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Promax UK, which supports the UK’s TV marketing and promotion industry, is working with a diverse group of young adults to help them break into the business of television.
One of those teams has been dubbed “The Pericasters.” Their mission? To use Twitter’s live streaming application Periscope to capture and broadcast key moments from the upcoming Promax UK conference, Oct. 29-30, from the start of the conference to the close of the gala awards show on Friday night.
The Pericasters is composed of Camroy Peters, Shukri Ahmed and Chinny Brown. Helping them is Kerry Brown, Promax UK’s web designer, and Promax UK board members Envy’s Natascha Cadel, Definition 6’s Frank Radice and independent creative director Marc Ortmans.
The group was brought together due to a partnership between Promax UK’s Next Gen initiative, headed by Ortmans and Radice, and London-based So You Wanna Be In TV, run by Rioch Edwards-Brown. Edwards-Brown, who on Wednesday night was named “Hero of the Year” at the UK’s National Diversity Awards, formed So You Wanna Be In TV to help diverse young adults get started in the TV business in the UK, and develop career-building skills. The Pericasters is one such effort to do that.
“So You Wanna Be In TV works with kids who need a break. This organization helps them develop the skills so that they have a fair chance of being employed, particularly when they’ve got talent. Rioch identifies these young people and then she prepares them in all of the fundamentals,” says Ortmans.
There are plenty of ways the organization trains young people, but they are trying out Periscope because Promax UK sees a lot of potential in the new application.
“I believe that Periscope and live-streaming, because it’s a two-way communications tool, are top of everyone’s minds right now. Everyone is talking about streaming media. How do you use it as a marketing tool? This is a learning experience for us veterans too,” says Radice.
In advance of the upcoming Promax UK conference, Team Pericaster will get to practice shooting and live-streaming two upcoming events. Next week, Edwards-Brown will be interviewed by a local broadcaster and the team will broadcast the interview on Periscope.
On October 8, Promax UK will host an event at London’s Cuckoo Club to announce this year’s awards finalists. The Pericasters will be on the red carpet broadcasting arrivals and interviewing the nominees.
While working on these events, the team will learn how best to live-stream from the refurbished iPhone 5 that Promax UK is providing them. Already, the team has learned that Periscoping works best if you promote that you are going to be doing it well ahead of time and if you have one person Periscoping while another person mans the social-media console on the ground to get the word out, says Radice.
“This is the leading edge of marketing,” he says. “We are using Periscope as a teaching tool but also to let people know what Promax UK is up to.”
Working on those two events should prepare the team to live-stream events at Promax UK, which is being held this year at the British Film Institute Southbank.
“They aren’t going to Periscope the complete conference from beginning to end,” says Radice, “but there will be a consistent peri-casting presence on the Promax UK Twitter feed and the videos will also live on the So You Wanna Be in TV web site and on a dedicated page on the Promax UK web site.”
The event will culminate with the Promax UK Awards on Friday, Oct. 30.
Other companies participating in the Next Gen initiative include Channel 5, Envy, and Altitude Music. Promax UK 2015 chairs have also appointed a candidate from So You Wanna Be In TV to work alongside them to help produce the conference and awards.
Follow PromaxUK on Twitter @PromaxUK and follow So You Wanna Be In TV @SYWBITV.
Cube image courtesy of Frank Radice. Pictured, L to R, is: Camroy Peters, Kerry Brown, Shukri Ahmed, Frank Radice, Chinny Brown, Natascha Cadle, Rioch Edwards-Brown and Marc Ortmans.
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