One of the things that gets lost in the day-to-day of the marketing business is the concept of thinking big.

It’s one thing to think big when your client is Apple and you’re launching the product designed to save the company. It’s actually harder to think big with more realistic clients and budgets. Thinking big doesn’t mean the execution needs to be as expensive as it looks, and here’s an excellent example: the BBC’s new video creative for the official launch of BBC Music. The latter is an ambitious wave of new programs, partnerships and music initiatives that amount to the BBC’s strongest commitment to music in 30 years.

Have a look before you read further.

My first thought was, “How did they get so many artists together at any kind of affordable price?” The answer is, of course, they didn’t. The artists gave their time for the cause of promoting their music in the context of diversity. And because it’s promoting a music service that people will be paying for.

Never mind that I couldn’t identify many of the artists. At least I could identify the spot’s songwriter, and I’ll assume I’m in the minority on that.

Here’s what I think makes this so wonderful:

  1. There’s joy in music generally and there’s some extra joy in the chosen song.
  2. There’s joy in watching really talented people doing what they love doing.
  3. There’s joy in being big for the right reason, which in this case, is the BBC’s Children in Need charity.

For the BBC, thinking big required patience—the negotiation between various groups within the BBC and all the artists and the production, which needed to address the artists’ schedules—took two years. Once again proving the ‘Immutable Law of Print Production’ still has relevance in the digital age (defined here in BRAIN SURGERY & GETTING WHAT YOU PAY FOR.).

Like so many good ideas, this one wasn’t new. The BBC did a similar thing in 1997, using Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day.” That campaign featured Reed, Bono, David Bowie, Burning Spear, Tom Jones and more. Elton John is the only performer to have appeared in both videos.

Yes, there is joy in thinking big.