I absolutely love the UK’s Ident TV format. Short TV ads that top-and-tail the commercial breaks on TV shows that give you the chance to tell a story across a show through bite-size messages. But the Ident can easily get flat and have the same message looped over and over. But more importantly, have a tenuous connection between the brand, the show and the audiences interest in both. 

I’ve spent a fair amount of time working with brands, media agencies and creative teams trying to reinvent and completely innovate the TV Ident – with great success. 

The TalkTalk X-Factor idents we created over 4 years became infamous in the UK because it allowed the viewer to star in the idents by using our ground-breaking apps to create them and get them on air, in front of the nation the next week.

For Argos, we created live TV Idents with the Argos Alien puppets. We asked viewers to suggest a gift for Santa this year by Tweet their idea and tagging it #GiftForSanta. By the ad break we had Bill Nighy, who was the voice of the Argos Alien Dad, record in real-time his thoughts on the suggestion. This was a absolute first for itv.

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