Indiantelevision.com Team

(31 May 2007 1:30 pm)

MUMBAI: Promos should be bold, carry an attitude and adopt a single tome of voice.

These were the key points that Bruce Dunlop of Bruce Dunlop and Associates made during a presentation at the PromaxBDA India conference last afternoon.

He offered examples of good, bad and indifferent promos. A good example was two promos that Sky Sports made for soccer. In one ad they showed what England would be like if there was no soccer. Actor Sean Bean's voiceover comes through brilliantly as he thinks of a world where one would not know what to do on Monday night or every other night for that matter. There would be no fan zones. After that the message of the importance of football on Sky Sports is shown.

The lazy, cliche way on the other hand, is to just show clips of players on the field and say that this is the match happening. That is what ITV did.

"ITV's message appears to be that football is not important for them. Whoever made that promo probably does not know much about the game" added Dunlop.

A good channel ID Dunlop explains should represent both programming and a channel's brand. It should connect and not be boring as that is the best way to get viewers to channel surf. Promos can also enhance a channels image besides pushing a show. He offered the example of AXN's ad for the film Bowling for Columbine as an ad that did not take the easy way out. The ad was impactful as a result.

The Max ad, Cricket Is Back, was also innovative as it used symbolism to show the importance of the bat and ball game in the country. The easy way out would have been to have simply plastered Dravid and the gang. It is no surprise therefore that Max's ads won acclaim at the Promax awards.

Dunlop added that it is not enough to only have high quality production values. A consistent tone of voice is needed. The brand should be clear about the content it is offering and the audience it is going after.

Channel 4 has been consistent in its branding. He gave the example of E 4, which is the digital offering of the broadcaster. The ads communicate directly with the young target group. "You feel that the communication whether it is promos or bumpers are talking to you. This builds brand cohesiveness."

Channel 4 spent $ 1.5 million for a `Lost' promo before the show launched in the UK. It was sensual and alluring and took the brand of the show to an extreme. While it worked well, perhaps some of that money could have been saved on above the line activities, Dunlop notes. Effective promos of the show have also been done in Australia using clips of the show.

A bad example of channel branding is spots that ITV recently did. The only good thing are the high quality of production values. However the visuals simply do not communicate the channel's image. "It is art for art's sake. I had a chat with Red Bee Media which did the spots for them and they too were unhappy," he said.

The BBC has also stumbled in its ads. One ad had hippopotamus for an Eastender ad. Where is the connection? asks Dunlop.

The BBC in his opinion was faring better when they had balloons in their communication. Sometimes putting an image that people strongly identify with helps. That is what BDA did for TV3 in New Zealand. BDA put the fern leaf, which is New Zealand's national emblem into promos for that channel. Its perception soared as a result.

He also gave this example to show that a channel ID need not be expensive, but has to connect in a relevant manner. In terms of the importance of respecting the brand, he gave the example of an ad that had been made for Hallmark in the US but which was rejected by the broadcaster. The film being pushed was The Poseidon Adventure. However the ad ridiculed the film by having lines like don't have guilty conscience by starring in four Police Academy movies. While the creative agency was trying to do something different as that film has aired many times, the ad did not respect the product. In fact those lines might have been better for a comedy.

Music can be used effectivekly as long as it is a part of the communication. A great example of music being used in ad was Elvis' song Love Me Tender. This was used for Silence Of The Lambs. However, the song reflects the relationship between Hannibal Lecter and Clarice Starling. Here the creative agency was trying something different in the communication as the film has aired many times before.