Hello you. Have you just reared your head from January? Were you hibernating with some vegan cheese and reams of paperwork whilst stressing over your self-assessment tax return? Why? Didn’t you hear the great ads that came out of Maple Street?
Some that are showing little accountability for themselves are those MP’s who continue to push the UK toward a no-deal Brexit. Last week, the prominent research company Enders Analysis predicted that if Britain were to leave on such terms then we’d be facing an advertising recession. Whatever your views are on the best use of the English Channel, no one wants the industry to have to wade through such choppy waters. Although the House of Commons voted against accepting a no-deal this week, that vote was purely academic and not law-making. I’m not going to go on record and state how Maple Street feel about such things, but I will say this: If we were in favour of Brexit we’d never…vote that way, tell everyone else to vote that way, then announce this week that we’d be moving our headquarters to South East Asia. But no one would do that anyway, would they?
Fumble Podcast
Over the last few weeks here at Maple Street we’ve enjoyed the company of Vernon Kay and Darren Fletcher, who’ve been recording the excellent ‘Fumble’ Podcast for Shooting Shark Productions. And as the Gridiron season reaches its climax with the Super Bowl on Sunday, American Marketeers are gearing themselves up for one of their high days.
Beer brands introduce slapstick and ASMR
Although last year’s viewing figures were disappointing by comparison, the ad men still know they’re guaranteed a captive audience of 100 million in the States, and as such they’re pulling out all the stops to stand out, particularly when it comes to selling beer. Stella Artois has brought The Dude and Carrie Bradshaw together for a fun ad with plenty of slapstick, and Michelob Ultra have made an outstanding commercial, augmenting their content with ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response). It’s unusual for a visual piece of work to spend so much time on the sound, never mind allowing the audio to lead the creative. UK take note.
New Classical music station Scala
Well, have you listened yet? Of course you have! And whilst there’s little doubt that the brand-new Virgin Breakfast Show sounds…familiar…there’s also a great certainty from all those who’ve ever worked with Chris Evans that he’s going to put the station in the minds of the opinion formers and on the radios of UK listeners. Not just through his talent, but with his unrelenting drive to create something his high standards can be proud of. He’s already on the way it seems, as Maple Street has learnt that after the first week, listening hours were up by a mere 2000%. And Chris hasn’t been the only one switching sides this year. It was announced this week that Simon Mayo has joined Bauer for the launch of their classical music station, Scala. Just as Chris took everything but the rubber plant to his new home, so Simon is taking with him his Confessions feature. Whether the programme will rely on sponsorship over ad revenue like Chris’ is another guess entirely.
Finally, just when you thought podcasts couldn’t get any sexier, along comes David Tennent with this…
I’m just going to leave this here... pic.twitter.com/JxJLXQ7YEw
— David Tennant Does A Podcast With... (@DavidTennantPod) January 24, 2019
So, debonair A-list celebrity presents his own show with Hollywood acting chums. Chances are, if you could travel to any place in time, you’d never find a better year for audio.
