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Ideas and technique to help you promote and image radio

Aftershock

Posted by on 4 September 2009

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:

[audio: http://earshotcreative.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/aftershock.mp3|titles=Aftershock radio promo|artists=BBC]

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?

2 Comments

  1. Drew / Saturday 5 September, 2009

    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.

  2. Stephen Martin / Saturday 5 September, 2009

    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.