Editors Comments

Fresh faces

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 14:34

It’s always a welcome relief to attend a work event engrossing enough to take one’s mind off harrowing industry issues, like those currently affecting South Africa’s public service broadcasting sector. Last Friday’s PromaxBDA Africa Conference & Awards in Johannesburg, which is devoted to TV promos, channel branding and on-air communications, was like a blast of fresh country air.

Apart from the annual array of fascinating speakers selected from all over the world, PromaxBDA Africa exposes a sector of the television industry that one doesn’t normally come into contact with. Promos and channel branding are an intrinsic and constant part of broadcasting yet largely unacknowledged. How many times have you heard someone say: “Wow! Did you see that amazingly creative promo with the unique concept, clever narration, wonderful use of music and slick editing that was on last night?” Probably never.

A global organisation, PromaxBDA holds conference and awards events in many parts of the world, including New York, Dubai, Europe and Singapore. So to say you’ve won a PromaxBDA award is quite something. Forty-six awards were handed out to worthy winners at the Africa event. The winning promos certainly looked world class.

PromaxBDA conference speakers, in their own unique ways, generally focus on one central theme – how better and more innovatively to grab the audience’s attention, be it in terms of upcoming programmes or channel branding. There is a mass of channels out there and loads of clutter, so promos need to have elements that make viewers take notice of them, absorb whatever information they offer and convince them to watch whatever is being promoted. Think that’s easy? Think again. It’s the same sort of thing ad agencies do and we all know how creative and clever they are.

So, looking around the Bill Gallagher Room at the Sandton Convention Centre last Friday at the hundreds of delegates, many of them finalists and winners in the awards component of the event, three things stood out – new, unknown faces, great enthusiasm and youth. It did, however, raise the question – do you necessarily have to be under 30 years of age, funkily attired and trendily coifed to be in the promo industry?

Freshness aside, another encouraging element of the event was the participation of all of South Africa’s broadcasters – SABC, M-Net, TopTV, DStv, SuperSport and e.tv. Even more encouraging was the fact that five-month old community TV station, Tshwane TV, won a Gold award for its promo entry, “I Am Tshwane TV”.

Joanna Sterkowicz

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