The Making of The Jaily Show, Part 2: Delivering the content.

In part 1 of The Life of The Jaily Show we looked closely at the processes that need to happen before we can start the broadcast.

 In this second part, Jay Ludgrove runs us through his intervewing approach, before Tony Gordon and Simon Watson run us through postproduction and promotion respectively. To round things off, Jay has some tips for you if you are thinking of going live yourself.  

The interview - Jay Ludgrove: Host

“As a host, I find that interviewing on site and interviewing remotely come with both benefits and challenges. In the studio, guests can up their game but there’s a certain amount of anxiety as well as excitement. Sometimes people will be pumped for the first half of an interview but will then suffer a dip as the coffee-fuelled adrenaline rush subsides.

But in person interviews provide wonderful opportunities to create a whole bunch of extra content - for example when we popped up to the Goat Agency in London to meet with Harry Hugo, we filmed two or three videos on the way there and a few more when we arrived, including some with Harry. And ultimately there is no comparison to face-to-face. Whether it’s micro expressions that are missed on a screen, or the fact you tend to only see people on Zoom from the belly up, I feel so much more when I look into the whites of the eyes of someone sat right in front of me. It’s easier to detect if I’m boring them or making them feel uncomfortable and steer the conversation accordingly (not that I make a habit of that!).

That’s not to say remote interviewing doesn’t have its own advantages. I like getting people in their own environment, where they’re at their most comfortable. You lose any sense of ‘fish out of water’ nerves and that’s great for me as a host. But the huge thing about doing it the lockdown way is that great guests are now so much more available! A trip to our office or theirs is going to take at least a few hours out of each of our days. Whereas doing it online means we only need them for their lunch hour.

Going live adds an extra element of pressure for everyone involved so once I have the guest on the line, I like to use the ten minutes before air to quickly get to know one another. My personal tactic is to dial up the silly to 11 as I find this tends to relax people into the speed of the conversation. I might become a little more professional just as we go live, but it’s important to have a good laugh – this isn’t Parkinson and we don’t expect our guests to present themselves in a Hollywood manner. It’s about putting people in a place where they’re comfortable having a conversation with someone they’ve just met.

Having the separation between host and producer allows me to concentrate on the content, and my interviewing technique makes that all the more important. Although I will do some research beforehand, it’s a lot more important for me to be involved in a conversation than to be consulting notes. I need to focus on listening for 45 minutes; there is nothing worse than an interview where the host clearly is just waiting for the guest to finish so they can move to the next question. It feels rude and makes guests less open.”

Postproduction and Release - Tony Gordon: Producer

“The postproduction process involves me creating a full length video and podcast, with promotional materials derived from that. The good thing is if everything’s gone well on the day, then there shouldn’t be too much to edit beyond topping and tailing the start and end of the show.

I’ll tidy up the sound where possible, and add in full res graphics, but in general I aim for a light touch approach to the edit. Me and Jay have always wanted our content to have a natural feel, so we don’t obsess over editing out umms and ahhs – we much prefer to release the conversation as it happened on the day. This also ensures that the podcast and YouTube release can essentially mirror one another and means we don’t double up on cutting up people’s speech across both audio and video.

Our podcasts are released through Libsyn. Other hosting services are available but we use the original and the best. This means we can push out to all the podcast platforms with a single click. And then all of our promotional material points people to the right medium for them, whether they’re audio or video people.”

Promotion – Simon Watson: Digital Marketing

“I think I calculated that - between the live event itself, the audio version, the YouTube release, promo materials, and all the individual social media posts promoting the show - each Jaily Show episode spawns over ten pieces of content, released over a three month period.

From the shows themselves we always produce an audiogram and a video promo, each around two minutes long. These will go up on our Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram (plus Jay’s personal accounts). We also create a longer version for our IGTV channel – here we upload the first five minutes of the show to give the audience a taste before directing them to the full show on YouTube. All of which requires our copywriter to tailor some wording for each of these channels, along with lengthier show notes that accompany the podcast.

Once things are live a fun part of the job is engaging with audience feedback across the platforms, finding out what people are enjoying about the guests we’ve been able to attract. Then the final piece of the puzzle is uploading to the website, which hosts our whole back catalogue of shows.

The Jaily Show is essentially a content machine. We don't just release a YouTube show and leave it out there. We don't just post a podcast and hope that like Field of Dreams, ‘if we build it, they'll come’. We post the show and use smaller pieces of promotional content to keep driving people back to it. If we’re expecting guests to take an hour or more out of their week and want them to come back one day, the least we can do is give that show as bigger shelf life as possible and promote it far and wide. It’s invaluable to have a regular cycle of content that helps tick so many boxes.”

Tips – Jay Ludgrove: Host

“I was lucky enough to be accepted onto LinkedIn Live's beta programme, and that helps attract guests interested in being part of a new and relatively exclusive thing. But my advice for any others thinking of going live is go where you think your audience is. If you’re looking to do b2b, then by all means look into LinkedIn, but YouTube, Instagram, Facebok and StreamYard (which we also use) are all options too.

Going live is all the pressure of a prerecord amplified, so I would highly recommend getting some experience under your belt before giving it a go. For me spending five years doing traditional podcasting allowed me to develop all the tools I needed for going live. It helped me hone my ability to keep an awkward conversation going. As much as I do my best to build a rapport with my guests, it doesn’t always happen so easily - but I now know how to keep the conversation going because I remember the times I failed miserably and it had to be fixed in the edit!

Making a good show is a difficult thing to do, and going live undoubtedly adds an extra element of stress. I don’t think I would be able to do it if I didn’t have that great experience in hosting podcasts and videos already; or if I didn’t have a very capable producer watching my back.”

 Simon Watson, Operations Manager

GLProUK is a digital marketing agency based in London and Surrey, helping market-leading brands fulfil their content requirements. We bring a passion for innovation to our podcasts, graphic design, professional video and photography, tailoring our expertise and enthusiasm to the unique aspects of your project.

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