Nine’s Cavalcade of Stars

“Still the One”/”We’re the One” is a nice little tune. Sky made this promo back in 1990, definitively worth watching: http://www.zen77094.zen.co.uk/vintagebroadcasting/03clips/sky_promo.mpg

First time i saw this was online but then i saw it on WIN and started laughing as Peter Leonard makes an appearence.

Its a nice ad full of eye-candy, although I have the feeling it will get annoying after a while, especially the music.

I liked it, it was quite slick, but funny. 😆

I’m glad to see that they have done something right, with all this rebranding stuff. I’ve always like the ‘Still The One’ promos and this one is no exception. Very classy and fun, and yes I laughed myself silly too when I saw Peter Leonard. How many years has he been doing WIN news, gosh seems like decades. Has anyone noticed that WIN news has tried to copy the graphics on National Nine News, but they look pretty crappy and the news STILL isn’t in widescreen, which pisses me off. Wow I kinda got a bit sidetracked there….hmm yes anyway good promo.

WIN Victoria have regionalised the ident by adding Dennis Walter (Newsreader) to it.

Does anybody remember the old “Still The One” ident that aired say back in 2002? “Still The One” was sung to Fatboy Slim’s Weapon of Choice. It had all the channel 9 personalities in some hotel ore something. I can hardly remember it but would love to see it again. All I can really remember is Fatty and the Footy Show guys coming out of an elevator.

Yes, 9 Perth regionalises it by putting in Perth’s two local newsreaders.

To correct some misconceptions about the origination of the “Still the One” campaign, like so many image campaigns and image campaigns used on Australian television, this one originated with the ABC-TV network in the United States in 1977. “Still the One” was, of course, adopted from the song “Still the One” by Orleans.

ABC-TV in the United States was the last of the major three networks to launch (prior to Fox, WB and UPN) and it suffered plenty for it. ABC’s ratings were perennially dismal from its inception to the late 1970s.

Being an American, I can tell you outside of a handful of shows, most viewers here spent their time flipping between NBC and CBS. In addition to having better shows, ABC News suffered through generations of disrespect for its network newscast, which was considered almost an afterthought until Peter Jennings came around.

However, by 1977, ABC-TV embarked on some new thinking – 30 minute sitcoms like Happy Days and hour long excuses to show women’s breasts on shows like Love Boat, Fantasy Island, and of course Charlie’s Angels. It was all wrapped into a campaign called “Still the One” which was simply brilliant. It evoked an emotional reaction by reminding viewers of past shows that were successful, and, in later campaigns, brought stars together with real viewers to make an emotional connection with them.

In 1979, a new image campaign was created to ring in the 1980s. The campaign was produced by Jam Creative Productions. It was always fun.

Obviously the package/creative concept was syndicated to the UK and the Australian markets soon thereafter.

What is especially remarkable to me is that “Still the One” is still being used in one way or another on Australian television. It’s been almost 30 years since it was first used by ABC in the States, and the campaign was long gone by 1982. American television networks don’t seem to hang on to image campaigns for more than a season or two in any event.

What is also remarkable is that the concept of an image campaign is still relevant in the Commonwealth countries while here in North America (and especially in the States), attention deficit disorder has grown so rampant that networks have basically dispensed with anything resembling them. Instead, show openings are condensed to 15 seconds, end credits are reduced to a tiny portion of the screen (and run at warp speed), and networks spend time only on promoting upcoming shows. The idea of promoting themselves seems to be reduced to ad spreads in publications and on their websites. They aren’t going to give up ad inventory to run two minute image campaigns, that’s for certain.

American television seems to be the trend that others follow, so I would guess down the road a similar style of television might land on your shores as well.

What doesn’t bode well is the increasing “junking up” the screen we cope with here where no network show can run without a prominent ID “bug” at the bottom corner of the screen and, annoyingly, prominently placed “pop-up” promotions for shows which can obliterate a good 15% of the screen and distract the hell out of you. As Americans cope with the 200 channels of programming we receive via cable and satellite, networks will do anything to get your attention.

try typing in “GTV9” or something similar on you tube – theres LOADS of quality idents and long version STILL THE ONE idents!