Imagine just picking up a casual 19 Promax Awards on an otherwise regular Friday night. That’s the case for our award-winning Promos team who were recognised for their outstanding work on promos that ran across both 10 and Paramount+, including I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!, Hunted, Football on 10, This is Movies and Peak Screaming.
Paramount+ was also awarded a gold for the Partner Sponsorship Campaign and Most Outstanding Marketing Initiative for the Paramount+ VIVID 2022 Drone Show, as well as being awarded a silver for the Best Use Of Digital/Social Media for Paramount+, The Inspired Unemployed and The Betoota Advocate campaign.
There are a number of extremely talented and hard-working staff across promos, graphic design, audio, marketing and social media teams that worked across all of these campaigns.
The Water Cooler was lucky enough to talk to Mark Sharman (Senior Creative Content Producer) about this incredible achievement.
Where does one even start when trying to come up with a creative concept for a promo?
Find some thing that you connect with. The chances are, other people will connect with that same thing.
Then use your imagination and take that thing and go crazy with it; for instance, put in pyjamas on the moon or give it a moustache and see where that takes you.
Brainstorm with a someone and see what they think and where their imagination takes them. You’ll often find it leads to something new and better. Or not. If not, just try again.
What is the process from start to finish in creating a promo?
I would break this down into four steps: briefing, research, ideation, and production.
- Briefing is where you find out the what, why, where, and when. All the details you need to make the promo. Including deadlines, important names/start, plus the demographics of who you are talking to. The briefing could be in the form of a simple chat with the manager or by way of a detailed document.
- Research is where you become an expert and get as much useful information as possible (watch TV and surf the net). Not just about show you are making a promo for but also the audience you are talking to, the shows you are in competition with and the general landscape you are communication in.
- Ideation is where the fun starts. You have the brief, you are now an expert on the show, you have some juicy content and there are always some connections between these things which will generate an idea. And that idea gets developed and refined into a rough script.
- Production is where the magic happens. Up to now, the ideas are just on paper and the script is yet to be realised. It now gets edited with music and sound effects and voice over and amazing graphics and it gets to come to life. Once approved each promo is then post produced where the i’s are dotted and t’s are crossed and all the versions are delivered.
How do you manage to keep each promo fresh and not like the last?
The great Mark Twain answers this question the best: “There is no such thing as a new idea. It is impossible. We simply take a lot of old ideas and put them into a sort of mental kaleidoscope. We give them a turn and they make new and curious combination.”
Our promo kaleidoscope is an epically wonderful one. It’s full of fellow collaborative creatives, with great imaginations and amazing tools that allow us to play with what works.
Which promo are you most proud of and why?
I would have to say Hunted.
I had the privilege of being on set for the first few days of production which was incredibly exciting watching the hunt unfold in real time.
Then when we started making the launch promos the show hadn’t been edited yet. This meant we got to trawl through the hours of rushes and build the edit from scratch.
What do you do outside of work to inspire your creative side?
Let my mind wander and daydream.
Talk to people – especially interesting ones with interesting stories.
Enjoy new and diverse experiences.
Read, listen to the radio, watch movies, google stuff.
