Digital watch.

So, those digital switchover ads. They've been going on for a while.

Have a guess at how long. Two years? Three? Nowhere near. In fact, the cute little robot (named, amusingly, Digit Al) has been on our screens since 2006.

So, as the last two areas in the UK, London and The Channel Islands, get ready to switch over, I thought I'd offer my own end-of-campaign report.

Was it any good?

It's all rather subjective. I quite liked Al and the tone was suitably soft and comforting, I mean, he's no Monkey (even though they did make a cuddly Digit Al toy) but then he didn't have to be.

In his 2006 incarnation, Al (played by Matt Lucas) was the voice as well as the face of the digital switchover. It didn't really work - too bolshy, too "Wahey! Digital switchover! Mental!" A bit of a turn-off for the elderly - who, after all, were a massively important audience (and he had scary illuminated eyes.)

And here he is being all cute and reassuring (aahhh, look at the eyes. How sweet). And not actually talking, which is good.
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=nFjauBQ8u-A&NR=1

I know which one I prefer.

But did it work?

Let's have a look at the (highly anecdotal) evidence. In a sense, the campaign's success can only be judged by the number of complaints the switchover received. The fewer complaints, the greater the success.

A quick glance at The Daily Hysteria Mail website reveals no disaster stories of grannies being left to die because their TV's were still analogue and they couldn't watch Eastenders. Or something. So that's a good thing.

But contrast this with the early days when doom-mongers and naysayers were predicting widescale televisual carnage.

"Nearly a third of the population has no idea what to do to continue watching television after the analogue switch-off...This is a recipe for confusion," shrieked Edward Leigh, Conservative chairman of the committee of public accounts in this article from 2008. "It certainly suggests a lot of screens will go blank after the switchover."

Well, they didn't. It seems the constant flow of TV spots, press ads, DM packs and online activity really did work. Which is why I give the whole campaign a nice big (digital) tick.

Now let's see how they handle the radio...