German public broadcaster ZDF’s flagship news program heute (“today” in English) has been around since 1963, which means it knows something about reinventing itself for new generations. But no generation has ever been as challenging in terms of getting news on eyeballs as millennials, who grew up with the Internet and are as comfortable consuming their current events on a mobile device as they are on a TV screen – if not more so.

Heute‘s signature graphic is an analog clock, ever-ticking. It’s old-fashioned imagery that, with the release of ZDF’s digital offering heute+ in May, has never felt more relevant. Heute+ is a product first and foremost for the mobile space, where content needs to be available around the clock, to be consumed at a person’s leisure and not just nightly at 11:30pm. Heute will continue to broadcast in that time slot, but heute+ sends its stories out to Facebook and Twitter first before they are broadcast on-air, and is optimized for consumption on smart phones and tablets.

“ZDF wanted an edgy design with an urban and modern feel that appeals to young people,” said Marco-Paul de Jeu, strategy director at the design company for the streaming news format, Amsterdam-based creative agency Cape Rock. “The branding package needed to have a connection to the ZDF corporate design, but with a totally different tone-of-voice.”

Cape Rock’s package ensures heute+ videos are infused with responsive logo design, an info-graphics toolkit, and a virtual studio design. The motion graphics are fluid and cosmopolitan, laced with energy beams and shimmering panels of light. Cape Rock designed the look, layout and information architecture of the virtual studio that appears in the videos as well, which is essentially just two wall-length panels merging into one highly functional corner of digital projection. It looks great on screen and “as the studio set is quite compact it can very well be used in the mobile space,” said de Jeu. “There are three camera angles that are used, with one handheld camera and two robotic cameras.”

Beyond looking different than its parent program heute, heute+ also feels different. Bearded anchor Daniel Brockerhoff delivers the news in jeans and snug zip-up jackets, as though he just got back from the ski lodge. He often appears with his hands in his pockets, exuding an air of casual expertise. He is sufficiently approachable in an era when viewers expect to be able to converse with their on-air personalities, and even pitch in.

“ZDF heute+ gives context and relevance to actual themes through the use of contemporary techniques and a personal approach,” said de Jeu. “It is a news show for the digital natives that offers news on the go.”

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