Design- Interaction With Viewers

Since there isn’t a red button for idents of a TV channel there aren’t no true response interaction, though with that come the response of the audience from the ident they have seen. When BBC One first established they only had one TV ident, which was the bat wings design, but now that the TV industry has developed the ability to produce a much finer ident with both real-life footage and CGI is possible.

At times idents will be made in order to interact with viewers, for instance, E4 introduced a new project where the audience are able to get in touch with E4 and sportively interfere with their idents by tweeting ideas and messages to be shown on the board the robot ‘Eefer’ carries around. They can do this on various social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, YouTube etc. A way to uphold their humour and ‘purpleness’ with the creation of Eefer. This was introduced to gain an advantage over competitors according to Charlie Palmer who stated, “We wanted to try something truly distinct and invite viewers to engage with us in a way no other channel does”. The Eefer project was introduced on the date “The Big Bang Theory” started on E4 which was a quite clever move to make since the programme is based on science and the field of physics, thus linking to the robot ident. It shows that the channel really values their audience’s opinion and looking out for them.

In addition to this, 4Creative and agency Man vs. Machine rolled out on the 31st of October, it was a great idea with the return of the hit sitcom ‘The Big Bang Theory’. These Idents were created and developed by MPC. This is vital since they are using a show with scientists to promote their E4 robot which links in with scientists.



Another example, is where an action-adventure film is cued up to be played on BBC One and they use the helicopter landing on the circular sea pad informing the viewers that the next programme could be related to action based show with the continuity announcer who would inform them is what is about to be aired next with a particular tone of voice to amplify the viewers’ already building tension and anticipating them by wanting to watch.