A pair of comical talking spuds who've been fronting Sky Gamestar's summer season are so popular they've appeared in stings on Sky One.
Loveable spuds "Ed and Fred" were created by London animation company Sliced Bread Animation to appeal to primary school kids and their mums. The dumpy duo, who sit in a field reporting on the weekly activities at Gamestar, have gained cult status within Sky, which is considering bringing them back for more action.
Although Gamestar has experimented with guest presenters such as Shaggy and Scooby Doo, this is the first time the portal has commissioned original characters to promote its games and competitions. The "Common Taters" are part of Gamestar's strategy to become more like a channel in its own right, with its own schedule and sense of community.
Sky's Director of Games and ETV Adrian Pilkington said Ed and Fred's popularity has helped push up Gamestar's viewing figures to more than 1 million per week over the summer.
"Getting characters right for the target audience is difficult, especially with kids who just know when they're being patronised, talked down to, or if they feel they're dealing with a marketing man" said Pilkington.
"But kids loved Ed and Fred and our colleagues got excited about them too. This led to Ed and Fred being used on Sky One - it's great having original characters to help us reach a wider audience."
"They're not reverent about the brand or hyper-salesy, which actually means you get across the commercial messages better because people are willing to listen to them. We've had a great summer and we've had lots of positive feedback about Ed and Fred from our customers, commercial partners and colleagues," he added.
The Sliced Bread team worked all hours through the summer heatwave to produce two minutes of 3D animation per week.
"We're proud of being able to deliver two minutes of great quality animation per week with a team of four," says Sliced Bread's Project Director Jamie Denham.
"The idea behind Ed and Fred was to create two characters presenting what's new on Sky Gamestar. We wanted to get the viewers curious about what the characters were up to next. So we came up with two harmless, well meaning fools, one of whom thinks he's cleverer than the other - a bit like Laurel and Hardy."
Sky Gamestar praised the Sliced Bread team for their creative, practical approach and for being realistic and honest about deadlines and delivery dates.
"On a tight schedule like ours, that's a godsend," said Mr Pilkington. "They also came in with a pitch that made us laugh and had buckets of personality."
"We're toying with the idea of a James-Bond-style caption over the final episode saying when Ed and Fred will return. I don't think the world has seen the last of these two spuds," he added.
Sliced Bread Animation is a Covent Garden based studio that specialises in creative animation for commercials, series, games, internet and mobile. Founded in 2002, its client list includes Sony, BT, Burger King and Japanese film distributor Manga.
"Common Taters" clips are 12 x one-minute looped episodes appearing constantly on Sky Gamestar between 8am and 4pm, 7days a week, over a six week period. The episodes are updated twice weekly. They're designed to appeal to 5-11 year-olds.
Fred is the dumpy one who is anxious to do a good job, and tries to behave "smart" to camera. His voice is done by comedy actor Mark Heap who plays Dr Alan Statham in Green Wing, and whose credits include "Brass Eye" and sketch show 'Big Train'. Ed is Fred's loveable sidekick who tends to mucks things up and usually holds a prop linked to prize giveaways or new games releases. Ed's voice is played by actor Andy Taylor.
Sky Gamestar, launched in May 2000, is a portal made up of a welcome screen and other screens that link to about 25 games at any one time. The portal attracts 1.2 million households per week, each staying for more than three minutes (according to August 2006 BARB figures). Four in five viewers stay on the portal for 10 or more minutes. Games generally cost £0.60 per play.
Previous Gamestar guest spots have been based on simple Flash animations of existing cartoon characters such as Warner Bros' Scooby Doo. So as original characters with distinct identities "Ed and Fred" represent a departure from the norm.
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