The Weakest Link - Promotional Content

The Weakest Link is one of the most succesful formats in the world and after its departure in 2012 from BBC One and BBC Two, there hasn't been anything like it on TV.

And so, I present to you 'The Weakest Link' Promotional Content.

I am currently designing some promotional content that could lead up to its return on BBC One.

The first of which being the opening lines from Jon Briggs and Anne Robinson featured in a short promo for the show.

More recently, I've seen the BBC drop the blocks above channel logos when promoting their shows, I have included this in my design.

Fonts used:
BBC Reith Sans
BBC One

I hope you like it.

Feedback is welcomed.

As a person who hosts TWL on Roblox (Adults can play Roblox too), this is quite good. Is there a video coming up.

To me it just looks like some text on a gradient background. I’m only rating this 2, but I might change my rating if I see more.

It's almost **** enough to be believable.

It needs to be a video in order to see how this actually works, at the moment it feels rather bland. Doubt this would even last a pitch in Creative promo department.

I'm guessing since it's an established show, your aim is for a quick 10 or 20 second teaser promo saying that it's back.

I like the fact that you've thought about the BBC's use of the blocks in promos, I quite like it without the BBC logo! It's a little more simple and I think that it adds something to the overall design.

However, other than that it's a bit of a poor effort. There is really very little content to judge, it's just a couple of quotes and the name of the show. The attention to detail isn't quite up to scratch either, the positioning of the closing quotation marks is different on the two quotes (the second one is higher up in relation to the text). The quotes in themselves aren't particularly inspiring either - while it's true that these quotes feature in the show, I don't really think that they draw you in and really make you want to watch.

To take this further, I'd say that you need to work on developing a short video or at least a series of still shots that visually show the direction of the promo. Another point, I'd rather that the 24 hour clock was used, so I'd rather see "The Weakest Link, Monday 7th January, 17:15" but that's just my personal preference.

Overall though, nice to see a mock of the Weakest Link (I agree it should definitely be brought back ), but I'd say that at the moment, the mock looks unfinished and I'd prioritise adding more content to make it seem more of a finished product.

2/5 at the moment, mainly because it appears unfinished.

The BBC don't do it currently, nor is it normal practice on any UK TV channel, so that is never going to happen.

Firstly, I'm aware that it's not really particularly common for promos, which is why I said: "I'd rather see" and not "it should be". Secondly, the 24-hour clock is used for the clock on BBC News and Sky News. Thirdly, things have changed a lot in a short period of time, so saying that it "is never going to happen" is not really accurate because I'm sure it will eventually - after all it makes more sense than the 12-hour clock (in my opinion)!

“Are you watching The Apprentice at 21:00 tonight?” said no one ever.

This is taking the thread slightly off topic now but I'd say "Are you watching the Apprentice at nine?" but if I were writing it, I would always write it "Are you watching the Apprentice at 21:00?".

Quoting Wikipedia:
"In most countries, the 24-hour clock is the standard system used, especially in writing. Some nations in Europe and Latin America use a combination of the two, preferring the 12-hour system in colloquial speech but using the 24-hour system in written form and informal contexts."

Also, the BBC has been using the 24-hour clock for online radio and TV guides for a number of years - why not on TV?

I'm not really sure it deserves this level of debate (particularly on this thread) but I thought I'd mention it in my original post as I personally feel that it is a better system to use, not necessarily one that I thought DeMarkay should implement into his mock if he is trying to replicate what is traditionally done by the BBC for promos.

Not that I'm going to profess to know the deep, dark secrets of the BBC's marketing strategy but I'm going to go out on a limb and say probably just because it's not very friendly in tone?

In context of listings etc they are most likely seen as being an information service whereas trailers are more of a marketing tool where the message is different. They are probably aiming for a conversational tone of voice hence the choice to use the 12 hour clock as has been the preference for decades.