When the game is over or breaking sports news happens, is your branding ready for air? For us imaging producers, it’s easy to stay in our audio caves spending days on a generic promo that can run for days or months. It’s also easy to slap together a “Here’s what you missed this morning on the Joe Blow Show”…followed by a clip. However, for timely imaging, that way of processing gets tossed out the door.
For sports program directors, hosts and show producers, timing is very important. Here’s why: In the modern era of Twitter, Facebook and On Demand, generic is just not good enough. Twitter is not going to wait a day to get reaction broadcast to the world, nor should you. It’s even more important when a major sporting event is starting and ending. Hosts are live, reacting and taking calls. Listeners want to know what’s happening NOW. And this is exactly how we should be thinking in terms of branding – If you want to be in the NOW you need your station branding to reflect current hot topics and reaction.
Nothing irritates me more following a big game, than hearing dated generic material on the air with old play-by-play calls. For example, “We’re the home of X team (pbp clips) WWXX FM.”
“Less filler, more presenting topical information in creative ways. People simply have too may other compelling ways to spend their time and even imaging has to be about interesting information. What is happening. What things mean to you. Why something matters. All of this can be done in creative ways. The sky’s the limit on creativity. It’s just not about throwing on generic attitude liners about – we have balls -”. – Jim Cutler – www.jimcutler.com
You’re probably thinking, this sounds like a lot of work. It really isn’t. It just requires some extra preparation. Here are a few easy and inexpensive ways your station can deliver on timely content in its branding:
-Before the big game, have your station voice read script for various outcomes. If you have a good relationship with your imaging voiceover, which hopefully you do, you can also request a few lines be read after the game.
– Have your image producer create donuts or various creative promos where current content/reaction can easily be dropped in by a nighttime or morning show producer, and then placed on the air.
– You Tube, Instagram as well as Twitter are full of great sound and reaction from fans and players. For example: Minutes after Super Bowl 53 concluded – I quickly came across Rob Gronkowski, Julian Edelman and Tom Brady audio reactions directly from their Twitter and Instagram feeds that they posted while walking around the field or back to the locker room. I recorded them into Pro Tools – and I worked that sound into promos recapping the game. Amazing, raw emotion. A reporter is not going get that raw emotion from a player – usually. Their socials are where it’s at!
– Have show producers cut reaction audio from callers and place it into pre produced donuts and promos. With some simple clever editing, you’ll have up to date promo with local reactions on the air in your branding.
“A promo’s purpose is to promote something on the station which will give the audience a reason to tune back in. What is the event, why is it important, and when is it happening. If you can answer those three things in a short creative way then you’re in a good position to generate additional listening. Most listeners don’t know the difference between a promo and commercial. They see anything that isn’t the host talking as an interruption to the content. They’re also focused on what’s happening today, not four days later. If you give people a reason to tune back in TODAY they will. Ask them to remember what’s happening later in the week and it becomes harder. It’s all about creating a sense of urgency.” – Jason Barrett – Barrett Sports Media
Imaging the Boston sports scene is a constant feast of raw emotion, instant reaction and most importantly – championships. It’s plentiful. For example – During this Patriots season, we (WEEI) were able to get a lot of timely promo content on the air minutes after the Super Bowl concluded. Here are some examples:
In 2017, during the constant bombardment of Brady is old and tired, we highlighted the hate with some creative timely audio.
There’s no excuse for generic branding. Timely will be the new norm. I hope your station embraces that change.
Next time, I’ll take a detailed look into a NOW approach to your station branding sound. Using modern music, sfx and processing, that gets your station sounding more in the NOW, instead of 1993.
EXCLUSIVE TO BSM READERS: Contact Justin today and he’ll hook you up with free sports imaging SFX just for reading this article! He can be reached by email by clicking here.
Justin Dove is the owner/operator of Core Image Studio Inc – a production boutique specializing in custom sound design and audio branding for sports radio: www.coreimagestudio.com
