So the Sony Radio Academy Awards 2009 – or ‘the Oscars of the radio world’, as I’m sure anyone involved will customarily term them – are almost upon us (tonight, to be precise) and the various shortlists make pretty interesting reading.

Yes, you’ve got the obligatory nods to Moyles, Mayo, Mills and Feltz (okay, maybe Vanessa was slightly less obligatory), but of greater note are the nominees from less readily available radio sources. No doubt this has something to do with the evolving face of media consumption: more DAB radios, greater penetration of satellite TV, the proliferation of the podcast, and – oh yeah – that internet thingy; but you’ve got to consider the content of individual shows themselves. 

For example, Answer Me This! – a weekly podcast delivered by Helen Zaltzman and Olly Mann has been shortlisted in the Internet Programme category – making it the first independently-produced comedy podcast ever to have been nominated. And certainly the first to be broadcast from a living room in Crystal Palace.

Check it out here.

Another potential surprise is the four separate nods amassed by Electric Radio Brixton, a digital station launched a couple of years back with live performances from Mick Jones and Billy Bragg. What’s so impressive about that? It’s developed, produced and run by inmates of HMP Brixton. Insert your own “the jailhouse rocks” joke here.

Whilst clearly an arena for more niche music, editorial and entertainment programming, digital radio and podcasts arguably provide a forum for creativity and expression beyond the traditional 88.7-108Mhz FM spectrum.

It’s no massive surprise to me, therefore, that BBC 6 Music’s Adam and Joe have amassed four separate Sony nominations this year. If you don’t know of Adam and Joe, or haven’t encountered any of their previous TV or radio material, I can only urge you: get involved. The three hour show – and its commercial music-free, leaner, podcasted offspring – is a subculture gem. Cleverly disguised as two good mates chatting about films, music, telly and whatever else takes their fancy, the pair are relentlessly self-effacing, witty and eloquent, putting in a unparalleled amount of personal creativity into every weekly installment. 

This has clearly rubbed off on their audience. One of the most popular features, Song Wars, where the pair write and perform songs based on a given theme, spawned Video Wars, a listener challenge to create a video to accompany said tunes.

One rather dedicated listener made an astounding homage to Radiohead’s brilliant ‘No Surprises’ video, to incongruously accompany ‘Meatballs’, a poignant Joe-penned number based on the cooking instructions found on the Ikea delicacy (seriously). 

If you don’t know the original video, click here to see it.

And this is the Video Wars version (NB unless you don’t mind getting a few strange looks, you might want to hook up your headphones before starting the clip below…):

A frightening amount of effort.

Still, the overall winner went a step further, creating an entire stop-motion film for Adam’s song, ‘Jane’s Brain’ – a ludicrously accomplished effort, the output certainly justifying A&J’s nominations in Sony’s Best Competition and Listener Participation categories:

I heartily hope the boys manage to sweep the boards at the ceremony tonight; although I’m doubtful they’d argue with any of the lags on B-Wing should Electric Radio Brixton manage to steal their thunder…

By Jonathan Izzard on May 11th, 2009

Tags: Default, Media, Radio, Social Media, YouTube

1 comment

Back in February, Evan Davis and the Today programme team challenged viral marketing agency Rubber Republic to make a viral campaign to test the concept of viral marketing. Inspired by a number of successful brand virals (including Cadbury’s Dancing Eyebrows advertisement that did the rounds not long ago), the Today programme is running an experiment to see if Rubber Republic can make Evan, Jon, Jim and the whole gang go viral.

The final result went live on YouTube today:

On its own merits, it’s a fun little clip and worth a watch – especially for regular listeners who are familiar with all the personalities involved. Having picked it up from Twitter this morning, I sent it straight around the office, and on to friends and family who I knew would appreciate it. So, I guess in that sense, it is a good viral.

However, measuring its success as a stand alone viral will be tricky. For starters, they announced that it had gone live on this morning’s programme, which makes it impossible to discern whether any subsequent YouTube views are a result of that broadcast, or of having been passed the link virally.

Evan Davis suggested that Today would herald the project a success once the clip found its way back to the Today show’s inbox – but when you broadcast this live on air, how can such communication truly be the result of viral marketing, and not just fans of the show wanting to be the first to send the link back to Today?

Which points to another difficulty in measuring the project’s success: how many people sent on the clip for its genuine viral qualities (funny, worth sharing etc.), and how many forwarded it simply to be part of the experiment or, for those in the marketing industry, to share with colleagues the latest example of viral marketing?

In other words, by overtly referencing the fact that their viral content is part of a viral marketing experiment, have Today and Rubber Republic rendered the viral quality of that content obsolete? Hence making it impossible to measure its effect?

But then again, does any of this actually matter? Surely the whole point of the exercise was to get Today talked about, and to potentially reach a new audience of more social-media-savvy (and therefore potentially younger) listeners by engaging with blogs, Twitter and YouTube to convey a slice of Today humour.

Ultimately, my main question would be: has this engaged anyone who didn’t previously listen to the show? Would anyone unfamiliar with Today’s personalities actually see the humour in the clip, or see any relevance to make it worthy of sending to their like-minded friends?

I’m not convinced.

By Lucie Bartlett on March 11th, 2009

Tags: Radio, Social Media, Viral Marketing, YouTube

1 comment

 

Chris Moyles’ commitment to climb Mount Kilimanjaro in aid of Comic Relief caught my attention. The idea, inspired by Take That’s Gary Barlow, sees Chris join a host of celebrities, including Ronan Keating, Cheryl Cole and 2007 Strictly Come Dancing champion Alesha Dixon, attempt to climb Africa’s highest mountain over seven days. Whilst not the most likely candidate to undertake a feat of fitness, my belief is that Chris is very likely to be successful.

 

Altitude sickness will be his biggest challenge, but records show that it is the super fit that experience this symptom, rather than the less fit. Walking slowly is recommended as the best course of avoidance when walking at altitude.

 

BT, supporters of Comic Relief since 1985, is sponsoring the expedition and BT employees are actively engaged in the fundraising. However, it isn’t just the sponsors or Comic Relief that will benefit – hopefully inspiring others to get active will be the over-riding success. Good luck to Chris and the team.

 

By Alison Moor on February 26th, 2009

Tags: Charity, Cheryl Cole, Radio, Sponsorship

2 comments