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I'd sure like to say we did the sound design on this...but we didn't.
Still, it's a great idea for a retail site. Yes it's Dutch and you probably can't read it, but wait for it. It's brilliant! Click here.
Thanks to Jeff Hoyt for this one (we did do the sound design there). Great fun!
Sound for Picture from Soundscapes on Vimeo.
With a grand total of 364 votes, the winner is (SFX: Drum roll):
Yes, it's the Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Getting Tased. Congratulations on your sound effect brilliance, Katie! You'll be taking home the grand prize in the Marconi SFX Challenge, the iPod Touch.
And congratulations to all our finalists, who will each receive gift cards from the iTunes music store. Thanks for entering, playing and voting, and keep those sound effects handy. There's always next year!
Viva Marconi SFX Challenge!
We know you want them. So here they are, ready to download and spring on unsuspecting friends, to use on your voicemail message or as a ringtone, or to simply annoy your co-workers in both a cube and non-cube environment. Enjoy!
Sharks Have a Burping Contest.mp3
Chewy Sings Happy Birthday on Helium.mp3
Poll closes on Thursday, April 24 at 5:00 p.m. Check back on Friday, April 25 and see who won!
After a series of minor mishaps involving a few of our voice talent, bowls of hot fat, blindfolds and perhaps a police report (still waiting to hear back on that), the finalists have been chosen in the Marconi SFX Challenge! Also? You guys are crazy.
Seriously, we had an amazing response with many creative, inspiring and challenging sound effects submitted. Thanks for all your entries! We really enjoyed them. Our engineers were up to the challenge (pictures of that to follow) and Flarped, foleyed and finessed their way through truly one-of-a-kind production you've never heard before.
On to the finalists! In no particular order:
Sharks Having a Burping Contest
Submitted by Neveen Hegab, Lincoln
The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, Getting Tased
Submitted by Katie Barrett, Salt Lake City
Chewbacca Singing Happy Birthday after Inhaling Helium
Submitted by Mike Sells, Little Rock
God Texting
Submitted by Robert Manley, Anchorage
External Combustion Engine
Submitted by Nick Main, Kansas City
A hyper-flatulent orangutan and an asthmatic seal relaxing on an old southern shotgun shack wooden front porch in rocking chairs, surrounded by long tail cats, performing ‘Dueling Banjos’ with flatulence, seal barking and punctuated by occasional yelps from cats getting their tail caught under a rocking chair. Oh yeah, it’s a humid July evening, and it’s lightly raining tapioca pudding on the tin roof.
Submitted by Sam Miller, Lincoln
Click here to vote for your favorite sound effect. The SFX with the most votes by Thursday, April 24 will win the iPod Touch. May the best burping, screaming, singing, texting, exploding and farting win!
Decades ago, popular psychology divided our brains into hemispheres of differing functions: our Left Brain took responsibility for logical, rational thinking—lists, organization and details, while our Right Brain picked up the creative tasks—holistic thought, creativity and imagination. We can use this divided-brain scenario as a good template for discussion of effective radio.
All too many times, clients want us to use radio to “run down the list” of product attributes—you know—copy points, mandatories. While this makes for a very satisfying script for the client to approve, it typically means nothing to the listener. The reason? Listeners are passive. They’re not hanging on to every word of a radio spot, nor are they working hard to remember the copy points we all sweat to cram into the 30 or 60 seconds we’re constrained to. With spots like this, we’re expecting them to digest multiple copy points as if they were processing with their Left Brain. They’re not.
The most effective, memorable radio is that which appeals to a listener’s Right Brain. Stories, big concepts and entertaining, picturesque scenarios are what appeals to radio listeners. Check out the winners of the Radio Mercury Awards, or the EAR awards. Radio that focuses on one big idea is radio that works.
Perhaps we should re-think creative briefs that allow for more than one major copy point in radio. We should teach account people to communicate to clients that quantity destroys quality. If the client has three big things that they need the listener to remember, an opportunity is opened to create a themed campaign that can encompass three individual spots. This lemons-into-lemonade approach allows for the big idea to carry the copy points. And it’s the big idea that appeals to our Right Brain.
Themed campaigns have the added benefit of longer shelf life for a concept. If written properly, one spot will lead into another and cause listeners to want to hear the next one!
Remembering that radio is a right-brained medium is one good way to frame your radio creative for success.
Podcasting is one of the fastest-growing channels of online communication, with a projected 20 million weekly listeners by 2010. That's a lot of ears.
Can you create engaging, relevant and professional podcasts as a part of your social media strategy? Of course you can. You just need "5 Minutes to Better Podcasting," a podcast about podcasting.
If you missed me at nxt.pr today, email me for a handsome CD case. Or take five and listen right here:
The deadline for entries in the Marconi SFX Challenge has passed. Thanks for the many, many creative and challenging entries. Finalists will be posted next week. Stay tuned!
Guglielmo Marconi was a visionary with variable coherers, everyone knows that. Now's your chance for the world to hear your creative brilliance. And to sport some cool Apple hardware.
Here's how it works: Send us your original idea of a creative challenging sound effect. Like cockroaches playing volleyball. Or cheerleaders at a spelling bee. Or just about anything else (except those examples, of course). Quick and easy, just email us your idea and you're in the running.
Finalists in the challenge will hear their sound effect produced by skilled Soundscapes engineers and see them posted on this blog, where they will compete in an open poll. The sound effect with the most votes wins the challenge and an 8G iPod Touch.
Runners up in the challenge will each win $20 iTunes gift cards.
The deadline to enter your sound effect is Thursday, April 10. Be your own visionary for creativity and innovation in radio! Enter that SFX today.
The Marconi-Loomis Debate
At some point, most clients want to know where we stand on the Marconi-Loomis debate. We acknowledge the growing evidence that American dentist Mahlon Loomis transmitted signals between two Virginia mountain tops in 1866 and had installed two crude-but-functional transmitting stations by the time of his death in 1866.
But Soundscapes' official stance on the issue remains as follows: Because of his work with variable coherers, grounded antennae, improved spark oscillators and telegraph-key integration, Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi is rightly credited as the inventor of the technology package we know today as radio.
"A revolutionary transmitting machine! And so stylish as well."
Marchese Guglielmo Marconi
Born April 25, 1874
No purchase necessary to win. Deadline for sound effect entries is April 10, 2008. Finalists will have their sound effect produced and sound effects will be posted at http://blog.soundscapes.com the week of April 14, 2008. Finalists will be chosen at random from entries by Soundscapes clients by blind-folded and disoriented Soundscapes voice talent, who are forced to traverse a hallway filled with biting flies while balancing a bowl of hot fat on their heads. The winner of the Soundscapes Marconi SFX Challenge will be determined by an open public poll at http://blog.soundscapes.com. The sound effect that receives the most votes will win an 8G Apple iPod Touch. Runners up will receive $20 iTunes gift cards. Winners will be posted on April 25, 2008 at http://blog.soundscapes.com. Must be 18 years or older and a Soundscapes client to enter. One entry per client. Void where prohibited. Tax, title and license may vary. Do not ingest.
Matt Twohy from Porcaro Communications brought this test to my attention. I bearly passed.
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