I’m always telling clients to: ‘Talk to your market, not at it’ – but it’s no good talking to your market, or anyone else for that matter, through a sock!
I recently ran across a podcast by a very substantial international law firm (no, I’d better not name them here – but get in touch and I’ll dish the dirt!). The subject-matter looked really interesting – lawyers and social media (well, it’s interesting to me as an ex-lawyer, now involved in business audio, which ties in very closely with social media). So I downloaded it.
It started really well – a good, strong piece of opening music, then… as soon as someone started talking, it went straight downhill – in fact, the ‘hill’ in this case was a perpendicular cliff-face!
Chris Tarrant, when he was doing the Capital FM breakfast show, used to say that anyone on a dodgy phone-line sounded as though they were ‘talking through a sock’.
This particular podcast, recorded over a trans-Atlantic phone-line, sounded as though it was being muffled by an entire sock drawer! As if that weren’t bad enough, it was full of echo, digital wobble and bad editing – all of which made it ultimately unlistenable.
It was a great idea, in theory. Unfortunately, the producers shot themselves in both feet. What a waste of an opportunity!
I’m putting together a new FAQ page for the website at the moment. One very common question is:
‘What’s the difference in quality if I make my own audio in-house – without outside help?’
Well, there’s one fairly extreme example for you. I’ll see if I can pull out a clip (which doesn’t identify the people involved) and upload it here, just to give you a taster of how truly awful this thing was! ‘OOPS!’ doesn’t even begin to describe it!