Rustling Brands

Another RTS event I’m proud of is Rustling Brands. Being able to get the calibre of speakers we had on the day felt like quite a good achievement. Dorothy Hobson, RTS Mids Vice Chair and Chair of Events, wrote a great article about it. Great to have seen that Rustling Brands got coverage in Television Magazine.

In a difficult economic climate, producers and broadcasters are keen to explore new means of funding programmes. So, RTS Midlands Centre attracted a sell-out audience of more than 100 to its one-day conference on advertiser-funded programming (AFP), held jointly with Screen West Midlands and Business Link West Midlands.

The consensus of the first panel discussion seemed to be that AFP was about the successful liaison of a brand, a programme idea and the right programme maker and broadcaster; the resulting programme should enhance the reputation of the brand by its association with the programme and vice versa.

Not surprising then, that 90 per cent of AFP ideas do not make it to television, revealed Ben Kerr, content director at Drum PHD.

His fellow panellists were: Zoe Fuller, head of planning at Thikbox; Katherine Marlow, content partnership planner at ITV; Jo Rosenfelder, commercial affairs director at Maverick TV; and Drew Wilkins, account manager at digital agency Fish in a Bottle. THe sessions was chaired by digital strategist Rachel Modecai.

A second panel, chaired by David Bausola of Ag8, looked at Routes to Market. The panel comprised: Dan’l Hewitt, head of digital content at Bebo; Luke Hyams, writer/director, Dubplate Drama; and Graham Sergeant from Codemasters. The discussion covered games and online drama as well as more traditional formats.

In a difficult economic climate, producers and broadcasters are keen to explore new means of funding programmes. So, RTS Midlands Centre attracted a sell-out audience of more than 100 to its one-day conference on advertiser-funded programming (AFP), held jointly with Screen West Midlands and Business Link West Midlands.

The consensus of the first panel discussion seemed to be that AFP was about the successful liaison of a brand, a programme idea and the right programme maker and broadcaster; the resulting programme should enhance the reputation of the brand by its association with the programme and vice versa.

Not surprising then, that 90 per cent of AFP ideas do not make it to television, revealed Ben Kerr, content director at Drum PHD.

His fellow panellists were: Zoe Fuller, head of planning at Thikbox; Katherine Marlow, content partnership planner at ITV; Jo Rosenfelder, commercial affairs director at Maverick TV; and Drew Wilkins, account manager at digital agency Fish in a Bottle. THe sessions was chaired by digital strategist Rachel Modecai.

A second panel, chaired by David Bausola of Ag8, looked at Routes to Market. The panel comprised: Dan’l Hewitt, head of digital content at Bebo; Luke Hyams, writer/director, Dubplate Drama; and Graham Sergeant from Codemasters. The discussion covered games and online drama as well as more traditional formats.

An AFP event is something that I have researched for about two years now and so it was great to finally have seen it happen through this conference. With thanks to Screen WM and Business Link WM for making it possible.

Digital Treasures

Digital Treasures was held at The Public in West Brom. Organised by Screen WM, the day-long event was packed with mini sessions that have to do with archives.

Ed Vaizey MP spoke and said that archives give you a sense of place, belonging and history. He said that archive should be made accessible to the public. Everyone applauded his passion for archives and it was quite a good opening speech to start the day.

Tony Ageh, who is Controller of Archive Development at the BBC expressed his opinion about the need to create a public space for everyone to access archive and for the audience to be able to comment, aggregate, play/repackage archive.

I thought one of the really interesting things from the day was the session on Repurposing Archives and Business Models. Wikipedia was there and said that they were interested in doing live events and help put materials from those events up on their site.

There was also a presence from my old company Television Junction. TVJ and digital agency Clusta have been working on WeeVee – a mash up tool for archives. The current banks of clips include footage from Dudley Zoo and Cadbury’s. WeeVee is something that tony Ageh was talking about, really. It’s an interactive tool that opens up archive to users/audiences.

Hopefully, events like this will help contribute in getting archives more open to the public. It would be a shame if these materials are just kept away and not get the exposure they deserve.

BBC Birmingham Briefing

Fazeley Studios played host to the BBC’s Birmingham briefing. The good news is that the Beeb is looking to increase spending into the regions for 2016. It has been mentioned that we are all working in a tough financial climate and budgets are 5 per cent less each year.

BBC Four started the proceedings. Apparently this channel is not about the ratings but about quality, award-winning programmes. They want something spiky, provocative and controversial. The channel should be fairly mainstream and not niche – BBC Four is about purpose, proposition and passion. They want intelligent and witty programmes.

Seasons are a big part of BBC Four. Knowing upcoming seasons is important because most opportunities will lie in seasons, which are mostly generated by channel management team but is now open to ideas from production companies.

BBC Two is about eclectic, mixed genre programming. It wants to be the ‘intellectual engine room of the BBC’. It aims for ambitious factual programming and is passionate about history and what people had to say. They want factual or fact ent formats for news avoiders. The priority time slot is 11-12pm. BBC Two is looking to replace Masterchef. Ideally, they do not want another food programme, but they are open to ideas. Most of all, do not forget talent. A young, male food voice is missing – is there anyone out there like Jamie Oliver or Heston Blumenthal? But on a more general basis, think of talent – again, who is the next Mary Portas?

BBC Three was next and they said that it is important to understand who watches the channel. The average age of the audience is 37 years. BBC Three needs big propositions, not niche ones. For the 8-9pm slot, they are looking for formats that are quirky and cover guilty pleasures for example, Snog Marry, Avoid? and Don’t Get Screwed. They are also looking for formats like Don’t Tell the Bride.

For the 9-10pm slot, they want more of a documentary feel. They want programmes like The Undercover Princes and World’s Strictest Parents. For the 10.30pm slot, they want something like Bizarre ER.

Documentary as a strand was represented by creative director Claire Pizey. She said that it is always useful to have an idea on how the e-comms system works. For the BBC One 10.35pm slot, the team is looking for reputational and popular docs. They would like big hitters and journeys for the 9pm slot.

BBC Two is all about single docs. BBC Four is looking for provocative 3 x 60 docs, which can be stripped across the week. Single docs can have well-known faces or showing other sides of their personalities. BBC Three is open to single docs and new directing talent. Again, do not forget about new talent. Singles could have strong characters and have access to families or anything that tackles body image and rights of passage.

Big Debate

I attended the Big Debate: Can the Midlands’ Creative Industries Revolutionise the UK Economy?. It was organised by Birmingham City University, the NEC Group and the Birmingham Post. The way I understand it, is that the aim was to get various people (funders, policy makers, digital media experts, creatives) grouped together to come up with their own action points after listening to top notch speakers like creative thinker Charles Leadbeater, David Harris of Wunderman and Mudlark’s Toby Barnes.

According to BCU, the outcome of this event is a report ‘reflecting an integrated review of the role which the region’s creative industries can play in formulating a new view on the UK economy based on the content of the Debate and audience responses.’ The report will be put together by the University and given to Government as a recommendation.

Leadbeater was quite inspiring. He said that we have to have social networks to connect people together but have links outside the region to ‘refresh’. He also said that innovation = collaboration + creative combination. If you want to promote innovation, think conversation, he added. Although I totally agree with his comments, I think that he may have missed out on ACTION. I’ve noticed that conversations are constantly happening here in the region, but seems that there is very little action happening – whether this is because a financial or IP copyright issue, we definitely need to sort it out.

Harris, who’s an Executive Creative Director, made a point that the education system isn’t encouraging creative thinking, therefore when these students go in the professional world, there may not be enough creative thinkers in the workforce. So, his overall message is for businesses to take on creative thinkers. I’m not really too sure how to take this. In some ways, it feels like quite a naïve comment to make, but then at the same time, it also makes sense. I think it may be more about encouraging younger people to be more entrepreneurial. Growing up in the Philippines in the late 80s and 90s when laws were slightly more relaxed than here meant that I’ve tried half a dozen small businesses by the time I reached the age of 14. But they were invaluable experiences because I learned to be creative in terms of marketing and product design.

Here are some of the tips / ideas that came up:

• Go do your best stuff – try and don’t be afraid to fail
• Read everything – research and expand
• Think in a larger space
• Let’s have more computer scientists, mathematicians and less media studies
• Focus on the talent
• Educate un-social media businesses
• Nurture young talent
• Need to talk to the excluded middle
• Communication is vital
• Need to have skills and creative entrepreneurship
• Support new creative businesses
• Need industry-led innovative training
• Tap into the Asian communities
• Break out of boundaries i.e. look outside the region
• Need iconic brands
• Allowing ideas without business plan
• Use existing engineering knowledge and build imagination
• Be ambitious and aim high
• Experimentation is key to being creative
• Improve infrastructure.

The event was packed and it was obvious that the Midlanders are itching to do something about the economic rut the country is in. I very much look forward to seeing the report and of course any positive changes that will be implemented through it.