According to a writer, this is why she rang me. "I was looking for something quirky and you seem to do a lot of quirky!" Or something along those lines. I have to say she is probably right, though I am not convinced that is completely my doing, after all I do get briefed by someone along the line. But is there any sort of rule as to when you should do quirky and when you should be doing something a little more straight down the line?

Jingles can get used in two very clear-cut ways: They can be used for a specific campaign or they can be used as a long term brand identity. This is especially true on radio where jingles do have a pretty clear place when it comes to helping things stand out; after all radio is rather short on the visual effect side and listeners don't tend to sit staring inanely at their Wireless - they have better things to do while listening.

The temptation is to leave the more idiotic ideas I have for specific campaigns; it is often easier to write a narrative jingle or something mad if you know it is only going to be used in one way and you have a very simple idea to get across. But this is also unfair on those clients who cannot justify spending their jingle budget on just one outing - they want to get a few years out of their investment if they can! And why not? But inevitable a clients message does change over time and if the jingle has not been planned carefully in advance, the quirky composition may simply not fit the brief so well as time goes on.

A straight jingle is very much more predictable; it is designed primarily like a logo with some extra background for the words to fit over which ever direction the message may be headed. For many clients this is not just the safe option, but also probably the ideal one; they can use it in its full version, or just bring it up at the end, and the writer can play with what they need to do quite happily. So, the question has to be, can the quirky jingle also do the job of a straight one? Well, I think it can, and it is down to how the jingle is written and produced, and possibly what your definition of quirky is in the first place!

Well, autumn is dumping leaves all over my path, and since I am trying to avoid the sweeping up it is probably a good time to catch up on what has been happening.

I have a nice little handful to play you today, from a variety of fun-minded creative that allowed me to take life perhaps a little less seriously! Jingles included a "Annie get your gun" style jingle for a horse rug cleaning company, a seventies kitch number for a phone repairman, something definitely jazzy for a furniture company, a 70s American soap treatment for an energy advert and then some large vocal treatments for a Funeral service and a bathroom company.

A jingle for a Funeral service? Yes indeed, that was a challenge! Read on...

As you may well have noticed (points upwards) we have gone You Tube with our latest offering. Okay, now that may seem a little daft for a company that is primarily about audio, but there is method in this here madness, I promise you!

I got a little email the other day from our friends at the RAB, the Radio Advertising Bureau. They have employed the husky talents of Arfur Smiff (two effs) to sell the point that in the recent Thinkbox ad for TV advertising, you could close your ears and have the same thing going for you - except you would call it radio. Dead right, is what I say! (Oh, no, stand by, I can hear a Blog coming ..ed).

In giving my own response (by shoving my NEW showreel up on my brand new YouTube Channel), I noticed a comment by one user effectively saying that broadcast media was dead. He really could not be further from the truth! In fact, radio has been stubbornly refusing to lose audience to the Internet, and has even had the impudence to grow! I have been wading through some Rajar and Ofcom facts and figures for local radio, both commercial and BBC, for this country, and found them singularly unhelpful. The reason is no fault of the statisticians but of what they are reporting and why. Radio, like all entertainment, is primarily driven by culture - in fact it is PART of the culture. And we ignore that cultural aspect of radio at our peril - especially as advertisers.

Oh, but we have been having so much fun, me and my bunch of singers! So speical thanks go to Kim Chandler, Chris Maddin, Bernie Shaw and Johnny Todd. Definitely been erring a little to the good ole rock 'n' roll sccenario (hence the inclusion of Bernie), though couldn't resist an outing with a big band and some thing that could be said to be a bit daft!

Okay, enough with the mystery! Read more to find out what I am going on about.