How to Make Great Promos...

Promos on radio or TV aim to capture the essence of the programme, the series, or the event they're promoting, in a unique and creative way; a way that makes you sit up and take notice... the makes you want to tune in... that makes you interested in it, whatever it’s for.

Some promos can be pretty straight forward. They show or play clips, maybe good ones, and tell you when it’s on. Functional, but not that creative.

Some promos tease, and allow your mind to do the work and fill in the blanks. More creative.

And some have clips, teasing and include an added narrative or theme. Now here’s where it gets good. The creative possibilities start to open up.

One of the best examples of this I’ve seen is for Channel 4’s coverage of the Paralympics which are about to get underway this week in London.

The use of training and competitive footage shows what the viewer has in store. Nicely done.

But the added ‘storylines’ in the middle are a touch of genius, giving context and perspective to the whole piece. It makes it personal. It makes it human.

And then the text. It feels like a Hollywood trailer... only less clichéd, because you know it’s actually true.

“Forget everything you thought you knew about strength.

Forget everything you thought you knew about humans.

It’s time to do battle.

Meet The Superhumans.”

Meet The Superhumans – just a fantastic tag line to the whole thing. Positioning it almost above the Olympics in terms of human endeavour, simply because of the feats involved.

And finally the music. Being a ‘music, sound & content’ company, we take particular interest in the selection of these kind of things! So hats off to the team at Channel 4 for selecting Public Enemy – Harder Than You Think. Powerful, gritty, triumphant and positioning the coverage as more 'alternative' to that of the BBC’s Olympic recent coverage (superb as it was).

So, enjoy one of the best promos on TV right now...