidth, or rather the lack of it. The BBC World Service was for several years perched on the limits of a third-party multiplex rather like a heavy book that is only just balanced on the edge of a shelf.

Thankfully a recent reshuffle of multiplexes sorted that out and the BBC World Service became properly nestled among the rest of the BBC family of services.

Now, finally, listeners to the BBC World Service using Freeview can enjoy a decent navigational interface with live text services that add context and background to the audio and help them find their way around the rich schedule. We’ve put a live feed of world news in there too in case you want a quick update on the global headlines.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, as you may know I spend most of my working life thinking about markets far away from home so you’ll understand it’s rather nice to be able to deliver a tangible improvement here in the UK for once.

Big thanks to my World Service Promotions team, the clever folk in BBC Audio & Music interactive and at my former employer Red Bee Media who brought it all together.

Update: I have now written an official BBC corporate blog piece which has been subjected to formal compliance procedures and due editorial scrutiny. I hope you can see the improvement.

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