report - Ebu.ch

EBU International Training Assembly 2005
EBU Geneva, 5 and 6 October 2005
Wednesday 5 October 2005
Workshop 4: "Creativity: being practical”
As a very successful example on the German TV market, ZDF (Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen)
presented a format called “Unsere Besten” (“Our Best”), the original format “Great Britons” was
invented by BBC.
With participants of the workshop we worked out the creative steps in the process from finding
the idea up to broadcasting a promising new program.
1. BIOS
Marita Lewening
After studying Law at Mainz University and Dijon (France), she worked in the legal field before
joining ZDF Human Resources as an adviser in 1988. She worked as aide to the Administrative
Director until she took over the Training Department in 1995.
Mrs. Lewening is currently charged with building up a Media Academy, to be jointly operated
with fellow German public broadcaster ARD.
Outside ZDF she is actively promoting training at various associations, both at regional, national
and international levels.
Dr. Brigitte Duczek
BD is an editor (supervising producer) for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF) in Mainz,
Germany, department: Culture and Science. She has worked in television for the last 15 years
as a reporter, anchor, host and supervising producer. The most recent show she worked for was
‘Unsere Besten’, a sequel program of different cultural issues starting with ‘Unsere Besten –
Who is the Greatest German?’. She holds a doctorate in German Literature.
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2. THE WORKSHOP
Brigitte first explained the original BBC format.
In 2002, the BBC conducted a vote to discover the 100 Greatest Britons of all time. British game
show host Anne Robinson hosted the first TV show presenting the first top 100 people chosen
as the greatest Great Britons. It was a 3-hour-show starting in London National Gallery and was
composed of 100 short packages on the 100 famous people.
The poll resulted in some unlikely candidates including Guy Fawkes, Aleister Crowley, Boy
George and Robbie Williams. It also included two living Irish nationals (Bono and Bob Geldof)
and James Connolly, the Irish nationalist who was shot by the British in 1916 (Connolly was born
in Scotland). Some Irish people have complained about the BBC's habit of including Irish
nationals in "British" lists. And more recently e-mail campaigns to the BBC have registered the
displeasure of Irish people at being referred to as British (several of the others, such as Sir
Ernest Shackleton and the Duke of Wellington were of predominantly Irish ancestry). The
highest-placed Scottish entry was Alexander Fleming in 20th place, with the highest Welsh entry
Owain Glyndwr in 23rd. There was also some controversy and complaints over the method of
voting for the top ten, with large scale organised multiple phone votes being identified as being
placed by students at Churchill College and Brunel University for their namesakes, which gave
these two figures far more votes than any other candidates.
The first show ended with the nomination of the top 10 in alphabetical order. The resulting
series, Great Britons, included individual programmes on the top ten, with viewers having further
opportunities to vote after each programme. Each show reviewed the life of one of the top ten
Britons, each of them being presented by a special celebrity supporter.
The final show hosted again by Ann Robinson was concluded by a debate with all 10 sponsors,
supporting their "candidate", on the merits of each selected Briton. In the UK famous people
easily agreed to support a "Great Briton". The exposure to the competition had positive impact
on their public life. The role of the champion was very important. For example, Jeremy Clarkson,
a famous car journalist gave a definitive boost to the candidacy of Brunel, whom nobody knew
before the show.
No. Great Briton
Celebrity Supporter
1
Sir Winston Churchill
Mo Mowlam
2
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Jeremy Clarkson
3
Diana, Princess of Wales
Rosie Boycott
4
Charles Darwin
Andrew Marr
5
William Shakespeare
Fiona Shaw
6
Sir Isaac Newton
Tristram Hunt
7
Queen Elizabeth I
Michael Portillo
8
John Lennon
Alan Davies
9
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson Lucy Moore
10 Oliver Cromwell
Richard Holmes
The show was wrapped up with a final vote. The winner was Winston Churchill who was
presented by Mo Mowlan, the former Northern Ireland secretary. She hereby underlined her
huge popularity in the UK shortly before her death.
© EBU International Training - 18 October 2005
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“Unsere Besten” ("Our Best") was a TV series shown in German by public broadcaster ZDF in
November 2003.
The German public had the opportunity to vote for the most important Germans—historical or
contemporary—from a list of 300 people which could be expanded with new entries by any voter
at any time. This list was created for two reasons:
- to launch the campaign with an extraordinary online project in order to generate a huge amount
of voters.
- to exclude people who committed crimes against humanity.
In Germany the first problem arose from the definition of “Who is German”? There was a big
debate in the country and some foreign countries as well: Mozart and Copernikus were in the list
and strong reactions came from Austria and Poland.
Also there was a debate on how one can compare a writer, a composer and a pop star singer.
The final list of the top 100 was presented in a chart show. So there was an opportunity also for
fan groups to vote for figures of the zeitgeist like e.g. popstar Daniel Küblböck who ranked
relatively high on number 16.
ZDF tried to make the first show more dynamic than the BBC's. The host was a very popular
German presenter, Johannes B. Kerner, who made it a real show. It took place in a TV studio
with a vivid audience and famous and legendary guests (Boris Becker, Hans-Dietrich Genscher,
Alice Schwarzer) instead of in a museum.
Votes could be placed on the ZDF website, by text messages (sms) and phone and postcards.
After the kick-off show presenting the Top 100, the final ten were introduced on detail in five
follow-up shows. As opposed to the BBC model ZDF did not broadcast ten one-hourdocumentaries about the Top Ten but 5 shows with always two of the nominees in a singlecombat, each being presented by their celebrity supporters who were invited to the show to fight
for their heroes. Films about the bio and the legacy were added to the programme.
It was more difficult for ZDF than for the BBC to find celebrity sponsors because many were
concerned about the difficulty of proving profound knowledge about one of the top ten voted
personalities in an entertainment programme. But in the end there were always ambitious
discussions about each of the top ten and their respective merits. A researcher prepared all the
facts and figures to help writing scripts for the supporters.
The total number of voters was 3.4 millions which is considered a big success. Beyond
comparison, in the UK between one and two million voted.
No. Unsere Besten (‘Our Best’)
Celebrity Supporter
1
Konrad Adenauer
Guido Knopp, TV journalist
2
Martin Luther
Margot Kässmann, bishop
3
Karl Marx
Gregor Gysi, politician and lawyer
4
Hans and Sophie Scholl
Alice Schwarzer, feminist and publisher
5
Willy Brandt
Friedrich Nowottny, TV journalist
6
Johann Sebastian Bach
Götz Alsmann, musician and TV presenter
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7
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Peter Sodann, actor
8
Johannes Gutenberg
Wolf von Lojewski, TV journalist
9
Otto von Bismarck
Helmut Markwort, publisher
10 Albert Einstein
Nina Ruge, TV anchor
The winner was Konrad Adenauer.
The marketing campaign
ZDF made a huge effort on the marketing of “Unsere Besten”.
The campaign was very creative: Boris Becker, Ludwig van Beethoven, Karl Marx and Helmut
Kohl were placed on big posters that could be seen in every city announcing the event of the
year 2003. The ZDF slogan was used "Mit dem Zweiten sieht man besser" = (“with the second,
you see better”), ZDF meaning ”Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen” = (“Second German
Television”).
Why the big success:
- the programme got a strong support from all directors of ZDF who wanted the programme to be
successful for ZDF as a whole.
- the team was creative because for the first time 3 departments of ZDF were cooperating:
culture & science, contemporary history and entertainment.
- The team “Unsere Besten” (in the beginning 7 people) was united in the effort to make this
programme a hit. They worked very well as a group. Their common work made the programme
very popular and the marketing campaign was effective managing to create a buzz around the
programme.
- The show was a success not only rating-wise (20.4% market share is very high. In comparison:
ZDF is market leader 2005 with 13.6 %) - but also in-house because everyone in ZDF enjoyed
the success of the programme and kept their fingers crossed.
- This was the first time in ZDF where culture was sold to the audience with a new approach.
Lasting legacy
-
The project gave ZDF a strong impact: it proved German audience that Public Service
Television is capable of making good use of licence fees while fulfilling its obligation to
inform, entertain and educate as demanded in German-Television-ZDF-Constitution.
-
Inside the station you have to fight with programmers to find and get the best slot for your
programme if you believe in it. You must have good and strong arguments to support your
views. And "Unsere Besten" showed that change can be possible.
-
Cross cultural issues: Small interdisciplinary working groups can work well and a small
motivated team can generate a great project. The mix of talents made the success of the
show. For example, a particular entertainment editor had an eye on the selection of the right
"faces" which is crucial for an attractive and popular show.
-
The same team has to develop the idea and the marketing. In the case of ZDF the team
made real promotion even inside the station.
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