Digital switchover, are we there yet?
Radio expert Andy Haylett talks about the digital radio audience reaching the 50% mark, which is an important moment, however, the other bigger 50% challenge remains.
The latest set of RAJAR (Q1 2013) results released last week report, along with the usual ups and downs, a potentially seminal moment in the life of digital radio. Half (50%) of the UK adult population now listens to the radio on a digital platform.
Unfortunately this is not ‘The’ 50% which has been touted by the Government as the tipping point for any digital switchover. That is triggered by Total Hours, the amount of listening digitally instead of the number of people. Currently, 34% of all radio hours are consumed via a digital platform, which is an increase of 4% on the previous period and 17% compared to this time last year, so this measure is definitely continuing to grow.
Read Andy's complete blog 'Digital Radio Hits The Big 50'.
Designers' Note
by Ian Jarvis
This piece of work was commissioned after our client had seen the work we had been doing through this very blog. Until now, the quarterly RAJAR infographic had been a simple, text based A4 page. The brief was to create a more engaging, visually led press release, but at the same time we had to make it accessible enough to hand back to RAJAR and allow them to update it themselves each quarter.
With this in mind, the final artwork was created in PowerPoint. Usually, the mere mention of this word is enough to have any designer reaching for a stiff drink, but PowerPoint as a tool for creating infographics and engaging content is something we have been giving an awful lot of thought to. Regardless of how many showcase pieces we create, the vast majority of our deliverables will be created using PowerPoint for the foreseeable future.
So, we need to embrace it, rather than fight it. By using the same design principles you would employ whilst working in more design friendly software, it is possible to create some very nice work through PowerPoint. With this brief we constructed things using margins and grids to ensure everything was placed carefully on the page. Colours, fonts and imagery are all consistent too, so the final layout has a strong, clean feel. We also supplied a suite of icons and other charting components, which are set up and ready to drop in to pre-defined areas. This makes updating very quick and easy.
The final file is also very adaptable. Individual components can quite easily be taken out and dropped into other reports and presentations, whilst the file converts to PDF and JPEG for use on the website almost instantly.
So, with the right approach, perhaps it is time to give PowerPoint another chance?
