Making Welsh rugby fans sing

As Head of Creative Services, BBC Cymru Wales, I’ve been heavily involved in producing marketing material around this year’s Six Nations tournament. I wanted to explain a little of how we’ve developed this year’s campaign on-air and online.

In Wales, the Six Nations is more than just a rugby tournament. It’s a moment in the Welsh calendar which brings the nation together. For us in BBC Cymru Wales it gives a unique opportunity to reflect what it is to be Welsh or to live in Wales.

Each year our ambition is to create a campaign that resonates with our audiences across all platforms. So, our creative concept needs to stretch far beyond delivering the traditional TV and radio campaign. We consider how the campaign can best engage directly with our audiences, how it’ll work from an editorial perspective on both our radio stations, on TV with the programmes created by the Sports team in Wales and what opportunities the digital environment now offers – specifically in connecting with new audiences.

Though the rugby and the Six Nations brand is obviously a hugely important part of the campaign, it also offers us an opportunity to drive support for the BBC in Wales. Our marketing unites the nation because the campaign can be more partisan than one aimed at the whole of UK would necessarily need to be. As a result the work we create always has a ‘we know how you feel’ quality to it.

As you’d imagine with such a significant event as the Six Nations, and in part because of the heritage of our previous campaigns, there is always a huge amount of expectation for this campaign. This inevitably means that we’ll start the initial conversations as much as six months before the first game. Ideas will begin life as very bold strokes.

As we get closer to refining the concept we are always mindful that Wales’ Autumn Internationals may give a sense of the national mood or play a part in the positioning of our creative work. That’s normally when we’ll revisit the brief and start the significant part of the creative work. It’s also the point when you can begin to crystallise the more fluid thinking of previous weeks. For this year’ campaign for example, we were out filming in mid-December with the first trails due for delivery by January 10th. Interestingly when you’re standing in rural Wales in the freezing cold, your mind does get to thinking, “why couldn’t we have shot this in June?” The truth is that there is feeling to this time of year. The grey days of winter play an important part in the process, offering us the perfect backdrop to the vibrant colour of the rugby and specifically the ‘red’ of Wales in this case.

And it’s this special feeling for the Six Nations in Wales that has guided our approach to the campaign this year. The Six Nations is much more than a rugby tournament in Wales. It’s a national event. A celebration. It brings the nation together in a way nothing else can. 

We were looking for something to symbolise this coming together and sense of event and encourage even more of it. And what better way to do so than through song. So our campaign this year is all based around encouraging the nation to show their support for Wales through song and our rallying call is “All Together Now”.

In essence it’s a very simple concept which is what any good campaign needs. The key to the project we felt was finding a song that would be picked up by our audiences, one you’d imagine lifting the roof at the Millennium Stadium. This brought our focus onto the four key songs associated with Welsh rugby: the Welsh national anthem; Max Boyce’s Hymns and Arias, Bread of Heaven and the Welsh hymn – Calon Lân. The last of these is one of those beautiful songs that can’t fail to stir people’s emotions. In fact you may remember the song from Britain’s Got Talent when a version was performed by Only Boys Aloud. So for us, it was the perfect choice.

The next step was to commission an arranger to give us our own version and then start the search for singers. In terms of who’s appeared in the campaign so far - it ranges from individuals to choirs across Wales, up and coming talent to more established names such as BBC Radio Wales’ Wynne Evans whose been teaching the nation to sing. We’re also recording a version with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the national Chorus of Wales and an additional 150 voices for the end of the campaign.

Before the middle of March we want everyone to get involved, so having got the nation familiar with the words and tune, they’ll be able to send us their rendition of Calon Lân so we can create a special version featuring contributions from the audience. For those unsure about the chorus, we’ve asked Wynne Evans to provide us with a sing-through. There’s also a beautiful rendition by Kizzy Crawford.

With something so all-encompassing there are challenges at almost every turn, certainly too numerous to go into here, but the gain for BBC Cymru Wales is significant. To create a ‘national moment’ around an already hugely anticipated event inevitably has the associated benefit of people feeling good about their BBC. Certainly the response we’ve had from audience feedback on social media has been overwhelmingly positive.

As the tournament progresses don’t be surprised to hear Welsh fans singing, “Calon Lân”! Obviously as far as the campaign is concerned it’ll be more visible or audible in Wales but that doesn’t mean that it’s exclusively for Welsh audiences. You can keep up to date with the campaign via bbc.co.uk/calonlan and you can give us your contribution if you fancy having a crack at joining in the singing.

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Phil Higginson is Head of Creative Services, BBC Cymru Wales

• Watch the campaign video online at BBC Cymru Calon Lân
• Visit the BBC Cymru Wales About the BBC homepage
• Read other About the BBC blogs related to Wales