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TV Guide Network is now Pop. ABC Family is becoming Freeform. H2 will soon switch over to VICELAND. Meanwhile, many other cable networks spent 2015 sprucing up their brands, whether that was TBS rolling out a new logo or Centric pushing out a cool new look.
In 2015, the TV industry has seen an onslaught of change that shows no sign of slowing. Networks are doing what they can to keep up, and one of the major things they are doing is rebranding in an attempt to grab viewers’ attention. Whether that strategy is working is another question. In a time when viewers barely know what channel they’re watching, how significant is a channel brand?
Why now?
The term “network rebrand” can involve everything from an entirely new look and logo, to just a light revamp of existing on-air branding or anything in between. Rebrands and brand refreshes seem to be rolling out more quickly, but that’s partly because networks are having to hustle to keep up.
According to branding expert Lee Hunt, that might seem chaotic, but it’s actually a great thing for TV brands.
Hunt spoke at PromaxBDA: The Conference this summer about the importance of channel brands in today’s TV world, and he explained to Brief that the increase of rebrands is a sign of several things coming together in the TV industry all at once.
“There is a cataclysmic change happening in the industry,” Hunt said. “The fragmentation in audiences, drop in ad revenue, rise of SVOD services -– it’s making networks realize they need to make changes. And in order to survive, they need to rethink how they present themselves to viewers.”
As that idea of what a linear channel means changes, so does the quagmire of branding it.
“You need to be fresh and continually evolve,” he said, “but also be consistent and reliable –- so you have to balance those two.”
He also notes that while networks acknowledge that digital options are out there, linear TV will always be around, and it will remain a vital part of the new branding culture. It’s not about transforming into a digital entity or stubbornly sticking to just the linear network, it’s about coexisting as one single brand.
Hunt recounts a similar period in the ‘90s when networks all were rebranding into niche channels, but once they were completely niche, they hit a wall. They had nowhere to go but broad again, so the next wave of rebrands watched them become general entertainment networks once again. Twenty years later, many are going through that cycle once more.
“Now, in order to compete with both linear and on demand, you have to stand for something,” said Hunt. “Your brand has to work as well as a linear network as well as a tab in the on-demand space. That is what network brands can be in this new world: A filter of making choices.”
Hunt concludes that the network brand remains relevant, but the world around it is changing. This is true even though a large portion of a channel’s audience might not be “tuning in” to TV, per se, which means that the channel brand has to exist in any form the viewer wants it — whether that’s on air, online, app, or on social.
Channels still act as curators of content that viewers grow to trust. Branding is there to distinguish to the viewer what a show on truTV means compared to ones on TBS or Syfy.
This works especially well in a cable environment where channels can shift with their audiences and continue to redefine who they are. Broadcast networks, according to Hunt, are a bigger challenge because they “try to be all things to all people but in an on-demand world, but that’s just not a possibility anymore.”
It really is all about the programming.
Gretel Creative Director Ryan Moore says that this curator role is natural to cable networks, who have followed the “content is king” model so well. He points to HBO and AMC as leaders in that space.
“You’re not necessarily watching Mad Men because it’s on AMC –- you’re watching Mad Men because of Don Draper,” he said, explaining that good programming can build trust with an audience, but good branding can round that out into a solid network/viewer relationship.
“HBO and AMC have a pedigree, and that’s what so many networks aspire to,” said Moore. “Because you loved The Wire, you’re more likely to give an HBO original a shot because of their track record.”
For example, viewers that love The Walking Dead are probably more likely to give its recent drama Into the Badlands a chance because of the reputation AMC has created for itself.
“Programming will always lead the way,” according to Hunt. “Any good brand has to expand and contract in changes in programming. The reality is that content is going to continually change because networks will always look for the next big thing.”
Branding Amidst Peak TV
The latter half of 2015 is quickly becoming known as the era of “peak TV,” with more than 400 original shows on television. As a result, networks are constantly looking for ways to stand out. That often means making better content -– and their branding needs to match that better content.
As a channel’s programming gets better, or edgier, or funnier, or more star-studded, that also means that it has a new brand promise it needs to fulfill. Hunt calls this “the breakout hit that becomes the ‘North Star’ for the network.”
ABC Family, which shifted its brand messaging earlier this year to match its newly coined “Becomer” audience, announced that it will undergo a name change to Freeform in January 2016 with a matching brand identity.
“Our rebrand is an evolution that has been coming,” said Karey Burke, EVP of programming and development at ABC Family. “Our content has outpaced our brand and our programming started to rub up against our name. We are working to grow a programming service that is not so narrowly defined.”
ABC Family’s move to Freeform follows Hunt’s outline of what a TV network is evolving into. Some have noted that its new name sounds almost like an app, and maybe that’s the point. Its audience is younger, more active online and possibly more likely to pay attention to an app than a channel.
“We want our brand to be a reflection of the shows on our air,” said Burke, “to have our programming, our brand and our audience be in harmony and the name Freeform does that for us.”
Syfy evolved and updated its look on air this year in response to several epic programming events it has coming up in The Expanse, Childhood’s End and The Magicians.
“The goal for Syfy’s recent brand refresh,” explained Ben Cochran, VP of creative at Syfy, “was to evolve our on-air look and feel to both reflect and enhance the high-quality, cinematic nature of our current programming.”
Syfy worked with Sibling Rivalry “reinterpreting and expanding Syfy’s previous aesthetic using rich color treatments, crisp photographic textures and environments that extend well beyond the screen,” in order to match the content it was about to share with viewers, according to Cochran.
The brand evolution allowed Syfy to stay in its niche, but sent a message to its genre fans that what they were about to see went beyond what they were used to.
TV Land was faced with a similar situation earlier this year. Looking at a lineup of Younger, The Jim Gaffigan Show and the upcoming Teachers, the network was moving away from its Baby Boomer audience to one full of Gen Xers.
According to Michael Waldron, VP creative director of art and design at TV Land, that meant that not only did the on-air branding change, but the network’s entire branding strategy had to change too.
“The programming shift led to tonal shift,” said Waldron, adding that its network rebrand was a 360-degree project, with design, programming and strategy all taking part. “Our brand will be dictated by our content and who we’re speaking to.”
Waldron added that as design trends change, networks rebrand to stay ahead of those changes, often wanting to emulate what they see working on air. But that results in several cable channels looking alike, which then forces them to re-start the process all over again in order to stand out once more.
He believes that this process is a positive one for the design world, as that desire to stand out makes networks more open to taking creative risks.
Branding agencies agree. Companies such as Roger and Gretel, known for network branding packages across any demographic or subject, say that they see more rebrand work coming their way, but the projects are more likely a evolution of a brand rather than a full rebrand that they’ve seen before.
“People are reluctant to define what their brand is as their brand is changing on a daily basis,” said Drew Neujahr, director of business development at Roger, who launched the network identity for Family Jr. and worked on the TV Land rebrand this year.
Gretel worked on IFC’s rebrand, which was driven by the network’s strong comedy programming, but also on those of Logo and Centric, three very different projects that all tried to bridge the multiplatform divide.
“There’s this shift toward scripted and ownable content,” added Roger creative director Rich Scurry, “and as a result, the brand of the networks really is less about we’ve got this mish-mosh of programming, but what is our curatorial voice?”
IFC, for example, was driven by programming, but in the end the rebrand was all about “giving IFC credit as a tastemaker.”
In an effort to not just be “a collection of shows,” branding goes a long way in proving that networks practice what they preach, with programming following branding and vice versa. And that role of curator is vital in today’s TV environment in which “too much TV” means each channel is on its own in the race for more eyeballs.
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