Whatever your opinion about Mark Gillman, (just plain crazy, loud or best thing that ever happened to morning radio) one thing remains undisputed – he sure cleans up nicely and gives a great show! Here, the TMGS Creatives founder and our unofficial ‘crowd-puller’ brings radio to life, and takes revenge on Programming Managers with, wait for it – Brand Programming Technology…
“I gave you the radio and you killed it – with advertising! Where’s the boxing match? Why do we start with boxing, and then stop? It’s a circus people!”, was how former 5FM broadcaster Mark Gillman blasted onto the RadioWorks 2011 stage. Following a build-up in which he’d promised – ‘not a presentation, but a ‘show’, Gillman certainly put up a performance that won’t easily be forgotten.
For the more than 350 radio industry players gathered at The Campus, Bryanston, as well as the 140 at Crystal Towers Hotel in Cape Town, his boxing match and circus analogies drove home the main premise behind his specialist programming technology firm; TMGS Creatives.
“Everything’s possible in a circus. For the circus performers, it’s about nothing more than having fun. They enjoy the show more than we do. Going on the radio was exactly the same thing for me. I got up in the morning to please myself. I believed that if I was having fun, listeners would have fun too. In my studio we were having boxing matches every day”, said the highly charged Gillman.
His musings, often peppered with biting remarks at station Programming Managers, outlined the fact that for radio advertising to work, it needs to move or entertain first, and then be skilfully integrated into a station’s compelling programming line-up.
On a practical level, Mark says the excuse about radio not being ‘visual’ simply doesn’t fly. “Programming is about evoking a feeling. It doesn’t have to be visual. Programming is not creative – it’s about being a human being. Someone must cry, laugh, be offended or be moved – something has to happen;
“Programming and advertising – is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship. The moment I decided to get a sponsor to become a part of that compelling programming and ‘blow stuff up’ was when symbiosis happened”, he explains.
Mark demonstrated this symbiosis with various clips of his morning-drive antics including; a challenge to find and walk to the ‘Millionth caller’ of his show on 5FM, as well as one with Premier Foods bread trucks that caused havoc on Hospital Bend in Cape Town.
He points out that successful advertising involves moving out of the graphs and demographics, it’s about evoking a feeling, making people ‘see the radio’ and creating programming that affects them. Thereafter, it becomes easier to make the brand fit;
“What you do on air between the songs is have a relationship with people. I gave you the radio and said let’s offend people, let’s make them cry and what did you give me – the BARCODE competition, with, wait for it … a hamper prize! Do I look like a hamper person?!
It’s quite possible to MOVE human beings and have a brand attached to it. Start getting it right, and Programming will save lives”, he concluded.
No ‘show’ is complete without a few ‘Gillman-isms’ coined and made famous on the Radioworks stage…
- “Who gives a continental?!”
- “You guys make spots – I make promos”
- “It’s about the feeling”
- “start a movement”
- “You’re not going to get laid if you wrap the diamond ring in newspaper”.
After a show-stopping morning talk, the gloves did of course come off in the Afternoon Stream (click on the videos for more of the action!)
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