I attended part of the PromaxBDA (www.promaxbda.org) show today at the Hilton New York on Sixth Avenue. The first session I sat in on was "A Conversation with Anderson Cooper." Cooper is a CNN anchor, reporter and host of
AC360. During the session, he announced that he will launch a new daytime television show this September.
Anderson will shoot at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and will include a live audience. Cooper will host the show and serve as its EP. The program's focus will not be on news, for which Cooper has built a well-respected reputation, but on pop culture, social issues and guilty pleasures, of which he apparently has many, including the
Housewives reality series.
Later in the afternoon, I sat in on Lee Hunt's "State of Design" session, which is always interesting, as Hunt analyzes promo trends throughout the broadcast and cable fields. This year, his presentation focused on the effectiveness of cross-channel promotion. Hunt looked at how broadcasters are using story arcs to move viewers from one show to another. He also detailed the pros and cons of using squeezed credits, weaved credits, embedded credits, and squeezed credits with promotional elements for closing one show and opening another. His Website (http://leehunt.com) features the entire presentation and examples of different broadcasters' attempts at each.
And I had a chance to catch up with composer Joel Beckerman, whose Man Made Music (http://manmademusic.com) on 46
th Street is undergoing a major renovation. Man Made Music sponsored the lanyards that each attendee received with their PromaxBDA exhibit badge, which shows how important this show is not to just graphic designers, but to music companies too. In fact, Beckerman noted that one of his clients, Encore, was keeping their graphic identity, but updating its on-air persona with new music, reinforcing the importance sound can play in creating an identity.
Construction at Man Made Music will be completed in August and the reconfigured space will better serve the creative team. Beckerman says he's seen a decrease in client-attended sessions over the years and that has allowed him to alter the layout of his space. An isolated drum room is being constructed, and space that previously served as a live recording room will be made multifunctional. Man Made Music recently completed a rebrand for the Golf Channel. The studio is currently working on a re-brand for MSNBC and on a project for AT&T.