Yesterday a BBC blog entry from Daniel Danker, the Programme and On Demand General Manager at the BBC, caused something of a stir.
It referred to a new “product” and there was much gnashing of teeth and concern as a result.
I’ve got to say that I think that this probably isn’t the clearest communication I’ve ever read. You only need to read listener comments and Tweets to realise that this has confused a lot of people who are concerned that Listen Again might not be available in the future, or they won’t be able to hear BBC Radio on their internet connected devices.
Currently, if you stream a live BBC Radio service, or “Listen Again” to a previous programme, you do it in a player that’s branded “BBC iPlayer”. Because, in the future, iPlayer is going to be for television services only, keen radio listeners are suddenly concerned that features and functionality they currently enjoy will be lost.
However, if you read carefully, and cut through some of the language, aside from changes on some websites as a result in the cuts to BBC Online, overall services will actually improve.
For live listening to BBC radio services, the Radio Player which is being developed by the BBC alongside commercial competitors including Global Radio, GMG and Absolute Radio (my employer!), will become the default platform if you’re streaming from a BBC website.
But what of this new “product”?
“Yes, we do plan to build a new product for radio but this isn’t to cut corners, or downplay what we do for radio online – as with everything we announced yesterday it’s because we want to make the service better, not worse. In the case of radio and music, we think this means giving radio its own home.”
Well I think this is another unfortunate case of “marketing-speak” being used in consumer communications. And, yes, I’m aware that I’m using a certain amount of that language in writing this sentence. But this is slippery slope that we’re already well-down in some areas. Back in 2007 I talked about “premium” being used far too much in the mainstream. “Content” is another word that has also strayed out of the marketing and management arena, and into widespread usage.
The issue here is that if somebody talks about a “product”, I think most people expect a “thing.” If that “thing” is just a revamp of websites, and that’s what I really think that the BBC is talking about here in essence, then “product” is the wrong word to use.
That’s why some people are half expecting the BBC to build another pop-up player to sit alongside the Radio Player. But I’m certain that’s not the case. I think that the BBC is essentially going to be doing a lot more behind the scenes to build social elements into its websites, be cleverer about using metadata attached to programming to build links between different parts of stations’ sites and link together similar programming across different networks, and simplify the “Listen Again” experience.
Disclaimer: I could be wrong about the above. I’ve not directly talked to anyone at the BBC about this, but this is based on feedback I’ve seen online, and from other conversations I’ve had.
Further Disclaimer: These are my views and don’t necessarily reflect those of my employer.
And finally a plea: Can someone please get Frontier Silicon to update their list of on-demand BBC programmes (referred by them, using rather unhelpful nomenclature, as “podcasts” irrespective of whether they’re downloadable), on a DAILY basis? As things stand, you get a sometimes rather random list of recent programmes including broken links to some programmes to which listen-again rights have expired, while recent editions are missing. Ideally, this list should be generated hourly.
Oh, and finally, does anyone really think visitors to the BBC Radio entry page can really tell the difference between the two Five Live logos they’re presented with?
Yes – I know that one is for Five Live, and the other for Five Live Sports Extra. But I can’t tell that from the logo. Indeed, it’s unclear to me why Extra needs its own website at all [Correction: It doesn’t have it’s own website, but the carousel page from the button above does include links to things like it’s schedule].
[Update] Chris Kimber’s comment below is well worth reading. I think I may be wrong in my suppositions here about what the BBC is working on. What’s clear is that it’s a way off. And I guess what really intrigues me is how, if at all, it fits in with Radio Player…
The BBC and Marketing Speak
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9 responses to “The BBC and Marketing Speak”
Personally, I dislike ‘product’ being used in this way too. ‘Service’ would be better but even that has baggage.
The discrete website for Radio 5 Live Sports Extra has been earmarked for closure this week. Logically, the navigation you highlight would go too.
As the person who fixed, then pensioned-off the Radio Player, then who worked on the iPlayer for radio, I’m used to BBC marketing speak a little. Just like any large business, the Corporation is full of people who try to dazzle with their inability to speak in simple English, and hide their incompetence behind Birt-speak. It’s disappointing; but then, it’s not a BBC-only fault.
Given that the BBC’s blog post talks about “the new product” and THEN, separately, talks about the UK Radio Player, I have concluded that the BBC have had second thoughts about using the UK Radio Player as their primary playback console. I’m glad you don’t agree with that, and I hope you’re right and I’m wrong.
In terms of the separate site for 5 Live Sports Extra – you were entirely correct first time. The station does, at the time of writing, have its own website, at http://www.bbc.co.uk/5livesportsextra/
It’s potty. It’s an opt-out service, just like Radio 4 LW (though I understand why it needs to be marketed separately; it’s a reason to get digital radio, on whatever platform).
In terms of the logos: I personally took the issue of the truncating of the logos here – including the change to 6music to simply Radio 6, and BBC Radio A, whatever the fuck that is supposed to be – to radio’s Marketing Communication and Audiences department, who ignored my initial email, ignored my follow-up, and finally sent me a one-line response wondering what the problem was; and as a result I lost any authority to fix it. It still makes me angry thinking about it, as you can possibly tell, given I was, at the time, ultimately responsible for the visual designers who truncated the logos in the first place. I’m passionate about getting the little things right, and still can’t comprehend why these truncated logos are apparently deemed acceptable by SM-grade staff in the organisation, much less by a former marketer of Pepsi. I don’t remember that logo getting truncated by wayward designers to simply “Peps”.
Cheers, anyway, Ad Bow, for allowing me to get that off my chest a little.
PS: Have you noticed that your screenshot of the BBC iPlayer for Radio console, above, also truncates the BBC iPlayer logo to just “BBC iPlaye”? Thankfully, that one was after my time.
Adam, in fairness to Daniel Danker, he was writing on the BBC Internet blog, so it wasn’t a full mainstream “consumer communications” excercise. But I take your point that many people not in the industry won’t understand the phrase “product” when it comes to online services.
In truth it’s too early to go into any detail about the new “product” (we’re very much still working on it), but it’s likely to be more than just a revamp of existing websites, and will probably, to use your language, be more of a “thing”. But don’t expect to see anything emerging soon – it’s likely to be many months before it becomes clear exactly what it will be.
Yes, the 5Live Sports Extra logo isn’t exactly suited to such a small piece of real estate as it gets on the BBC Radio homepage. I agree.
Thanks for the note James. I bow to your knowledge of internal BBC politics surrounding these logos…
As far as the new “product” goes, I think I’m along the right lines. The Radio Player has lots of functionality to serve on-demand audio, but it can just as easily link back to a webpage where needed. That – and a couple of other things – hasn lead me to my conclusions above.
And I’m glad to hear that the separate 5 Live Sports Extra website – whether it really exists or is just a figment of my imagination – is to fold into the main website.
And as for the clipped iPlayer logo? I assume that’s a messy short-term solution as the current iPlayer morphs into Radio Player in its next iteration. If you launch the player, it still goes launches as a horizontal pop-up before “reconfiguring” as a vertical player, seemingly as competing bits of code seem to fight it out.
Thanks for the note Chris.
Curiouser and curiouser.
And intriguing…
Happy to let you know that I’ve completely worked it out.
http://james.cridland.net/blog/the-bbcs-new-radio-product-birtspeak-translation/
That’s all that sorted then.
(Cross-posted on James’s blog)
I too have a hatred of jargon and management-speak (despite falling prey to it myself occasionally). So, with clarity in mind……
I can confirm that all BBC services will be in Radioplayer, and when you click ‘Listen’ on their homepages, that’s what will launch. This is the same for all Radioplayer partners.
As shown at the Radio Festival, the BBC consoles will offer some interesting features beyond core Radioplayer ones – some based on iPlayer technology.
So there’s already a crossover between two important parts of their strategy – working in partnership to grow digital radio, and offering simple ways to listen to their programmes.
As far as I can tell, their recent announcements simply point to more of this convergence and sophistication. They’re working out how all the bits of their offering fit together.
(also cross posted on James’ blog)
Yes I can confirm what Mike has said, that when Radioplayer launches it will be the default player for both live and on-demand radio from both the radio stations sites (eg.www.bbc.co.uk/radio2) and from the iPlayer site. In fact, it will at that point be the only radio console the BBC has for radio.
The Radioplayer (which launches soon) and the new product (which doesn’t) that Daniel Danker and Erik Huggers blogged about are not the same thing. The Radioplayer is a pop-out console; it would be odd to have two such consoles.