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As the notion of what it means to be television transforms, so does what it means to be a television brand. So much more than visual communication, today’s brand identities must address transference across screen sizes, platforms and devices that were unimaginable 10 years ago. They must have more than a look and a sound – they must have a feel, taking into account a tactile experience that will literally be at viewers’ fingertips.
Whether creating anew, recreating or refreshing, crafting a TV brand has never been more challenging, and the entries that rose to the top in 2014 stood out for their beauty and their brains. We present five stand-out brands from the past year, ranging from an indie-fave network that fully embraced its own unrivaled quirk to a new lifestyle network that scored big ratings by going “proudly-hyphenated.”
What was IFC before it was “Always On. Slightly Off”? It’s hard to remember. Since those four, cleverly grouped words arrived on the scene in 2010, they have been the backbone of a transformation that has seen IFC morph from the Independent Film Channel to, simply, “IFC,” a network so quirky and eclectic it turned an under-the-radar city of hipsters into a genre unto itself (Portlandia) and showed that podcasts could be turned into TV shows (Comedy Bang Bang, Maron) with rich, vibrant on-screen worlds of their own.
In 2014, with the help of Gretel, IFC’s brand transformation became complete, with a freshly honed voice, a revamped logo and a crisp, clear onscreen graphics system that allowed for the network’s social media presence to be sliced and diced into bite-sized promos that work beautifully on any platform. It was a spot-on synthesis of attitude and design that “captured the fun and ‘slightly off’ spirit of the brand,” said brand consultancy/creative agency Troika. And Beat Baudenbacher, chief creative officer for Loyalkaspar, described the project with four words of his own: “Fun. Clean. Modern. Stands out.”
YouTube Content Creators Campaign
YouTube is somewhat the spokesmodel for a new model of network – one on which every viewer has a channel of their own, and where any viewer has the power to reach billions.
Embracing that aspect of itself, YouTube launched a brand campaign last spring that Troika praised as “a new media, old media mash-up celebrating TV’s ‘new’ stars.” Highlighting three of its most popular content creators (make-up star Michelle Phan, beauty-and-fashion vlogger Bethany Mota and baker Rosanna Pansino), the reach of YouTube’s campaign was massive, with ads extending across Google-owned properties as well as linear TV channels, print publications and out-of-home outlets. Even the Angry Birds mobile game had a spot that directed players to one of the stars’ channels. Conceived by New York agency Co:Collective, the campaign – which featured, among other elements, self-empowering slogans like “Make confidence the must-have accessory” – was clever, but more importantly it was a successful attempt by the digital behemoth to turn its homegrown talent into a content brand, and a major development in the blurring of lines that is changing television as we know it.
One of 2014’s success stories, A+E’s fledgling FYI hurtled out of the gate with strong ratings amongst younger viewers during its first quarter-on-air.
Rebranded from the entity formerly known as BIO, the channel’s shiny new identity was developed by Loyalkaspar, who captured eclectic lifestyle programs such as Epic Meal Empire and B.O.R.N. to Style in a package accentuated by bold, monochromatic colors and a curated aesthetic that appeared both home-grown and meticulously curated. If that sounds contradictory, well, that’s kind of the point.
The goal, said Guy Slattery, A+E Networks EVP, marketing, was to mirror our “proudly-hyphenated” collective modern existence – in which “viewers don’t live their lives in silos” but are defined by many roles. The results, ranging from an in-your-face print campaign to a series of handmade logos made from various materials, made it inarguably clear that “FYI is a network that can appeal to a broad range of interests, not just the niches of food, travel or design.” And the modern viewer has just as clearly responded.
The CW ‘Heroes Within’ Fall Brand Campaign
The CW grew to full maturity in 2014, completing its transition from a broadcaster best known for Gossip Girl to one with varied critical darlings like Golden Globe-nominee Jane the Virgin and The Flash.
Entering the fall season, Troika helped the network hone its evolving brand to a fine point, with an insights-driven campaign that drew heavily on audience research to craft a comprehensive campaign that extended across television, radio, online, print and even movie theaters. It was a heroic effort with a suitable tagline as the centerpiece, “Heroes Within,” that showcased both The CW’s programming lineup loaded with unorthodox protagonists and a changing viewer who prefers complexity over black-and-white good-vs.-bad scenarios. By asking CW fans the right questions, Troika was able to produce creative that connected deeply with viewers, including a brand kick-off film that garnered nearly 3 million views on Facebook. The future of brand storytelling will fuse data and design and to that end, The CW brand felt prophetic in 2014.
This isn’t the first Brief year-end list to include Trollback + Company’s exquisitely crafted brand identity for the debut of drama channel BBC First, and it may not be the last. Drawing on nothing more lofty than the pure essence of great storytelling, the project is a mesmerizing blend of new and old techniques, including an onscreen package guided by shifting panels of lenses and light, and gorgeous idents that favor mood over narrative, and oozing a deliciously foreboding ambiguity. Shot with a custom-designed camera rig that somehow translates the shifting-panel aesthetic into a physical, in-camera manifestation, these on-air spots eschew computer graphics to create an old-world feel, cutting through the fluff to get to the essence of great drama, which like this brand, is as unquantifiable as it is unshakeable.
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